FUTURE SPIRITUALITY (Urantia-195:10)

[Seeking ET]

Christianity has indeed done a great service for this world, but what is now most needed is Jesus.  The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men.  It is futile to talk about a revival of primitive Christianity; you must go forward from where you find yourselves.  Modern culture must become spiritually baptized in a new revelation of Jesus' life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation.  And when Jesus becomes thus lifted up, he will draw all men to himself.  Jesus' disciples should be more than conquerors, even overflowing sources of inspiration and enhanced living to all men.  Religion is only an exalted humanism until it is made divine by the discovery of the reality of the presence of God in personal experience.
The beauty and sublimity, the humanity and divinity, the simplicity and uniqueness, of Jesus' life on Earth present such a striking and appealing picture of man-saving and God-revealing that the theologians and philosophers of all time should be effectively restrained from daring to form creeds or create theological systems of spiritual bondage out of such a transcendental bestowal of God in the for of man.  In Jesus the universe produced a mortal man in whom the spirit of love triumphed over the material handicaps of time and overcame the fact of physical origin.
Ever be in mind - God and men need each other.  They are mutually necessary to the full and final attainment of eternal personality experience in the divine destiny of universe finality. 
"The kingdom of God is within you" was probably the greatest pronouncement Jesus ever made, next to the declaration that his Father is a living and loving spirit.
In winning souls for the Master, it is not the first mile of compulsion, duty, or convention that will transform man and his world, but rather the second mile of free service and liberty-loving devotion that betokens the Jesusonian guidance toward the higher and divine goal of mortal existence.  Christianity even now willingly goes the first mile, but mankind languishes and stumbles along in moral darkness because there are so few genuine second-milers - so few professed followers of Jesus who really live and love as he taught his disciples to live and love and serve.
The call to the adventure of building a new and transformed human society by means of the spiritual rebirth of Jesus' brotherhood of the kingdom should thrill all who believe in him as men have not been stirred since the days when they walked about on earth as his companions in the flesh.
No social system or political regime which denies the reality of God can contribute in any constructive and lasting manner to the advancement of human civilization.  But Christianity, as it is subdivided and secularized today, presents the greatest single obstacle to its further advancement; especially is this true concerning the Orient.

