Commentary on Selected Bible Scriptures
Part IFrom time to time the authors of The Urantia Book explain passages that appear in the Bible other than those mentioned in my Paper 27: "Unraveling the Book of Revelation."
[1] Life After Death.
[2] If you are a survivor, where in heaven will you be resurrected?
The immediate destination of surviving mortals is Jerusem, the capital of our local system of Satania. Jerusem consists of a cluster of 57 architectural spheres. [45:0:1. See Papers 45-48]
You will be resurrected on Mansion World Number One [the first heaven], in the enormous temple of personality assembly. Throughout all eternity you will recall the profound memory impressions of your first witnessing of these resurrection mornings. [47:3:5]
Paul learned of the existence of the morontia worlds [the mansion worlds] and of the reality of morontia materials, for he wrote: "They have in heaven a better and more enduring substance." And these morontia materials are real, literal, even as in "the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And each of these marvelous spheres is "a better country, that is, a heavenly one." [48:1:7] [Hebrews 11:10,16]
[3] No Instantaneous Perfection.
When you are resurrected on Mansion World Number One you will be the exact same person you were at death, but you will have a new, improved body. Between the time of planetary death and resurrection on the mansion world, mortal man gains absolutely nothing aside from experiencing the fact of survival. You begin over there right where you left off on earth. [47:3:2,7]
If you are a somewhat obnoxious person when you die, you will be a somewhat obnoxious person when you are resurrected in heaven. You will not awaken in heaven as a perfected soul:
The Gods cannot--at least they do not--transform a creature of gross animal nature into a perfected spirit by some mysterious act of creative magic. When the Creators desire to produce perfect beings, they do so by direct and original creation, but they never undertake to convert animal-origin and material creatures into beings of perfection in a single step.
What magic could death, the natural dissolution of the material body, hold that such a simple step should instantly transform the mortal and material mind into an immortal and perfected spirit? Such beliefs are but ignorant superstitions and pleasing fables. [48:0:1,2] [Caligastia is a master at spinning superstitions and fables.]
Ascending mortals who choose eternal life will progress from Mansion World Number One to Mansion World Number Two, and so on through Mansion Worlds 3, 4, and 5, and will eventually attain Mansion World Number Six. Life on World Number Six is a brilliant age for ascending mortals and usually witnesses the perfect fusion of the human mind and the divine Adjuster [Indwelling Spirit]. In potential, this fusion may have occurred previously, but the actual working identity many times is not achieved until the time of the sojourn on the fifth mansion world or even the sixth [and sometimes even later]. [Paper 47]
[4] Fusion With Your Thought Adjuster [the Indwelling Spirit].
It is at the time of a mortal's fusion with his/her Thought Adjuster that the messenger of confirmation speaks: This is a beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
After fusion with your Thought Adjuster you will be granted the forty days of spiritual retirement from all routine activities wherein to commune with yourself and to choose some one of the optional routes to Havona and to select from the differential techniques of Paradise attainment.
[Not all surviving mortals from all inhabited planets are destined to fuse with their Thought Adjuster. There are exceptions.] [47:8:3-5]
Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist at noon on Monday, January 14, A.D. 26. He was accompanied by his brothers James and Jude. After Jesus was baptized, and while the four men were still standing in the water they heard a strange sound, and presently there appeared for a moment an apparition immediately over the head of Jesus. They heard a voice saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." In the case of Jesus, he did not fuse with his Thought Adjuster, but the Thought Adjuster was made the supervisor of all Thought Adjusters in our local universe of Nebadon. [The number of Thought Adjusters in Nebadon probably exceeds multiple quadrillions, or even more.]
Jesus took leave of them, going toward the hills to the east. He spent forty days alone in the hills. However, he did
not fast for forty days and forty nights. Neither was he tempted by the devil. Jesus had endured the great temptation of his mortal bestowal before his baptism when he had been wet with the dews of Mount Hermon for six weeks. [135:8:6] [136:2:2,3 ~ 136:3:1] [Matthew 3:17 ~ Matthew 4:2]
[5] Jerusem.
