Postings

Our Soul’s Soil

Choosing Beauty

We use our mind every moment of our conscious existence; yet we are largely unaware of what an impact a stray thought may have on our mind and our potentially eternal future. This is where, without realizing it, we constantly make decisions that could have consequences into all future eternity. As a result of decisions we make in our mind our soul grows, becomes stronger. In a very real sense, our thoughts determine our future.

Material mind is the arena in which human personalities live, are self-conscious, make decisions, choose God or forsake him, eternalize or destroy themselves.[1] (1216.4)

This posting is based on “The Mind Arena of Choice,” which is section 1 of paper 111 in The Urantia Book, starting at page 1216.

Mind

When we contemplate anything we must use our mind; for human beings our mind is the core of our being. This is where we observe, compare, analyze, plan, and grow or slide based upon our mental decisions. It could be said, especially for those having experienced little spiritual growth, mind is nearly all there is to our being.

Every thinking human being has within them a spark of God; every mortal literally has God within; this divine fragment works with our mind, gently guiding us Godward. Mind is the human soil from which the spirit Monitor must evolve the morontia soul with the co-operation of the indwelt personality. (1216.2)

Our soul, which will be eternal if we so choose, grows as a result of the guidance of our God Within working on our mind where we make decisions to cooperate, or not. Our mind is so important to the growth of our soul that it certainly is our soul’s soil. The nature of our soul soil depends on how we use our mind. Where are our thoughts directed? As evolutionary human beings on a planet in rebellion against universe authority, a significant portion of our thoughts are in response to outside events impacting us. But we must have a deep purpose guiding us through our personal trying times. If our mind is filled with materialism, greed, lust, hatred, or fear it will be poor soil indeed for our soul. On the other hand, if we are concentrated on following God’s will and accept love, brotherhood, and divine guidance, our soul’s soil will be rich indeed.

Thought Adjusters are a spark of God and therefore perfect, but if the soul’s soil is spiritually poor as a result of human choices, nothing can save mortals other than more spiritually based decisions; choosing to follow God’s will.

…it is by mind that you live or die. It is within this mind and with this mind that you make those moral decisions which enable you to achieve Adjusterlikeness, and that is Godlikeness. (1216.5)

Mind is our soul’s soil. This is where we grow our soul.

Choosing

Making choices is such an everyday thing we seldom pay any attention to the process. We choose what to eat, what to wear, whom we associate with, and how we react to difficulties. However, any decision may present complications. Suppose we are going home from work or the store and have two possible routes to choose from, one might be scenic while the other is quicker. We have no idea if there is a problem with either choice; there may be an accident or any kind of delay. We don’t always know what the consequences of any decision might be.

One class of decisions is especially important: moral choices. If someone insults us will we hit back or seek a peaceful reply? Frequently we respond to such a situation in the spur of the moment without considering what might happen, but this is precisely when careful thoughts are essential. We have to consider what affect each choice will have on our soul’s soil. That is vital. Choosing what to wear will probably not damage our soul soil but a moral choice will have an impact.

When we are making moral choices we are guided by our indwelling spark of God, our Thought Adjuster, acting gently on our superconsciousness. The mortal has to make the decision to follow the guidance of the Adjuster, or not. (1216.3)

Cooperating with our Adjuster is not a master-slave relationship; it is a true partnership. They are our wise advisor. This advisor cannot run the show for us; we must choose which aspects to follow and which to reject. (1217.3) We might ask how to know exactly what your Adjuster is recommending, but that is exactly the point; if the Adjuster shouted “DO THIS!” that would be compulsion not cooperation. When you honestly listen for guidance, you KNOW how to choose.

And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification…. What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity. (1216.6) Our soul’s soil is enriched by our spiritual desires.

What we are becoming is the direct result of our choices. Our mortal free will, more accurately called spiritual free will, makes choices that will have a profound effect on what our mind is like, and what it is becoming day by day.

Our choices determine the nature of our eternal future, or lack thereof. We enhance our mental soil by the choices we make.

The Captain

Mind is your ship, the Adjuster is your pilot, the human will is captain. (1217.4) The first thing to notice about this quotation is that our body, our physical mechanism, is not even considered; that is because our mind and our moral choices are more important than our physical mechanism which is susceptible to the ravages of time while our soul is not. Elsewhere, The Urantia Book compares our body to a building built by our mind with guidance from our Adjuster. (483.12) Our mind has some control over our body and influences what it becomes. Guided by our human will, our mind is where things happen; the captain gives an order and the ship, our mind, responds.

