The primary reference for these blog postings is The Urantia Book. For those not familiar with this book, it presents a far reaching description of God and His creation, as well as a full accounting of the life and teachings of Jesus; revelations in The Urantia Book greatly expand on those in the Bible. That it is a valid revelation is discussed on this web site. Because of rebellion our planet has been cut off from communicating with other worlds. This revelation is a first and can be a challenging read; these blog postings explain and relate them to current situations in our society.
Five hundred thousand years ago our native planet Earth, known as Urantia in the universe records, actually had a ruler, a Planetary Prince named Caligastia. He was a good leader for over 300,000 years, but what happened? Long story short, Lucifer who was the sovereign leader of our group of inhabited worlds, called a system, went into rebellion against the universe government; our Planetary Prince joined the rebellion; ever since our history has been filled with discord, sin, and wars. We describe the introduction of sin into our world, followed by a discussion of what constitutes sin, and finally how do we attain salvation. This final section is a discussion of the meaning of the Cross of Jesus. Jesus taught the citizens of Earth and destroyed sin by loving service.
Caligastia – Our Original Sinner
A bit over 200,000 years ago Lucifer[1] was our system sovereign;[2] he chose rebel against universe authority and he convinced his assistant, Satan, to become part of the rebellion. It was Satan who went to the various inhabited worlds seeking to convince their Planetary Princes to join the rebellion. When Satan came to our planet, Caligastia agreed to become part of the rebellion.
Caligastia joined the rebellion over 150,000 years before Adam and Eve arrived. They were in the Garden of Eden about 100 years before they were entrapped by a plot instigated by Caligastia. They did not join the rebellion and did the best they could under very difficult circumstances.
Satan, as an ambassador of Lucifer, brought the sin of rebellion against God to Urantia and our Planetary Prince Caligastia willingly accepted it. It could be said that Caligastia is our original sinner. Before the arrival of Caligastia, inhabitants of Earth had no concept of God and were not conscious of sin. Caligastia allowed sin against God to enter our native planet. In the next section we have a more thorough discussion of sin.
The entire subsequent history of Earth was drastically altered by this sin of Caligastia. (752.4)[3] It is incredible what a dramatic consequence can arise from one solitary decision so many years ago. We can only wonder what our life would be like had this not happened.
At the headquarters of the Planetary Prince was a school for mortals from surrounding regions; after being educated they were returned to their homes to spread the advanced learning they had received. These schools worked well for 300,000 years but after the rebellion Caligastia deliberately and systematically poisoned these teachings; the schools were quickly wrecked. (576.2) These many years later we are still struggling to properly educate our sisters and brothers.
When we raise our children we are careful to not give them unfamiliar objects that might be dangerous, for example matches. We allow them to grow at their own pace. Caligastia went beyond this system and introduced teachings which the citizens were not ready for. (1302.4) Introducing new concepts prematurely can be dangerous. Would you give a primitive bushman a machine gun?
In his life, Jesus demonstrated that using our God-given abilities for personal gain or selfishness is a sin. (1519.2) What constitutes sin?
Sin
Sin is going against God’s will, but there are many shades of actions that may be described as going against His will. Error is not understanding reality, not knowing the action is wrong. With evil there is a partial realization that the action is wrong. With sin the individual knows the difference between right and wrong but does the sinful action anyway; this a conscious decision to go against God’s will. Iniquity is when sin is openly and persistently embraced. (754.5)
Error suggests lack of intellectual keenness; evil, deficiency of wisdom; sin, abject spiritual poverty; but iniquity is indicative of vanishing personality control. (755.1)
Those who habitually sin can become iniquitous, rebels against universe reality. Even though all manner of sins may be forgiven, those in iniquity are unlikely to be sorry for their sins and therefore would not accept forgiveness. (755.2)
Sin is an attitude of the individual toward reality. The sinner has a reasonable picture of what constitutes reality; knows what is right and what is wrong. The sinner deliberately chooses to do something known to be wrong by the sinner. Regarding a specific proposed action, those in error are ignorant of its rightness or wrongness; those who are evil are uncertain about right or wrong; while those who sin know for a fact that the act is wrong but they persist in the face of such knowledge. Sin is always a personal decision by the sinner. (761.6) Individuals may live in unbelievable conditions that make righteousness difficult to attain, but the final decision to sin is made alone. We cannot be forced against our will to sin; over time such sinning may become a habit. Iniquity.
This is enough about sin. We have all sinned and gone against the will of God. What are we going to do about it?
Salvation
This discussion on salvation is based on two sections in The Urantia Bookcovering the meaning of Jesus on the cross; (2016.6 – 2019.6) because of that episode our world has become known as the “World of the Cross” on nearby worlds. Jesus chose to come to our planet and reveal the nature of God to us and the rest of his creation; see “Jesus – Bestowal” for more on this topic.
There are some who see the cross as Jesus redeeming us from original sin, however in the previous section we learned sin is personal; my sin is personal, my problem. The same goes for the sins of my predecessors, their sins were their problems. Sin is connected to the individual who made the sinful decision; the sinner.
The animal nature — the tendency toward evil-doing — may be hereditary, but sin is not transmitted from parent to child. Sin is the act of conscious and deliberate rebellion against the Father’s will and the Sons’ laws by an individual will creature. (2016.10)
Jesus is truly our savior; he showed us the way, his resurrection made clear that salvation is ours for the asking. (2017.2) After resurrection he had ongoing life, as will we after our own resurrection. The resurrection proves that no matter what might have happened in our earthly life, there will be more life after our death. The only exception to this is individuals who have totally rejected God, those who abide in iniquity; for them there can be no resurrection.
The only concept Jesus taught about God is that he is a loving Father. Once we fully accept this we must reject unworthy descriptions of his nature, such that he is offended, stern, or seeking to learn about our wrongdoing; such views of God are not consistent with the teachings of Jesus. The infinite love of God is not secondary to anything in the divine nature. (2017.3)
When considering salvation it is important to include the life of Jesus, the matchless way he met death, and the resurrection. His life was one of service and teaching. While on his tour of the Mediterranean he spent several hours helping a lost child get back home. (1465.5) His conduct during the unfair trail was such that Pilate, who had the final say in his execution, declared “Behold the man!” (1995.2) His resurrection on that first Easter morning declares to everyone that death has no sting.
Knowing the love Jesus has for us, we need not worry about our personal salvation because it has already been given to us. The life of Jesus is a revelation of the nature of our Heavenly Father; the phrase “God is Love” appears 14 times in The Urantia Book. His love surrounds us and uplifts us. God’s love and mercy are boundless; salvation is truly ours for the asking. Once we grasp this truth we should share this knowledge with sisters and brothers.
Human salvation is real; it is based on two realities which may be grasped by the creature’s faith …: the fact of the fatherhood of God and its correlated truth, the brotherhood of man. (2017.8) We all stand equal before God, and He loves each of us equally.
Those persecuting Jesus during his tribulation before and during the time of the cross were certainly going against the will of God but Jesus responded with calm majesty, speaking only when asked a direct question. During the ordeal Jesus asked God to “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”[4] If those who were part of that shameful process can be forgiven, then forgiving our sins is a given.
The cross forever shows that the attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither condemnation nor condonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation. (2018.1)
The meaning of the cross is that the love of God is greater than our meager sins.