After learning the lessons of Mansion World Number Seven we graduate to Jerusem with residential status. [47:9:1,3,4]
Jerusem, the system capital, is almost one hundred times the size of our planet. The seven major satellites are about ten times as large as our planet. The remaining satellites are about the size of our planet. [45:0:1]
Paul had a view of the ascendant-citizen corps of perfecting mortals on Jerusem, for he wrote:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the grand assembly of Michael [Jesus], and to the spirits of just men being made perfect. [Hebrews 12:22,23] [47:10:3]
After we master the lessons on Jerusem, we continue to work toward higher levels of intellectual and spiritual development. World by world we move toward perfection. But billions of years of study and work are ahead of us before we stand in the presence of God the Father on Paradise as perfected spirits.
[See the following for an overview of the educational system for surviving mortals from Jerusem to Paradise: Paper 30:Section 4 ~ Paper 35:Sections 3,7,10 ~ Paper 37:Section 6 ~ Paper 37:10:6 ~ Paper 43:7:3 ~ Paper 43:Sections 8,9 ~ Paper 44:Section 8 ~ Paper 45 ~ Paper 48:5:6-8 ~ Paper 48:Sections 6-8 ~ Paper 50:Sections 5-7. The Corps of Mortal Finaliters is the destination of most surviving mortals. See Paper 31. After reading about the Paradise ascension program you can understand why it will require billions of years to attain Paradise.]
[6] The Worlds of the Archangels [in Salvington].
The personality record keepers are those archangels who keep straight the record of each mortal of time from the moment of birth up through the universe career until such an individual either leaves Salvington for the superuniverse regime or is "blotted out of recorded existence" by the mandate of the three Ancients of Days, the rulers of our superuniverse of Orvonton. It is on these worlds that personality records and identification sureties are classified, filed, and preserved during that time which intervenes between mortal death and the hour of repersonalization, the resurrection from death. [37:3:7,8]
[7] The Wages of Sin is Death.
The greatest punishment (in reality an inevitable consequence) for wrongdoing and deliberate rebellion against the government of God is loss of existence as an individual subject of that government. The final result of wholehearted sin is annihilation. In the last analysis, such sin-identified individuals have destroyed themselves by becoming wholly unreal through their embrace of iniquity. The factual disappearance of such a creature is, however, always delayed until the ordained order of justice current in that universe has been fully complied with. [2:3:2-4] [46:8:4] [Romans 6:23]
[8] Our Superhuman [Celestial] Planetary Government.
Paper 114 in
The Urantia Book, written during the mid-1930s, was presented by the Chief of Seraphim stationed on Urantia [earth]. Said he:
"At noon today the roll call of planetary angels, guardians, and others [celestial personnel] on Urantia [earth] was 501,234,619 pairs of seraphim. There were assigned to my command two hundred seraphic hosts--597,196,800 pairs of seraphim, or 1,194,393,600 individual angels. The registry, however, shows 1,002,469,238 individuals; it follows therefore that 191,924,362 angels were absent from this world on transport, messenger, and death duty. [On Urantia there are about the same number of cherubim as seraphim, and they are similarly organized.]
The angels are ably assisted by the midwayers. [114:0:2,3]
[9] The Midwayers: Primary and Secondary.
Fifty thousand primary midwayers were created during the early days of Caligastia's administration. 40,119 of them followed Caligastia into rebellion. [77:1:4 ~ 77:7:1]
The secondary midwayers came into existence during the days of Adamson and Ratta. [Adamson was the son of Adam and Eve. He was born in the first Garden.] 1,984 secondary midwayers were created. 873 of them joined the rebellion. The 873 apostate midwayers were interned in connection with the planetary adjudication of Urantia (earth) on the day of Pentecost. [77:6:4 ~ 77:7:2]
Note: Adamson and a company of twenty-seven traveled northward to a settlement which had been the highland home of Van and Amadon. Adamson was about 123 years old when the group arrived at their destination. He met and married Ratta, a wonderful and beautiful woman twenty years of age. Adamson lived for 396 years. Adamson and Ratta had 67 children. [77:5:3-7]
I have several times wondered: Was the gestation period in those days shorter than nine months? I surmise that the gestation period was something less than nine months. Also, I doubt that Ratta suffered during childbirth. Eve did not suffer pain in childbirth. [76:4:2] (However, Eve did suffer during the birth of Cain.)
