Will - Giving The UB To A Minister - Dec 19, 1991 - Tallahassee, FL

WILL

Giving The Urantia Book To A Minister

Wil111

12/19/91 Thursday a.m.,

NOTE: Response to Kathy's request on her assignment to deliver the Urantia Book to her sister-in-law's minister:

Will:

Kathy's performance was honest. It is not possible to know what the minister's reaction to Urantia Book's teaching will be. It is hoped that he will find the notions expressed there provocative, and even though he may profess outward rejection, he will return again and again to the uplifting message expressed therein.

While the concept of atonement is rationally and emotionally satisfying, you who have benefitted from a more advanced teaching can see that atonement is a rather primitive explanation for the significance of the death of Jesus of Nazareth. Early religions were based primarily on death and fear, as organizational features which caused men to rally to an otherwise-difficult conceptual flag. The people of your planet, even only 1000 years ago, were unable to mentally grasp the true story of the man, no matter how inspiring. They lacked not only the mental capacity, but also the necessary social capacity, for nothing like the man's life existed in the huts and stone halls of the high- and low-born of the West. Therefore the gift became an icon -- an item impossible of understanding, revered for the very quality which made it inaccessible to the lives of the humans who were intended to be the chief beneficiaries. For the man Jesus lived and died as a man not only for the people of your world, but also for the other worlds, both light and dim, in this universe.

The doctrine of atonement is a trivialization of the events which took place on your world. This may be difficult for some of your people to grasp, for atonement has a neatness to it that is mightily appealing to your people. The primary lure is its inherent ability to keep God remote and safely distant in historic times -- not applicable or relevant to your daily lives.

This is error. God lives in you, through you, with you. His presence is all-pervasive throughout Creation. Atonement leads immediately to the deduction that God cares only so much, and otherwise the human is on his own. This is untrue. The Father participates on a momentary basis. There is no reflective time lag in the Father's presence. He does not hitchhike on your perceptions, He is on the cutting edge -- where life can be most fearsome, and also most exhilarating. That is where the growth takes place. This is why we have asked you in your group exercise to take risks, so that you can feel the presence of the Father in the vitality of the immediate presence of humanity at its finest -- spontaneous, unguarded, truthful, brave . .. and cowardly. That is where the progress takes place.

Enough for the moment. I will leave you to work with this. God bless you and keep you.

     Will.

Will-111