Ecclesiasticism is at once and forever incompatible with that living faith, growing spirit, and firsthand experience of the faith-comrades of Jesus in the brotherhood of man in the spiritual association of the kingdom of heaven.  The praiseworthy desire to preserve traditions of past achievement often leads to the defense of outgrown systems of worship.  The well-meant desire to foster ancient thought systems effectually prevents the sponsoring of new and adequate means and methods designed to satisfy the spiritual longings of the expanding and advancing minds of modern men.  Likewise, the Christian churches of the twentieth century stand as great, but wholly unconscious obstacles to the immediate advance of the real gospel - the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
Many earnest person who would gladly yield loyalty to the Christ of the gospel find it very difficult enthusiastically to support a church which exhibits so little of the spirit of his life and teachings, and which they have been erroneously taught he founded.  Jesus did not found the so-called Christian church, but he has, in every manner consistent with his nature, fostered it as the best existent exponent of his lifework on earth. 
If the Christian church would only dare to espouse the Master's program, thousands of apparently indifferent youths would rush forward to enlist in such a spiritual undertaking, and they would not hesitate to go all the way through with this great adventure.
Christianity is seriously confronted with the doom embodied in one of its own slogans: "A house divided against itself cannot stand".  The non-Christian world will hardly capitulate to a sect-divided Christendom.  The living Jesus is the only hope of a possible unification of Christianity.  The true church - the Jesus brotherhood - is invisible, spiritual, and is characterized by unity, not by uniformity.  Uniformity is the earmark of the physical world of mechanistic nature.  Spiritual unity is the fruit of faith union with the living Jesus.  The visible church should refuse longer to handicap the progress of the invisible and spiritual brotherhood of the kingdom of God.  And this brotherhood is destined to become a living organism in contrast to an institutionalized social organization.  It may well utilize such social organizations, but it must not be supplanted by them.
But the Christianity of even the twentieth century must not be despised.  It is the product of the combined moral genius of the God-knowing men of many races during many ages, and it has truly been one of the greatest powers for good on earth, and therefore no man should lightly regard it, notwithstanding its inherent and acquired defects.  Christianity still contrives to move the minds of reflective men and mighty moral emotions.
But there is no excuse for the involvement of the church in commerce and politics; such unholy alliances are a flagrant betrayal of the Master.  And the genuine lovers of truth will be slow to forget that this powerful institutionalized church has often dared to smother newborn faith and persecute truth bearers who chanced to appear in unorthodox raiment.
It is all too true that such a church would not have survived unless there had been men in the world who preferred such a style of worship.  Many spiritually indolent souls crave an ancient and authoritative religion of ritual and sacred traditions.  Human evolution and spiritual progress are hardly sufficient to enable all men to dispense with religious authority.  And the invisible brotherhood of the kingdom may well include these family groups of various social and temperamental classes if they are only willing to become truly spirit-led sons God.  But in this brotherhood of Jesus there is no place for sectarian rivalry, group bitterness, nor assertions of moral superiority and spiritual infallibility.
These various groupings of Christians may serve to accommodate numerous different types of would-be believers among the various peoples of Western civilization, but such division of Christendom presents a graves weakness when it attempts to carry the gospel of Jesus to Oriental peoples.  These people do not yet understand that there is a religion of Jesus separate, and somewhat apart, from Christianity, which has more and more become a religion about Jesus. 
The great hope of earth lies in the possibility of a new revelations of Jesus with a new and enlarged presentation of his saving message which would spiritually unite in loving service the numerous families of his present-day professed followers.
Even secular education could help in this great spiritual renaissance of it would pay more attention to the work of teaching youth how to engage in life planning and character progression.  The purpose of all education should be to foster and further the supreme purpose of life, the development of a majestic and well-balanced personality.  There is great need for the teaching of moral discipline in the place of so much self-gratification.  Upon such a foundation religion may contribute its spiritual incentive to the enlargement and enrichment of mortal life, even to the security and enhancement of life eternal.
Christianity is an extemporalized religion, and therefore must it operate in low gear.  High-gear spiritual performances must await the new revelation and the more general acceptance of the real religion of Jesus.  But Christianity is a mighty religion, seeing that the commonplace disciples of a crucified carpenter set in motion those teachings which conquered the Roman world in three hundred years and then went on to triumph over the barbarians who overthrew Rome.  This same Christianity conquered- absorbed and exalted- the whole stream of Hebrew theology and Greek philosophy.  And then when this Christian religion became comatose for more than a thousand years as a result of an overdose of mysteries and paganism, it resurrected itself and virtually reconquered the whole Western world.  Christianity contains enough of Jesus' teachings to immortalize it.
If Christianity could only grasp more of Jesus' teachings, it could do so much more in helping modern man to solve his new and increasingly complex problems. 
Christianity suffers under a great handicap because it has become identified in the minds of all the world as a part of the social system, the industrial life, and the moral standards of Western civilization; and thus has Christianity unwittingly seemed to sponsor a society which staggers under the guilt of tolerating science without idealism, politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without restraint, knowledge without character, power without conscience, and industry without morality.
The hope of modern Christianity is that it should cease to sponsor the social systems and industrial policies of Western civilization while it humbly bows itself before the cross is so valiantly extols, there to learn anew from Jesus of Nazareth the greatest truths moral man can ever hear - the living gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

[Stookie]

Many Christians don't understand the concept of "Christ" and that it's a real working force in humankind. People can be positive and work in a positive way, yet still not have the correct impulses needed to spur on humanity - it's more than just having a positive mind. And without the Christ-impulse we tend to get hung up on new-age ideologies that sound good. As is evident all over the internet and this forum. People want to put the blame everywhere around them, yet don't look inward and let anything radiate from them.

[kurtykurt42]

Many people don't understand the concept of "Christ", including me! 

[lee46]

I'm not sure if I'm right, but to me the concept of "Christ" is the evolved consciousness and pure spirit (the true love, compassion, humbleness, etc.)

[CFTraveler]

I liked what you had to say, and agree with most of it. Or Urantia, whoever.