Both groups of rebel midwayers are now held in custody by orders of the Most Highs of Edentia awaiting the final adjudication of the affairs of the system rebellion. They did many strange things on earth prior to the inauguration of the present planetary dispensation. No more do they roam the earth on mischief bent.
Many of the more literal phenomena ascribed to angels have been performed by the secondary midway creatures. When the early teachers of the gospel of Jesus were thrown into prison by the ignorant religious leaders of that day, an actual "angel of the Lord" "by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth." But in the case of Peter's deliverance after the killing of James by Herod's order, it was a secondary midwayer who performed the work ascribed to an angel.
[Acts 5:17-19 ~ Acts 12:5-7] [77:7:1-3,8 ~ 77: 8:12]
[10] Marriage of Humans with "sons of God."
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. [Genesis 6:1,2,4]
When sixty members of Caligastia's Staff of One Hundred joined the cause of Lucifer they chose Nod as their leader. Caligastia instructed them to increase their numbers by mating with mortals. These sixty members of Caligastia's staff were regarded as "sons of God" by evolutionary mortals. This is the origin of the well-nigh universal folk tale of the gods who came down to earth and there with the daughters of men begot an ancient race of heroes. [67:4:2-4] [77:2:3]
[11] The Tower of Babel.
According to Genesis 11:1-9, at one time everyone on earth spoke the same language. And the people said: "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The Lord came down, saw the city and the tower, and didn't like what he saw. He scattered the people abroad and confounded their language so they could not understand one another's speech.
The authors of
The Urantia Book describe the difficulties encountered by a group of Nodites who wished to build a center of culture to preserve their racial unity. They failed. Thousands of years later a second attempt was made to erect the tower of Babel. This second attempt also failed.
[Paper 77:Section 3]
[12] The Chosen People Concept.
At Deuteronomy 14:2 there appears the following statement: For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
God did not set the Hebrews above all other races and call them his "chosen people."
During the Babylonian captivity, the national ego of the Jews was tremendously depressed. In their reaction against their supposed national inferiority they swung to the other extreme of national and racial egotism, in which they distorted and perverted their traditions with the view of exalting themselves above all races on earth as the chosen people of God.
[93:9:9] [Deuteronomy 14:2] [I Chronicles 16:13] [Ezra 5:12]
[13] Moses. Rescued From a River?
According to Exodus 2:1-10, Moses, the offspring of two Hebrew slaves, was supposed to be killed at birth by being cast into the river. But the daughter of Pharaoh rescued him.
