Origin of Present-Day Christian Beliefs The origin of the beliefs contained in the present-day Christian religion extends far back into history, back to the days of Andon and Fonta, the first two humans who were born 993,419 years ago from the year A.D. 1934. The Old Testament and the New Testament are replete with concepts such as sin, original sin, sacrifice, and atonement, beliefs developed by savage man over thousands and thousands of years and faithfully handed down from generation to generation, even unto the twenty-first century. These primitive concepts constitute the core beliefs of today’s Christian religion. [UB 62.5:1] [UB 63:0-3] [UB Paper 89] The authors of The Urantia Book describe in detail the evolution of worship, prayer, the God concept among the Hebrews, and many other topics relating to the nature and origin of our planetary religions. Although present-day Christianity is the best religion on our planet, the authors of The Urantia Book believe the time has come to examine the beliefs contained in the Christian religion and to point out both their strengths and weaknesses. Christians have long accepted the Old Testament as the infallible and inspired Word of God. Just how reliable are the teachings in the O.T.? The following examples will illustrate the fictitious nature of much of the O.T.
The Jews Rewrite Their History. During the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish religious leaders completely rewrote their known history. The priests borrowed heavily from the Babylonian traditions and legends. They went to great lengths to include fables. Miraculous-appearing events were written into their history in an effort to restore the Jews as the chosen people of even the new and expanded idea of an internationalized God of all nations. The contemporary Hebrews of around 500 B.C. did not consider these writings to be divine revelations; they looked upon them as mythological narratives. It was later religious leaders who collected these fictitious stories and then proclaimed them sacred and infallible text.
[UB 97:7:1-4] [UB 97:8:7] [UB 97:9]Moses and the Pharaoh. All those marvelous miracles supposedly performed by Moses must be regarded as merely interesting stories. They did not happen. Neither did the Lord come down among the Hebrews on a daily basis to provide them with food and water; there was no pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Mosses did not part the Red Sea.
[Exodus 7:1-14:31 ~ 16:1-35 ~ 17:2-6] [UB 96:3:5]Worship of Non-human Objects. For long ages from the beginning of the evolution of religion the savage believed that numerous objects, such as snakes, birds, stones, fruit, and animals [such as swine] were inhabited by spirits. The serpent was revered in Palestine by the Jews who considered it to be the mouthpiece of evil spirits. The Hebrews worshiped serpents down to the days of King Hezekiah. Eating the apple was forbidden as it was believed to be inhabited by a spirit. The records of the Hebrews are full of the mention of things clean and unclean, holy and unholy. The Jewish belief that pork is unclean and thereby prohibited as food is one example. [UB Papers 85, 88, 89] [Genesis 28:22] Talking Snakes and Asses. When writing their fictitious history, the Jewish religious leaders included talking snakes and talking asses.
[Genesis 3:1-19] [Numbers 22:21-34]
Jonah and the Great Fish. The story that Jonah spent three days in the belly of the great fish is an interesting but fictitious story. [Book of Jonah] [UB 130:1]
Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom was destroyed by a natural event. According to the biblical story, as Lot and his wife were fleeing, his wife looked back from behind him, and became a pillar of salt. [Genesis 19:24-26] [UB 93:8:1]Noah and the Flood. Noah and his tribe lived along a river. He kept a record of the days of the river’s rise from year to year. Noah urged his neighbors to build wooden houses, boat fashion, and put their animals on board each night as did he and his family. One year there came unusually heavy rainfalls. The sudden rise of the waters wiped out the entire village; only Noah and his immediate family were saved in their houseboat.
Many races harbor the story of a worldwide flood some time during past ages. It is true that at one time, almost one billion years ago, our planet was covered for a time by a worldwide ocean with an average depth of over one mile. But there has never been a worldwide flood since life was planted on earth about 550 million years ago by a divine order of the Sons of God, the Life Carriers.
[UB 57:7:7] [UB 57:8:3] [UB 58:4:2] [UB 78:7:3-5] [Genesis, Chapters 6 and 7] Legend of Creation.
The legend of creation is based on two historical events:
[A] The arrival of the Planetary Prince and his Staff of One Hundred about five hundred thousand years ago. The One Hundred were provided with special material bodies. The special bodies, combined with the aid of the Tree of Life, enabled them to live on age after age provided they did not default in their assignment.