The captain, our human will, must have control over the ship, our mind; this is where the real action is: the captain gaining control over the ship. The human will has to have control. It is the mind that ultimately fashions and maintains the body. Our pilot is guiding our captain who gives orders so the mind goes safely through the troubled waters of life. The captain has to trust the pilot when making moral choices in difficult times.

With your consent, this faithful pilot will safely carry you across the barriers of time and the handicaps of space to the very source of the divine mind and on beyond, even to the Paradise Father of Adjusters. (1217.4)

  1. All references are to The Urantia Book one column version in the format page.paragraph. ↑

Meaning of the Cross

God’s Wonders

Click on photo for information about it.

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 Book covering 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.

  1. Bible: Isaiah 14,12 – King James version ↑

  2. When complete each system will have about 1,000 inhabited planets; we are number 606 in our system ↑

  3. Unless otherwise noted all references are to The Urantia Book in the format page.paragraph for the one column version. ↑

  4. Bible: Luke 23, 34 ↑

Human Body as Physical Mechanism

Reaching Upward

Click on Photo for information about it.

Our physical body is the most visible component of our being, but there is much more to us than meets the eye. Our physical body is constantly making demands on our consciousness; it is impossible to fully ignore its incessant calls. Because of this we have difficulty believing there is anything non-physical about us. However, the fact that our mind can explore our physical being is a hint that mind is somewhat beyond the physical; a purely physical entity could not comprehend self-examination. We look at our hand and understand its usefulness as a unit, we understand its purpose. And so our body has a purpose: to create and nurture a soul having the potential of existing into all future eternity.

We discuss a new way of considering the human body. The most common understanding of our physical self is that the body is all there is to our being. The Urantia Book presents a widely different description. The human body is a physical mechanism utilized by our indwelling spark of God (our Thought Adjuster) and our God given personality to produce and nurture our potentially eternal self: our soul. The growth of the soul comes about by means of our free will decisions; if they are in harmony with God’s will our soul grows, otherwise it stagnates. We are assisted by our guardian angels, the Spirit of Truth, the Adjutant Mind Spirits, and other spirit entities.

Body

Our total being has several components. The first of these is naturally our body which is the material or physical organism of man. The living electrochemical mechanism of animal nature and origin. (8.7)[1] Next is our mind which is discussed briefly in the next section. Then there is the spirit, the spark of God dwelling within each of us. Finally there is our soul which comes into being and grows by means of our spiritual free will decisions. During life in the flesh our soul is in an embryonic state. (744.8) But this not all; there is also our personality given to us by God. Each personality is unique; it defines us as a specific entity. The personality permeates all of our being and our actions; unifying everything we do. (1225.7)

Mortal man is a machine, a living mechanism; his roots are truly in the physical world of energy. Many human reactions are mechanical in nature; much of life is machinelike. But man, a mechanism, is much more than a machine; he is mind endowed and spirit indwelt…. (1301.7)

Our body is our physical reality but is not our total being. Our society has discounted spiritual reality for centuries at its peril; the time has come for citizens of Earth to realize we must base our existence on our Heavenly Father, His love and guidance.

On a material world you think of a body as having a spirit, but we regard the spirit as having a body. The material eyes are truly the windows of the spirit-born soul. The spirit is the architect, the mind is the builder, the body is the material building. (483.12)

Time to examine the builder.

Mind

It is in the mind where we make decisions, explore our surroundings, make plans, and choose to do God’s will (or otherwise). The nature of our mind defines who we are and who we wish to become. In the mind our free will choices have the greatest effect; it is here that our choice to seek eternal life by following the God-given guidance that each mortal receives has its beginning and is nurtured, resulting in a growing awareness of our Heavenly Father. In a way the mind acts as a bridge between our current physical existence and our future spirit experience.

This discussion is based mainly on “Mind Arena of Choice” starting at 1216.2.

Material mind is the arena in which human personalities live, are self-conscious, make decisions, choose God or forsake him, eternalize or destroy themselves. (1216.4)

Our mind is a precious resource, we would do well to exercise it and guide it into productive channels. Too often we pursue frivolous thoughts, excess gratification, or selfishness. Our mind is the gateway into a wider reality if we are sincerely seeking to find God and become more like Him by choosing to do His will at each opportunity.

Our entire life is lived primarily within our mind. We think, react, yearn, and plan within our mind. Also, when we interact with sisters and brothers we get a glimpse of what their mind is like by observing their speech and actions. Our mind is certainly the core of our consciousness; it is where we make decisions that may have a significant bearing on our possibility of life eternal.