Over a period of thousands of years, primitive man worshiped everything on the face of the earth and in the heavens above. The Chaldeans put the sun in the center of "the seven circles of the universe." The sun god was supposed to be the mystic father of the virgin-born sons of destiny who ever and anon were thought to be bestowed as saviors upon favored races. These supernatural infants were always put adrift upon some sacred river to be rescued in an extraordinary manner, after which they would grow up to become miraculous personalities and the deliverers of their peoples. [85:5:2,3 ~ 85:6:1]
The mother of Moses was of the royal family of Egypt; his father was a Semitic liaison officer between the government and the Bedouin captives. [96:3:1]
Moses, the outstanding religious genius between Melchizedek and Jesus, was the founder of the Hebrew religion. [92:5:8]
The Lord supposedly provided manna for the Hebrews during the exodus from Egypt. However, Jesus stated in the epochal sermon at Capernaum [April 30, 29 A.D.] that the Hebrews did not eat manna--the bread of heaven. Rather, the manna was of earth. [Exodus 16:14-22] [153:2:8]
[14] Slaughter of the Midianites. [Numbers, Chapter 31]
The primitive religions all sanctioned war. The early priesthoods were, unfortunately, usually allied with the military power. Always these olden tribes made war at the bidding of their gods, at the behest of their chiefs or medicine men. The Hebrews believed in such a "God of battles"; and the narrative of their raid on the Midianites is a typical recital of the atrocious cruelty of the ancient tribal wars; this assault, with its slaughter of all the males and the later killing of all male children and all women who were not virgins, would have done honor to the mores of a tribal chieftain of two hundred thousand years ago. And all this was executed in the "name of the Lord God of Israel." Such atrocities are never instigated by Deity, notwithstanding the tendency of man to place responsibility on his gods. [70:1:14-16]
For examples of other brutal, barbaric atrocities, see the ambush of Ai and the raid upon Og. [Numbers 21:32-35] [Joshua 2:10 ~ Joshua:Chapter 8] [69:8:3]
[15] Life shall go for life, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. [Deuteronomy 19:21]
Even today, in the twenty-first century, many Christians quote this passage from Deuteronomy and would implement it given the opportunity. It is regrettable that so many mortals are spiritually retarded; deplorable that our planet is so disordered and backward; unfortunate that our world is beset by evil; lamentable that our world is so largely dominated by selfishness and sin.
Jesus never ceased to warn his disciples against the evil practice of
retaliation; he made no allowance for revenge, the idea of getting even. He deplored the holding of grudges. He disallowed the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. He discountenanced the whole concept of private and personal revenge, assigning these matters to civil government, on the one hand, and to the judgment of God, on the other. [140:8:5]
Many Christians who survive the "great and terrible day of the Lord" will be furious with the religious leaders who assured them that they could safely ignore the warnings about the Day of Armageddon. There is the strong possibility that these enraged Christians will turn on their religious leaders and subject them to a violent and savage death.
[16] Foundation Sacrifices.
A petty king, Hiel, in Palestine, in building the walls of Jericho, "laid the foundation thereof in Abiram, his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son, Segub." At that late date, not only did this father put two of his sons alive in the foundation holes of the city's gates, but his action is also recorded as being "according to the word of the Lord." [I Kings 16:34]
In olden times, when a new building of any importance was started, it was customary to slay a human being as a "foundation sacrifice." This provided a ghost spirit to watch over and protect the structure. When the Chinese made ready to cast a bell, custom decreed the sacrifice of at least one maiden for the purpose of improving the tone of the bell; the girl chosen was thrown alive into the molten metal. [Why was it always a maiden or a woman who was sacrificed for the cause?]
It was long the practice of many groups to build slaves alive into important walls. The Chinese buried in a wall those workmen who died while construction it. [89:6:4-8]
[17] Sons of God.
Christians are taught that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. But several scriptures in the Bible make it clear that God has multiple sons: And there was a day when the
Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And: When the morning stars sang together, and all the
Sons of God shouted for joy. [My emphasis]
[Job 1:6 ~ Job 2:1 ~ Job 38:7]
Could the "Morning Star" be a reference to Gabriel, the chief executive and the Bright and Morning Star of our local universe of Nebadon? Gabriel, the first-born son, is created by the Creator Son [Michael] and the Creative Spirit. There is only one Bright and Morning Star in each local universe.
There is also an order of local universe sons called the Brilliant Evening Stars, created by Jesus [Michael] and the Creative Spirit.
[Paper 33:Section 4] [37:1:2 ~ 37:Section 2]
[18] God does not punish; neither does he destroy.
Isaiah, Chapter 13: Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
. . . Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
. . . And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity;
. . . Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
(1) God and Jesus do not destroy; (2) Some of the prophecies in Isaiah, Chapter 13 appear to foretell several of the results of Osama's Day of Armageddon. However, the Lord will not come, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate on the coming day of doom. God and Jesus are
never wrathful, cruel, angry, or fierce. These erroneous teachings were developed by primitive man and faithfully handed down from generation to generation, and even today are believed by Christians to be teachings inspired by God.