However, I had a few issues with a couple of statements:

"The non-Christian world will hardly capitulate to a sect-divided Christendom."  This is divisive in itself, as if the 'correct' christians were duty-bound to 'conquer'- the tone is that the people who are aware of their christ spirit within should somehow 'take over' and direct non christians' spiritual life, and this just rings wrong for me.
The whole idea of being a follower of Jesus, or to follow what we think Jesus taught, is to direct oneself inwards, to discover that divine spark, that unites all of us, christian and nonchristian alike and to develop our relationship to it, using Jesus' life and stories as a template and guide, not to 'convince' or 'convert' others to discover what is already there.
"the invisible brotherhood of the kingdom may well include these family groups of various social and temperamental classes if they are only willing to become truly spirit-led sons God."  This also gives me pause- perhaps it is the word 'led' that makes me nervous.  I know how I interpret scripture, and what I believe the message of Jesus to be, and I mostly believe that my faith is led by the spirit of God- but that doesn't mean I have the right to decide whether someoene else truly is 'led' by Spirit.  Especially if I could be wrong.

I'm pointing this out because of the tendency we have to grasp at parts of something and twisting it to perpetuate a system-
Or maybe I'm being too nitpicky.
Either way, thanks for posting it.

[Seeking ET]

Jesus says that he is the light, the life and the way.  When he states that we are to be led, he does mean specifically in his way.  Because he is the way of peace, and he has done before what no man ever did in terms of promoting spiritual unity, all who seek that same peace and unity must inevitably follow in the footsteps of Christ, for he was first to pave the way.  But that is not a slave owning type of guidance.  Christ does not demand that we be loyal to him, only that we follow him.  One important aspect to recall is that it says we are to follow the religion of Jesus, not religions about him.  The reason that the Jews and Pharisees of his time had such a hard time believing he was the Messiah is because they simply couldn't accept the notion that he would not take a literal throne and exalt the Jewish kingdom on high with majestic powers.  He would not rule over men with physical dominance.  Jesus' religion taught that God is more than our king, he is our Father.  Because of such he loves us with a fatherly love and not a dictatorial vengeance of a corrupt king.  Jesus' "way" is not a path in honor of him, but in honor of his message; that because God is our father, we are his children.  And because we are his children, we are all brethren of the same fold.  If ever in doubt of the truth of Christ we do have sources of truth available.  But the best is simply his own teachings.  Worry not about established religion ruling another class and governing righteousness.  Christ teaches that in the eyes of God when our salvation is on the line, they have no power.  The spirit of the truth of God resides within our hearts.  When we are filled with the same love for our fellow man that Christ had for us, we will only choose to treat eachother lovingly from pure desire. No rules or regulations will be necessary to enforce such natural outpooring.

[missym]

I think what Jesus showed us and lived for is amazing and I try to practice what he preached, in my life.

I don't know about the Bible though.

[iofhorus]

Just want to say how well written and sound your expression of your views are.... Solid post.

[Everlasting]

 Urantia like the bible is satans warbook. "the true church - the jesus brotherhood" say what?

[vladjackguy]

Yes but i have a question....Did Jesus started crusades, pointless wars and manipulated people trough history or christians did?

You need to adapt to the modern world leave your antique dreamworld behind.
Jesus was a being of light just like us, but he was more evolved, he had Christ consciousness.
So religion for me is just a tool to manipulate people and believe something that you can not prove.
Hell doesn't even exist.You took and modified the teachings of Jesus and used it at your own will to manipulate people.
But that doesn't mean if you are not christian or a church man you can't love and do wonderfull things.
Loving & sharing is the first step in solving the problems of humanity.

Peace&Love

[Killa Rican]

The urantia is a great read but sadly i think it's forged. I dont understand why most parts of it would Contradict Edgar Cayce's readings on the afterlife such as reincarnation they both strongly contradict each other on.

[personalreality]

Jesus...

Didn't do anything.  He did just about as much as Santa Claus.

Get it.  Because they're both imaginary superheros.

[AmbientSound]

I think the new spirituality should be common sense. 

[Furchizedek]

The urantia is a great read but sadly i think it's forged. I dont understand why most parts of it would Contradict Edgar Cayce's readings on the afterlife such as reincarnation they both strongly contradict each other on.

The reason The Urantia Book contradicts Caycee is because Caycee is wrong. Reincarnation is wishful thinking. What Universe Mechanism would support reincarnation? We DO have more lives, but not here and not "in the flesh" again.

Norm

[Xanth]

The reason The Urantia Book contradicts Caycee is because Caycee is wrong. Reincarnation is wishful thinking. What Universe Mechanism would support reincarnation? We DO have more lives, but not here and not "in the flesh" again.

That's a pretty bold statement to make.
Do you have irrefutable proof that this individual is wrong?  Or are you just basing all this off your own opinions and beliefs?

Note: I have zero idea what this book is even about.  I just love discussing. 

~Ryan