Crucial Questions & Answers [ C-Q&A] on the Urantia Book.

ANS: When I began reading randomly from some papers of the book initially I too had this kind of a doubt coming to my mind. Essentially that was because of the unusual phraseology and the occurrences of many unusual words commonly not found in English language. Besides, the book deals with many subjects like history, science, religion, spirituality, geology, etc, which was not the way in which we normally are accustomed with books. In books, we normally expect to find some subject matter of specific interest and not something that goes beyond our interest at the moment.

For the majority of people, this would be reason enough to discard the book as something rubbish and leave it there. Most likely they will not attempt exploring it further by careful reading.

Then there is the problem of religious dogmas and upbringing. If someone says that this is a book that teaches something different from their holy religious book, a kind of fear sets in. The common people are taught to believe that such books are 'satanic'. For example, the christians consider religious books of other religions in that manner, the Muslims consider the same way and the like. Again among the same religions, various sects and denominations consider their teachings sacrosanct and others' teachings originating from satan! Thus there is a type of fear in common people to view books that deals with spiritual matters differently than their own belief systems. This matter is a delicate issue.

But the Urantia Book has enough things for those who are daring and curious. Therefore, those of this kind would naturally pursue reading this book to know more. In essence, the Urantia Book is meant for such people. These are the kind of people who are intellectually keen with above average IQ , educational background and have risen to such levels that they are inclined to devote time for intellectual pursuits of mind that goes beyond their day to day problems involving materialistic existence. This implies that such people are now in a position to devote some of their time and mind in the pursuit towards spiritual curiosity-the curiosity to know about the invisible realms and God. Essentially they are the kind of people who are spiritually starved. They are the kind of people who want to connect to God, not for some materialistic benefits, but for fulfilling their desire for knowing their Unseen Father and to make their minds harmonized with Him as far as possible.

Such people, with this innate and unselfish desire to know God, are a negligible minority in this world bustling with people engaged in multifarious activities, including religious rituals and practices. The Urantia Book , though written for all mankind, is going to attract this minority individuals more than the others. The numbers of these minority individuals are going to increase as generations pass and there will come a day when such people would be the majority. That era would perhaps be the beginning of another epoch in human civilization!

Man has got the innate capacity to discern truth from untruth, provided that his acquired values, education, training and position do not cause him to be elevated to such a level of self importance that he is unable to utilize his God given capacity to separate truth from untruth, beauty from ugliness, good from bad and godly from ungodly.

Therefore, I feel it unwise to state my reasons for finding the Urantia Book true, or more precisely, believe what it says it is. I can only say this much. I have found nothing in it that my innate mind discerns as untruth.

Moreover, it is the book that caused me to change my track from a life with more of materialistic concerns to a life with more of spiritual concerns. It is the book that made me realize who is Jesus Christ and the essence of what he taught to the people of earth some 2000 years ago. It is the book that caused me to believe in the existence of God without any doubt.

It is the book that caused me to learn to lead a life without anxieties and worries. It is the book that made me to understand other religions. It is the book that keep inspiring me eversince.

One more thing I can say here. Before the Urantia Book came to my notice, I had the opportunity to read most of the sacred books of all the major religions. Later on I got the opportunity to read many New Age literature and the so called 'channelled' books. All these books have many good things, but at the same time there are things that cause doubts and questions. There are things which do not stand validated in the truthful probe of the mind.

But the Urantia Book goes much beyond, at the current level of my understanding. I have not yet found anything in it that my mind cannot accept ! And my mind tells me that such a great work is beyond the capacity of human beings to fabricate. People and powers who are capable of twisting the truths in clever manner still exist and are doing their part and that will keep happening. But my safeguard is my god-given power to distinguish truth from untruth. And this power is not exclusive to me. It is with every one !