However, God and Jesus
will stand aside while man reaps the consequences of his evil, depraved ways.
[19] My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? [Psalms 22:1]
During Jesus' last moments on the cross, he resorted to the repetition of many passages in the Hebrew scriptures, particularly the Psalms. The last conscious thought of the human Jesus was concerned with the repetition in his mind of a portion of the Book of Psalms
. . . While his lips would often move, he was too weak to utter the words as these passages, which he so well knew by heart, would pass through his mind. Not all his words were heard by those standing near the cross. He did not feel that the Father had forsaken him; he was merely reciting in his vanishing consciousness many Scriptures, among them the twenty-second Psalm. The beginning words of this Psalm were spoken with sufficient clearness to be heard by those standing by.
[Psalm 22:1] [187:5:2]
[20] Jesus Heals Man Blind from Birth [Josiah].
John 9:1-7: On their way to the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus, Nathaniel, and Thomas passed by a beggar blind from birth
. . . Jesus spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind man. Jesus said to the blind beggar: Go, wash in the pool of Siloam. When Josiah washed his eyes in the pool, he could see.
This is one of the strangest of all the Master's miracles. This man did not ask for healing. Josiah had little faith that he would receive his sight, but the people of that day had great faith in the efficacy of the spittle of a great or holy man. Thus, when Jesus directed Josiah to wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam, he did so. There was just enough ceremony about the transaction to induce him to act.
The superstitions of those times are well illustrated by the general belief in the efficacy of spittle as a healing agent, an idea which had its origin in Egypt and spread therefrom to Arabia and Mesopotamia. In the legendary battle of Horus with Set the young god lost his eye, but after Set was vanquished, this eye was restored by the wise god Thoth, who spat upon the wound and healed it. [95:2:6] [164:3:11-14]
[21] Legend of Creation.
Genesis 1:1-31 ~ Genesis 2:1-3: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
. . . and on the seventh day he rested.
In Paper 74:Section 8 the author provides a detailed explanation of the Legend of Creation.
The Jews received much of their idea of the creation of the world from the Babylonians, but they derived the concept of divine Providence from the Egyptians. [95:2:1]
[22] The first Garden of Eden.
Genesis 2:6: But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
The first Garden of Eden was a peninsula at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It rained copiously on the surrounding highlands, but it seldom rained in Eden proper. Each night, from the extensive network of artificial irrigation channels, a "mist would go up" to refresh the vegetation of the Garden. [73:3:3]
Genesis 2:21,22: And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and God took one of Adam's ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Before leaving Jerusem, Adam and Eve were dematerialized so that they could be brought to earth by seraphic transport. [74:1:5]
They arrived from Jerusem about 38,000 years ago. All the work of rematerializing the bodies of Adam and Eve was carried on within the precincts of the temple of the Universal Father. Ten days were required for the creation of their new bodies by the Life Carriers. [74:0]
So woman was
not created from one of Adam's ribs! However, if God removed one of Adam's ribs to make Eve, shouldn't men today be born with one less rib than women?
Genesis 2:7: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
"The breath of life." When the Life Carriers [one order of Divine Sons] have designed the patterns of life, after they have organized the energy systems, there must occur an additional phenomenon: the "breath of life" must be imparted to these lifeless forms. The Sons of God can construct the forms of life, but it is the Spirit of God who really contributes the vital spark. [36:6:4]
[This explains why scientists will
never be able to create life: the Spirit of God would never be a party to man's attempts to create life.]
And when the life thus imparted is spent, then again the remaining material body becomes dead matter.
Genesis 2:10: And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
The great river that watered the Garden came down from the higher lands of the peninsula and flowed east through the peninsular neck to the mainland and thence across the lowlands of Mesopotamia to the sea beyond. It was fed by four tributaries which took origin in the coastal hills of the Edenic peninsula, and these are the "four heads" of the river which "went out of Eden," and which later became confused with the branches of the rivers surrounding the second garden. [73:3:4]
Genesis 3:2,3: Said Eve: We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the Garden but not of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If we eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we will die.