[B] The arrival on earth of Adam and Eve about 37,848 years ago from the year A.D. 1934. They, too, were provided with special material bodies which, with the aid of the fruit of the Tree of Life, would enable them to live on indefinitely provided they did not default in their assignment. They spent the first six days surveying the Garden of Eden. [UB Paper 67] [UB 74:0,1,2,3]
As these facts trickled down through time among primitive humans, there developed the story that God created the earth in six days. The belief that Eve was created out of Adam’s rib was a confused condensation of the arrival of Adam and Eve and the transfer of plasm from one hundred selected humans into the bodies of Caligastia's Staff of One Hundred. The belief became widespread that man’s clay origin was a special form of creation. The concept of a divine creation gradually replaced the belief in progressive creation--evolution.
The O.T. account of creation dates from long after the time of Moses. He presented a simple and condensed narrative of creation to the Israelites in which he endeavored to trace the lineage of Abraham back to Adam. This caused later Jews to assume that Adam was the first of all mankind. They reasoned that as Yahweh was the creator and Adam was the first man, Yahweh must have created the world in six days just prior to making Adam. Later Jewish editors tried to eradicate all references to a pre-Adamic civilization, but they neglected to remove the telltale reference to Cain’s emigration to the land of Nod where he took himself a wife. This account implies the pre-existence of humans away from the second Garden: "And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any [hostile tribe] finding him should kill him." In those days, a lone person traveling without an identifying mark was subject to death if he met a hostile tribe. [Genesis 4:15,16,17] [UB 66:0:2] [UB 74:8]The Fall of Man. There persisted the belief in the divine creation of the human race. Since the first humans were supposedly sinless and blameless, there must have existed in the beginning a golden age of utopian bliss. But Eve, by eating the forbidden fruit--the apple--brought about the fall of man and consequently Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden. [The apple rested under a taboo, and the transgression of a taboo constituted a sin.] This erroneous theory of the fall of man supposedly accounts for the progressive deterioration of mankind and the belief that all humans born after the fall of Adam and Eve are born in sin: Because of the sins of Adam and Eve, a vengeful Deity vented his wrath upon the human race in retribution for their errors.
There has never been a "golden age" on earth. It is a fact that Adam and Eve partially defaulted in their assignment. They were relegated to the status of humans. But God did not curse mankind because of the errors of Adam and Eve. Each newborn baby enters the world with a clean slate: blameless and sinless. [UB 75:8] Transformation of Jesus' Gospel. On the Day of Pentecost Jesus sent to mankind the Spirit of Truth. On this very day began the transformation of the gospel of Jesus into the new gospel about Jesus.
By the time the new Christian religion had crystallized [supposedly written in stone], it had ceased to be the religion of Jesus although it does contain numerous of the truths he taught. The formulation of the new Christian religion was influenced primarily by three persons: Peter, Philo of Alexandria, and the aggressive and indomitable Paul. In some respects Paul, the philosopher, can be considered the sole founder of the Christian religion. Peter, the outstanding preacher of the twelve, did more than any other man, aside from Paul, to establish the new religion of Christianity and to send its messengers to the four corners of the earth in one generation. These three apostles, wittingly or unwittingly, fastened many of their personal beliefs onto their new religion. The Christian religion has passed through many phases of evolution since the times of its founders. For several centuries following the departure of Jesus, the formulation of the Christian religion was a work in progress, getting farther and farther away from the religion of Jesus with each new revision.
[98:7:11] [139:2] [UB 194:0:1,2] [UB 194:2:17] The Sacrifice of Animals. The practice of the sacrifice of animals as a part of worship began almost one million years ago with Andon and Fonta, the first two humans. The idea of sacrifices as a part of worship was elaborated by Moses in the Hebrew ritual and was preserved, in principle, by the Apostle Paul as the atonement for sin by "the shedding of blood." Christ became the last and all-sufficient human sacrifice. The divine Judge is now fully and forever satisfied.
[Hebrews 13:20] [UB 63:6:4] [UB 85:3:4] [UB 89:9:3] Development of Concepts of Original Sin and Necessity for Ransom.
Savage man lived constantly on the ragged edge of a precarious and harassed existence. Who or what caused his all too often unsuccessful failure to obtain food in the hunt? His sickness and death? Eventually, he settled upon a spirit explanation. Apparently there were both good spirits and bad spirits. It must be the bad spirits who caused all his misery. How could he appease the bad spirits, those malevolent spirits whom he must fear, placate, satisfy, and buy off from birth to death?