C-Q&A-3: OKAY, I BELIEVE IN THE SUPERNATURAL ORIGIN OF THE URANTIA BOOK AND DO NOT DENY WHAT IT SAYS. WILL IT BE ENOUGH FOR ME TO ENSURE SALVATION OF MY LIFE AND MY PERSONALITY BEYOND MY MORTAL DEATH HERE ON EARTH?

ANS: Perhaps not! Knowing all these and believing in it definitely helps, but should further be carried forward to transform our mortal life to one that is expected of a God loving child. See what Jesus taught in this regard to the people of those days after his ressurrection, before he departed to his spiritual abode:

As quoted from Paper-193 of the Urantia Book:

" You rejoice to know that the Son of Man has risen from the dead because you thereby know that you and your brethren shall also survive mortal death. But such survival is dependent on your having been previously born of the spirit of truth-seeking and God-finding.

The bread of life and the water thereof are given only to those who hunger for truth and thirst for righteousness—for God. The fact that the dead rise is not the gospel of the kingdom.

These great truths and these universe facts are all related to this gospel in that they are a part of the result of believing the good news and are embraced in the subsequent experience of those who, by faith, become, in deed and in truth, the everlasting sons of the eternal God.

My Father sent me into the world to proclaim this salvation of sonship to all men. And so send I you abroad to preach this salvation of sonship.

Salvation is the free gift of God, but those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures.

And the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are:

-loving service,

- unselfish devotion,

-courageous loyalty,

-sincere fairness,

-enlightened honesty,

-undying hope,

- confiding trust,

-merciful ministry,

-unfailing goodness,

-forgiving tolerance, and

-enduring peace.

If professed believers bear not these fruits of the divine spirit in their lives, they are dead;the Spirit of Truth is not in them; they are useless branches on the living vine, and they soon will be taken away.

My Father requires of the children of faith that they bear much spirit fruit. If, therefore, you are not fruitful, he will dig about your roots and cut away your unfruitful branches. Increasingly, must you yield the fruits of the spirit as you progress heavenward in the kingdom of God. You may enter the kingdom as a child, but the Father requires that you grow up, by grace, to the full stature of spiritual adulthood. And when you go abroad to tell all nations the good news of this gospel, I will go before you, and my Spirit of Truth shall abide in your hearts. My peace I leave with you."

C-Q&A-2: WILL IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO ME TO KNOW THAT THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN BY INVISIBLE CELESTIAL PERSONALITIES.

ANS: Yes. The assertion that this book is written by invisible celestial personalities make definite difference to me to its content and the book itself. These are:

- The Book compels me to believe in the invisible world or the spiritual world and the existence of real personalities in those levels, like that of the authors of the Papers. I am not to doubt the existence of the spiritual world any more. For the same reason, God and Jesus are real for me and nor some thing to be doubted even remotely.

- I am compelled to believe in my future life and my progression to God as myself with my personality intact, after my death here on this earth, as explained to me in the Papers by my Unseen Brothers.

- I am compelled to believe each and everything that my celestial brothers of superior knowledge have revealed to me through this book, which boosts my confidence in my life here and the hereafter.

- I am able to distinguish the errors that has crept in the great books of yester years, inadvertently due to human limitations of comprehension and understanding, such as the Old and New Testament Bible Books and yet not to reject them on that account, but to understand the reasons, because the celestial authors of the Urantia Book had compassionately and carefully made me understand that. The celestial authorship has given a different kind of authority to this book.

C-Q&A-1: WHY DO I BELIEVE THAT THE URANTIA BOOK PAPERS WERE AUTHORED BY A GROUP OF CELESTIAL INTELLIGENT AND IMMORTAL PERSONALITIES OF VARIOUS ORDERS WHO PLAY SOME ROLES IN THE UNIVERSE ADMINISTRATION OF GOD?

ANS: I believe the celestial authorship of the Urantia Book because of the following:

 - The Urantia Book in itself clarifies this point quite logically and convincingly and gives the identities of the authors. The subject paper handled by the author/group of authors quite logically explains their authority to handle the subject matter dealt with.