Genesis 3:1,4: Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And the serpent said unto Eve, Ye shall not surely die [if you eat the fruit of the forbidden tree].
However, when Eve took the fateful step that resulted in their partial default, they were reduced to human status and eventually died. [Paper 75:The Default of Adam and Eve]
Some Bible scholars have attempted to explain the talking snake by postulating that the serpent was made by God but used by Satan. However, according to the record, the serpent appeared to do the actual talking. [We have to wonder: Why didn't Satan simply speak directly to Eve?] The belief that evil spirits could speak through serpents was developed by primitive man and faithfully handed down through the generations, and even today these primitive beliefs as set forth in the beginning chapters of Genesis are regarded as the Word of God by Christians.
The serpent was revered in Palestine, especially by the Phoenicians, who, along with the Jews, considered it to be the mouthpiece of evil spirits. [88:1:5]
[Actually, it was Caligastia and not Satan who continuously tried to entrap Eve with various specious proposals. He finally succeeded by using a wily flank attack.]
When Adam learned from Eve what action on her part had brought about their default, they discussed the matter in the Garden. He heard the entire story of what had happened to Eve. As Adam and Eve talked in the Garden, the "voice in the Garden," Solonia, reproved them for disobedience. She announced that they had transgressed the Garden covenant; they had disobeyed the instructions of the Melchizedeks; they had defaulted in the execution of their oaths of trust to the sovereign [Jesus] of our local universe. [Genesis 3:8,9] [75:4:2]
Voices of the Garden. These are the personal seraphim of Adam and Eve. The voices of the Garden are of invaluable service to the Planetary Adams in all their projects for the physical and intellectual upstepping of the evolutionary races. After the Adamic default, some of these seraphim were left on the planet and were assigned to Adam's successors in authority. [39:5:3]
Genesis 3:8,9: And Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord God as they walked in the garden in the cool of the day:
. . . And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
I, Solonia, the seraphic "voice in the Garden," talked to Adam and Eve that night in the Garden as became my duty under the sorrowful circumstances. This conference appears in your records as "the Lord God calling to Adam and Eve in the Garden and asking, Where are you?" [75:4:8]
After Adam and Eve partially defaulted in their assignment, they left the first Garden of Eden and established a second Garden in Mesopotamia. They were not permitted to take the tree of life with them. [76:0:1]
Genesis 3:22-24: Therefore the Lord God sent Adam forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground in the new Garden. So the Lord God drove out Adam and Eve from the first Garden and placed them at the east [in Mesopotamia].
Genesis 3:19: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
The country around the headquarters of the Staff of One Hundred was quite well settled within a radius of one hundred miles. Immediately surrounding the city, hundreds of graduates of the Prince's schools engaged in animal husbandry and otherwise carried out the instruction they had received from his staff and their numerous human helpers. A few engaged in agriculture and horticulture.
Mankind was not consigned to agricultural toil as the penalty of supposed sin. "In the sweat of your face shall you eat the fruit of the fields" was not a sentence of punishment pronounced because of man's participation in the follies of the Lucifer rebellion under the leadership of the traitorous Caligastia. The cultivation of the soil is inherent in the establishment of an advancing civilization on the evolutionary worlds. Work with the soil is not a curse; rather is it the highest blessing to all who are thus permitted to enjoy the most human of all human activities. [66:7:18,19]
Genesis 3:15: Said the Lord God: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
There was a Nodite settlement near the first Garden. Cano, the father of Cain, was a brilliant member of this tribe. When the inhabitants of the Garden learned what had happened to Eve, they declared war on the near-by Nodite settlement. They swept out through the gates of Eden and down upon these unprepared people, utterly destroying them--not a man, woman, or child was spared. And Cano, the father of Cain yet unborn, also perished. [75:5:3]
Serapatatia was the brilliant leader of the western or Syrian confederation of the Nodite tribes. It was he who convinced Eve that faster progress in world improvement could be made if Eve would consent to bearing a child with Cano as father.