Primitive man eventually believed he began his career in perfection, and that sin [the transgression of countless taboos] brought him down to his later sorry plight. Community calamity was viewed as punishment which increased the debt of all tribal members, equally, even the newborn. Because of the erroneous belief in the fall of man in the distant past, primitive man believed each soul was born into the world under forfeit and in debt--original sin. The twin beliefs of original sin and the necessity for providing each soul with a ransom meant that countless kinds of sacrifices must be performed throughout the lifetime of each person if he was to succeed in getting out of spiritual debt.The Invention of Hell. The belief arose that prosperity and righteousness went together. How, then, did the wicked achieve prosperity? To solve this dilemma, hells were invented to punish the taboo violators [sinners].
[Papers 86, 87, 88] [Paper 89] [89:2:4] [89:3:2,3,5] [89:4:5,6]The Continence Cult.
Christians have been taught these many centuries that the four Gospels in the New Testament were written by inspired authors. However, the authors of Part IV of The Urantia Book witnessed the actual writing and compilation of the four Gospels. They emphasize that the Gospels were written from memory many years after Jesus was crucified. The Apostles observed that Jesus was careful to leave no writing of any kind on earth, and so they hesitated to put in writing their version of his life and teachings. [UB 121:8]
This cult tolerated marriage only as an evil lesser than fornication. Paul was a devotee of this cult and he fastened his belief onto Christian theology: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman." "I would that all men were even as I myself." "I say, therefore, to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them to abide even as I." Paul admits in verse 6 that his views contained in are his personal beliefs and not those of Jesus. Jesus never taught these unreasonable views to his followers. Paul’s personal beliefs have fostered the formation of celibate priesthoods in many religions. [1Corinthians 7:1-9]
The continence cult led Paul to look down upon women. His statement at 1Corinthians 14:34 reveals his bias toward women: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law." [Is this similar to taxation without representation?] Man’s brutal treatment of woman constitutes one of the darkest chapters of human history. "We [universe personnel] do not regard a planet as having emerged from barbarism so long as one sex seeks to tyrannize over the other."
[UB 49:4:4] [UB 69:7:5] [UB 82:4:3] [UB 84:3:2] [UB 84:4:10] [UB Paper 89] [UB 89:3:6] One great difficulty in attaining consistency in the Christian religion is due to the attempt by early founders to incorporate numerous concepts into their body of beliefs. Also, many of the doctrines were based on the religious experience of Philo of Alexandria, Jesus of Nazareth, and Paul of Tarsus. [UB 5:4:11] The Christian concept of God is an attempt to combine three separate teachings:
[1] The Hebrew concept--God as a vindicator of moral values, a righteous God.
[2] The Greek concept--God as a unifier, a God of wisdom.
[3] Jesus’ concept--God as a living friend, a loving Father, the divine presence. [UB 5:4:10] The Christian religion arose through the compounding of numerous teachings, influences, beliefs, cults, and personal individual attitudes. These numerous, and often conflicting beliefs, have further hindered the development of a consistent body of Christian beliefs. For example: [1] The Melchizedek teachings, a basic factor in all religions of Occident and Orient which have arisen during the last four thousand years. [UB Paper 93] [UB 98:7] [2] The Hebraic system of morality, ethics, theology, and belief in both Providence and the supreme Yahweh. Much of the strength of Christianity is due to its having borrowed heavily from both Hebrew morality and Greek thought. [UB 98:7] [3] The Zoroastrian conception of the struggle between cosmic good and evil.
[UB 98:7] [4] The mystery cults, especially Mithraism. [UB 98:7]
The mystery cults were all characterized by some mythical legend, a mystery. As a rule these mysteries pertained to the story of some god’s life, death, return to life, who had brought salvation to a sin-cursed human race. The mystery cults did much to prepare the way for the rapid spread of the vastly superior Christian teachings.
Paul's teachings were much influenced by the Mithraic Cult. This cult promised "deliverance from evil, survival after death, and enduring life in blissful realms beyond this world of sorrow and slavery." His decision to compromise with the beliefs of the Mithraic cult resulted in numerous of its pagan teachings being incorporated into the Christian religion.
The most elaborate of the Mithraic rituals was the annual festival of Mithras on December twenty-fifth. [Jesus was born August 21, 7 B.C.]