And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification. (1216.6)

In the final analysis, we become what we wish to become. Be careful what you wish for. If we are reaching out for God we have the possibility of actually communicating with the God fragment within, our personal Thought Adjuster; if instead we are reaching for something less, we attain something less. If we have life eternal as our goal there may be no end to our growth.

Mind is your ship, the Adjuster is your pilot, the human will is captain. The master of the mortal vessel should have the wisdom to trust the divine pilot to guide the ascending soul into the morontia harbors of eternal survival. (1217.4)

Our mind is the ship carrying our total being and is where we live, breathe, and have our awareness. The mortal will is the controlling factor where the mind gives orders to the rest of the ship. The captain of the ship must be aware of dangers and protect the ship from them. In troublous waters it is vital to have someone who knows the dangers and how to avoid them. Our Thought Adjuster is the best pilot available, but the captain (our mind, our free will choices) has to learn how to listen to and follow the guidance of the pilot. This knowing of God’s will grows as we get a feel of the process; the more we honestly follow His will, the easier it becomes the next time.

Unaided mind is impotent to influence anything material save its own physical mechanism, with which it is inescapably linked. (1222.4)

This opens the possibility of our mind having some influence over our physical mechanism; this topic is also discussed elsewhere in The Urantia Book. (1275.5) That is a topic for another day.

Physical Mechanism

A mechanism is a system of parts working together to form a collective unit. Therefore, a physical mechanism is something physical which contains many parts that all work together forming one unit; in this case our mortal body, our physical reality. It is truly remarkable how well our various components (generally) work together; the human body is a well-designed mechanism. The way all these parts work together makes it unthinkable it came into being by happenstance. We generally think of a machine when considering a mechanism but everything in our body does work together exactly like a mechanism.

For example: Adam lived for 530 years; he died of what might be termed old age. His physical mechanism simply wore out…. (852.4) His body, his physical mechanism, stopped working.

And again, when Machiventa Melchizedek was present on Earth with a physical body, he terminated his mission after ninety-four years because had he remained for any long period on earth, his physical mechanism would have gradually deteriorated. (1015.6) That is what happens to our bodies after a certain length of time; they wear out. The same thing happens to our mechanical mechanisms; our cars, trucks, and such wear out.

Considering our body as being a physical mechanism emphasizes that it is only a physical component of our being, it does not take into consideration our nonphysical mind, nor our indwelling spark of God, our Thought Adjuster; it also does not include our personality.

While we cannot say our body is insignificant, we certainly can say our physical mechanism is not all there is to anybody.

  1. All references are to The Urantia Book in the format page.paragraph for the one column edition. ↑

Thank You, Spring

Spring is Busting Out

This Easter season we give thanks for sisters and brothers following these postings; we briefly list and summarize the most popular blog postings and Talking Points pages on UBLightofTruth.com. We include a recent study of so-called near death experiences. There have been hits on the website from 22 different nations just this year. The most popular blog posting is from February 2021 and it still receives a lot of hits. This spring day we recognize there are indeed rays of hope signaling a better future for planet Earth; we give thanks.

Blog Postings

Interestingly, the two most popular blog postings are from February 2021. In first place is “Urantia: Caligastia’s Prison World” which has over five times as many hits as the second place entry; it continues to receive hits every month.

It examines why our fallen Planetary Prince Caligastia is allowed to remain on Earth even after being defeated by Jesus. The following three paragraphs are quoted from that blog.

We find no one specific reference detailing why Caligastia remains free to roam over Urantia; however, there are clear indications why this is the case. Caligastia deliberately introduced sin to our planet;[1] when this happens there are consequences both to the being who introduced the sin and those who received the sin, all mortal inhabitants of Urantia. These consequences need to be investigated and understood.

When rebellion is introduced into any system all those affected must choose between universe government and rebellion. Unlike mortals of 200,000 years ago, today we have widespread communication; practically speaking, most of us get the news and are aware of good things or bad things happening all around. Even those who are isolated from society or in a remote wilderness must make decisions based on what is best for the world they know. Each of us has to make that moral choice, declare where we stand between good and evil.

It is “creature free will” that determines when the replacement Planetary Prince will arrive on Urantia. We the inhabitants of Earth must decide where we stand, with Michael or with Lucifer and Caligastia. Only when this has taken place will the communication lines to the rest of creation open and our Vicegerent Planetary Prince, Machiventa Melchizedek, take over the government of our native sphere.