When news of the annihilation of the Nodite settlement reached the home tribes of Serapatatia to the north, a great host assembled to march on the Garden. This was the beginning of a long and bitter warfare between the Adamites and the Nodites, for these hostilities kept up long after Adam and his followers emigrated to the second garden in the Euphrates valley. There was intense and lasting "enmity between that man and the woman, between his seed and her seed." [75:3:1,3,5 ~ 75:5:9]
Genesis 4:10: The Lord said to Cain after Cain had slain Abel: What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
The soul was generally thought of as being identified with the breath, but it was also located by various peoples in the head, hair, heart, liver, blood, and fat. The "crying out of Abel's blood from the ground" is expressive of the onetime belief that the soul resided in the blood. The Semites taught that the soul resided in the bodily fat, and among many the eating of animal fat was taboo [therefore a sin]. Head hunting was a method of capturing an enemy's soul, as was scalping. In recent times the eyes have been regarded as the windows of the soul. [86:5:11]
[See Paper 88: Fetishes, Charms, and Magic and Paper 89: Sin, Sacrifice, and Atonement]
[23] Original Sin.
All human disease and natural death was at first believed to be due to spirit influence. Even at the present time some civilized races regard disease as having been produced by "the enemy" and depend upon religious ceremonies to effect healing. Later and more complex systems of theology still ascribe death to the action of the spirit world, all of which has led to such doctrines as original sin and the fall of man. [86:3:3]
Genesis 3:5: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof [of the tree of knowledge of good and evil], then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Romans 5:12: Wherefore, as by Adam sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Various scriptures are quoted to support the doctrine of original sin. But numerous of the scriptures seem to provide scant proof that sin was unknown in the world until it was introduced by Adam.
It is true that Adam and Eve partially defaulted in their assignment on this planet. But did Adam's partial default in his assignment automatically impute sin to every human born subsequent to him? Bible scholars are divided on this question:
A. Calvinists have held that the sin of Adam was immediately imputed to the whole human family, so that not only is the entire race depraved but also guilty on account of the first [Adam's] transgression.
B. Arminian view. This group holds that the effect of Adam's sin upon the moral state of mankind is in accordance with and by virtue of the natural law of heredity. The race inherited proneness to sin. But this proneness to sin does not imply guilt, inasmuch as punishment can justly be inflected only on account of actual sin, which consists in voluntary transgression. This view is held by numerous mainstream Christians.
C. Pelagianism. This view denies any necessary connection between the sin of Adam and the character and actions of his descendants.
[The New Unger's Bible Dictionary, page 1198]
When the Son of God appears on earth and begins his instructions regarding sin, evil, and iniquity, he will surely emphasize that the partial default of Adam and Eve in no way affected humans born subsequent to Adam. Every baby born into the world begins life free of any sin or guilt whatsoever.
[24] Fall of Man.
The fall of our first ancestors [Adam and Eve] was an epoch or turning point in the moral history of the race. It was in itself an epoch of great and sad significance and of far-reaching results. [The New Unger's Bible Dictionary, Page 398]
Genesis, Chapter 3 is cited as the basis for the doctrine of the fall of man.
Romans 5:12-21. Verse 12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all, for that all have sinned.
I Corinthians 15:21,22: For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. [Ibid., page 398]
These scriptures seem to imply that if Adam had not "sinned," humans would live on indefinitely without dying. Adam and Eve arrived on this planet about 38,000 years ago. But the first two humans appeared on earth about 993,000 years ago. Humans have been dying since they first arrived on earth.
[62:5:1] [Paper 74:Introduction]
There has been no fall of man.
Irrespective of the arguments put forth to justify the doctrine of the fall of man, there has been no fall of man.
Adam and Eve did fall from their high estate of material sonship down to the lowly status of mortal man. But that was not the fall of man. The history of the human race is one of progressive evolution, and the Adamic bestowal left the world peoples greatly improved over their previous biologic condition.