The roots of the belief that Jesus' birth was the result of a miraculous conception extend far back into history: It was once universally believed by primitive man that a virgin could become pregnant by being entered by a spirit, an evolving ghost. Both diet and the evil eye were also believed to be capable of causing pregnancy in a virgin or unmarried woman.
[UB 84:1:3] [UB 98:5,6] [UB 121:5:6] [UB 122:8:1,5-7]
In an effort to recruit more converts to his new religion Paul willingly compromised with the pagan religions. But Paul’s compromised teachings of Jesus were superior to the best in the mysteries in that:
[A] Paul taught a moral redemption, an ethical salvation. Christianity pointed to a new life and proclaimed a new ideal. He forsook magic rites and ceremonial enchantments.
[B] Christianity presented a religion which grappled with final solutions of the human problem for it not only offered salvation from sorrow and even from death, but it also promised deliverance from sin followed by the endowment of a righteous character of eternal survival qualities.
[C] The mysteries were built upon myths. Christianity, as Paul preached it, was founded upon a historic fact : the bestowal of Jesus, a Son of God, upon mankind.
[UB 98:5,6] [UB 121:5:6-16] [5] The historic fact of the human life of Joshua ben Joseph, the reality of Jesus of Nazareth as the glorified Christ, the Son of God. [UB 98:7] [6] The personal viewpoint of Paul of Tarsus and his compromise with Mithraism. Paul and his successors were willing but shrewd and sagacious compromisers; they were keen theologic traders. [UB 98:7] [UB 195:0:5-18] [7] The inclusion of the better of the Babylonian and Persian ideas of light and darkness, good and evil, time and eternity. [UB 146:1:3] [8] The inclusion of many of Plato’s theories of the ideal spirit or invisible patterns of all things visible and material, as later adapted by Philo to the Hebrew theology. [UB 146:1:3] [9] Socrates’, Plato’s, and Aristotle’s teachings that virtue is knowledge; goodness, health of the soul; that it is better to suffer injustice than to be guilty of it, that it is wrong to return evil for evil. Their cardinal virtues were: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. [UB 98:2:6] [10] Greek and Persian teachings which provided clearer concepts of the eternal life. [UB 170:5:16] [11] Paul’s doctrines were influenced in theology and philosophy not only by Jesus’ teachings but also by Plato and Philo. In ethics he was inspired not only by Christ but also by the Stoics. Paul leaned heavily toward Stoicism when he wrote, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
[Philippians 4:11] [UB 121:4:3] [UB 121:7:7] [12] Philo’s doctrine of the temporal contrasted with the spiritual; his harmonizing and systemizing of Greek philosophy and Hebrew theology. Paul used Philo’s teachings as the foundation for his more advanced and enlightening cult of Christianity. [UB 121:6:3] [UB Papers 160 and 161] [UB 170:5:16] In an effort to win converts from among the Mithraic cult, the Christian leaders willingly made such compromises with Mithraism that the better half of its adherents were won over to the Christian religion. Later generations of Christians made further compromises with paganism. By this paganization of Christianity the pagans won many minor victories of a ritualistic nature, but the Christians gained the ascendancy in that:
[1] A new and enormously higher note in human morals was struck.
[2] A new and greatly enlarged concept of God was given to the world.
[3] The hope of immortality became a part of the assurance of a recognized religion.
[4] Jesus of Nazareth was given to man’s hungry soul. [UB 195:0:6-18]
Said the authors of Part IV of The Urantia Book: And these records, imperfect as they are, have been sufficient to change the course of the history of earth for almost two thousand years. [UB 121:8:11] The authors of The Urantia Book emphasize that the Bible, although a remarkable book, is not the infallible, definitive, and inspired Word of God. It does not contain all truth about God, the universe, and our planet. As truth is infinite, it will eternally be impossible to contain all truth in one book. [UB 170:5:16] The acceptance by later Christian theologians of both the O.T. and the N.T. as the inspired, infallible, complete, and final Word of God has placed religious leaders in the untenable position of constantly being required to explain and defend countless erroneous statements, contradictions, and other irregularities in the teachings of the Bible. Theologians are truly between the rock and the hard place: How do they graciously admit that Christians apparently have been misled all these many centuries? Send CommentsBeginning of Paper Source:
The Urantia Book. [See especially Papers 85-90, 96-103, 121, 194 and 195.]
The King James Study Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville TN.NOTE: Numerous statements in this paper were quoted verbatim from the source. Revised February 5 2008