- The super-human authors explains why they had selected English language and the limitations of English in itself to communicate higher knowledge to human beings and the need to introduce certain definitions and meanings for enabling discussion on certain concepts involving eternity, infinite existence, primordial forces, gravity, time &space, matter & energy, etc beyond the normal comprehension of human beings.

- The Book does not give any credit to any human beings for anything concerned with authoring of the 196 Papers or the Foreword that is contained in the Book.

- The Book explains its status as the Fifth Epochal Revelation (FER) of God to mankind and explains which are those Revelations 1,2,3 and 4 which were given to mankind thousands of years earlier.

- The Papers of the book have quotations from over 1000 books and writings which were authored by human beings of higher spiritual wisdom and guidance and this fact is acknowledged by the celestial authors of the Urantia Papers. These quotes are seamlessly introduced in the sentences and paragraphs of the Papers in an effortless and graceful manner, making the meanings more logical and understandable, a task humanly impossible.

- The Book categorically explains the reality of existence of the intelligent and free-willed personalities invisible to human beings, such as the authors of the Urantia Papers, both on earth and in the billions of dwelling spheres in the universe space and explains their organization and functions, in the universe administration, in accordance with the will of God.

- The Book explains the God, His Character, His Nature, His Attributes and the also of the various conjoint Deities.

- The Book explains the concept of “Planned Evolutionary Development” of the universes and the orders of life thereon.

- The Book explains Science, Philosophy, Religion, Spirituality and Personality in quite logical manner.

- The Book explains history of earth right from its formative years millions of years ago, and the development of various stages of life forms and of man, in a clear scientific manner.

- The Book explains us clearly who were Adam & Eve, Lucifer & Satan and what were their sin and the repercussions of their deeds on our lives.

- The Book opens up a massive universe administration of God, hitherto unknown to human wisdom, comprising of over seven trillion planets where evolutionary intelligent life exist together with over 100 billion architectural worlds inhabited by Celestial (Non-Material or Spiritual) Personalities of different orders.

- The Book gives us information about our own galaxy of stars, planets, solar systems, satellites and other bodies which is one of the youngest in the Grand Universe, known to us as the Milky Way Galaxy and informs us that this Galaxy contains approximately 3.8 Million planets where intelligent mortal life exists as of now, with a potential to include up to 10 Million such living planets in the future and informs us that administratively this is known as the Local Universe of Nebadon.

- The Urantia Book authors authoritatively inform us that the Divine Creator of the Local Universe of Nebadon is the Creator Son of God known in the Grand Universe as the ‘Michael of Nebadon’ who took a bestowal birth on earth 2000 years ago as Jesus of Nazareth, lovingly called ‘ the Master’ by the lower orders or invisible and immortal personalities living on earth and by his human disciples and that ever since he is the Sovereign and Merciful Ruler of this Local Universe and our Local Universe Father or God, representing his Universal Father God.

- One third of the Urantia Book is devoted to the detailed life and mission of Jesus of Nazareth on earth, as re-told by a Commission of Invisible Personalities who were actual witness to his human life activities 2000 years, retold in such finer details of real value stressing upon what Jesus has actually taught the people of earth.

- The Urantia Book is categorically stated as NOT a channeled or inspired writing through human media. It is told as directly written by Invisible Personalities on Paper, using a technique, normally not adopted by Spirit Personalities under normal circumstances, only to avoid the confusion and corruption that had occurred to revelations of the past due to the intervention of imperfect human mind actions.

- The Urantia Book gives some scientific information which was not known to humans during AD 1925-1935 period when these Papers were provided to a group of select humans of high standing in the city of Chicago in the USA, which were proved right in later years. At the same time the celestial authors explains the need for not including or limiting the revelation of humanly discoverable scientific truths in the Book.

- Last, but not the least, in a finer analysis there is no comparison to the Urantia Book with regard to its massive information, writing style, superior and graceful undertone and absence of contradictions, which no human author could have done.

 [C-Q&A By Er Rajan C Mathew FIE ]