[Paper 75:Section 8]
[25] Does God repent of his actions?
Genesis 6:6,7: And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Then the Lord said he would destroy everything on earth that he had created "for it repenteth me that I have made them."
According to primitive man, his gods repeatedly repented of an action taken or about to be taken. Primitive man thought that his gods were just like him, only more powerful. Man sometimes repented, therefore a god sometimes repented. This is an erroneous concept we inherited from primitive man.
God repents of nothing he has ever done, now does, or ever will do. He is all-wise as well as all-powerful. God never does anything that causes subsequent sorrow or regret
. . . [4:3:4,5]
A little reflection will demonstrate the fallacy of the belief that God sometimes finds it necessary to repent: God is infallible; he sees the end from the beginning. Why would God deliberately take an action that he
knew in advance he would regret? Even a practical mortal will not waste his time engaging in an action that he knows in advance he will regret.
[26] The Offering of Isaac by Abraham.
Supposedly, God wished to test the loyalty of Abraham by telling him to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, as a burnt offering. According to the story, Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac. He took a knife and stretched forth his hand to slay Isaac. But an angel of the Lord stayed his hand. A ram caught in a thicket by his horns was offered instead. [Genesis 22:1-19]
The spectacle of Abraham constrained to sacrifice his son Isaac, while shocking to civilized susceptibilities, was not a new or strange idea to the men of those days. It was long a prevalent practice for fathers, at times of great emotional stress, to sacrifice their first-born sons. [89:6:8]
[27] The promise of the Birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah.
Genesis 17:16,17: And I [God] will bless Sarah, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
Abraham was not so old as the records indicate, and his wife Sarah was much younger. The ages of Abraham and Sarah were deliberately altered in order to provide for the subsequent alleged miraculous birth of Isaac. [93:9:8]
[28] Abraham's Talks With Melchizedek.
Genesis 14:18: And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the Most High God.
What the Old Testament records describe as conversations between Abraham and God were in reality conferences between Abraham and Melchizedek. Later scribes regarded the term Melchizedek as synonymous with God. The record of so many contacts of Abraham and Sarah with "the angel of the Lord" refers to their numerous visits with Melchizedek.
Although it may be an error to speak of "chosen people," it is not a mistake to refer to Abraham as a chosen individual. Melchizedek did lay upon Abraham the responsibility of keeping alive the truth of one God as distinguished from the prevailing belief in plural deities.
[93:5:1 ~ 93:9:7] [Genesis, Chapter 17]
[29] The Three Celestial Beings Appear to Abraham.
Genesis 18:1,2: And the Lord appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
. . .
After Abraham's son Isaac was born in accordance with the promise of Melchizedek, Abraham took a very solemn attitude toward his covenant with Melchizedek. Abraham had always so opposed circumcision that on this occasion he decided to solemnize the event by formally accepting this rite in token of the ratification of the Salem covenant. It was following this real and public surrender of his personal ambitions in behalf of the larger plans of Melchizedek that the three celestial beings appear to him on the plains of Mamre. This was an appearance of fact, notwithstanding its association with the subsequently fabricated narratives relating to the natural destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And these legends of the happenings of those days indicate how retarded were the morals and ethics of even so recent a time. See item [30]. [93:6:6,7]
[30] Sodom and Gomorrah.
Genesis 19:24-26: Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But Lot's wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a natural event, most likely a volcanic eruption. [93:6:7]
And, of course, Lot's wife did not become a pillar of salt.
SOURCE: Note: Numerous statements in this paper were quoted verbatim from the source. November 26 2005
The Urantia Book, published by Uversa Press, a subsidiary of
Urantia Book Fellowship.
http://www.urantiabook.org .
fellowship@urantiabook.org .
The King James Study Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville.
The New Unger's Bible Dictionary, Merrill F. Unger, R. K. Harrison, Editor; Howard F. Vos and Cyril J. Barber, Contributing Editors. Moody Press, Chicago.