“Christian Nationalism;” is the second most popular posting and close behind it is “Living the Teachings” from September 2021.

Talking points

In “Talking Points” the most popular is “Death Becomes Graduation” which has over 50% more hits than the second most popular page. This topic is especially pertinent in these times of COVID and societal unease. Following is a summary of this page.

Death is not the end; it can be the gateway into our eternal future. Life eternal is freely given to everybody who asks for it. All we need do is to follow God’s guidance, of Truth} choose to do His will.

After physical death the memory of our earthly life resides with our internal spark of God (known as our Thought Adjuster or adjuster) while the soul is placed in the custody of our guardian angel. After the adjuster and the soul are reunited in the resurrection halls we will awaken ready to continue our journey toward Paradise and God.[2] At this point we will no longer be physical, but we are not yet true spirit beings.

There are three kinds of death. One is intellectual death, which happens when the brain is damaged so much that the mind cannot function. In this case the Thought Adjuster departs while the life energies of the body continue. Depending on the choice of the individual, the adjuster will later return for the resurrection of that individual after physical death. In any case the physical body may continue to function.[3] Our society calls this brain dead.

The second is physical death, where our physical apparatus, the body, ceases to function, and we depart this earthly sphere.

The final type of death is soul death, which is final. When the individual has made a final decision to deny God, reject eternal life and universe reality, then the adjuster departs never to return. This is the final death from which there can be no resurrection and it comes as a consequence of the individual totally rejecting our Heavenly Father, rejecting spiritual reality.[4] Soul death may come either before or after physical death. In either case there can be no resurrection.

Realizing this, death now becomes our valediction time when we graduate from this preschool we call Earth into a wider reality, even cosmic reality. To paraphrase the poet Robert Burns: “we will be from a world of woe relieved and arise renewed in heaven.”

A recent article gives the results of a study analyzing so-called near death experiences;[5] we will soon post a revised version of “Death Becomes Graduation” incorporating these findings. You will be notified when this is posted.

Recalled experiences surrounding death happen more frequently today because of improved medical technology. These experiences have a uniform theme which can be summarized as follows. (a) Separation from the body with an expanded sense of consciousness and an awareness of death. (b) There is travel to a destination. (c) A meaningful review of life. (d) Feeling of being “home.” (e) There is a return to life. These findings are in full agreement with teachings in The Urantia Book.

In the Talking Points pages “Consequences of Rebellion” is in second place, and “Epochal Revelations” is in third place.

National Distribution

While we cannot track individuals, we are able to identify the country of origin for visitors to this website. The number of countries represented in site visits shows The Urantia Book is truly a global phenomenon. So far this year (early April) the site has had hits from 22 countries. These nations are grouped as: North America 3, South America 1, Caribbean 2, Europe 7, Island Nations 2, Asia 3, and Africa 4. That is a nice representation of planet Earth.

SPRING!

In honor of the new season we recognize the growth of a new spring; trilliums and other flowers are in blossom, Goldfinches mostly have their summer colors, life is being renewed. We certainly know there are very bad things going on all over our planet, but the changes associated with spring declare there is hope for a better future for our sisters, brothers and native planet.

The Talking Points page “Rays of Hope’ lists some of the global reasons for hope; this page has been getting more hits recently.

We thank you for following this website and we look forward to hearing from each of you with comments or suggestions; keep in touch.

  1. 1660.5, unless otherwise noted, all references are to the one column edition of The Urantia Book in the format page.paragraph ↑

  2. 1230.3 ↑

  3. 1230.1 ↑

  4. 1229.9 ↑

  5. https://neurosciencenews.com/perception-near-death-20335/ Retrieved 4/9/22 ↑

Ukraine: Global Failure

 

Warbling for Peace

Click on photo for information about it.

Current events on planet Earth cry out for peace; there are many problem areas, but foremost is the devastation being inflicted upon Ukraine by invading Russian forces. Given our present world order, probably not much can be done short of negotiation or a much wider war. To save our planet from destruction by this war or some future war, we need a peaceful solution to international armed aggression; we need some global apparatus to prevent such mindless destruction. We need Earth Federation.

Any global system where one nation feels able, even compelled, to invade another, bomb its buildings and murder men, women, and children needs to be radically revised. Our present world order has been built up gradually over time; it is merely a consequence of history. We must carefully design and implement a fair and equitable global system, one that promotes peace and brotherhood, before our native planet becomes uninhabitable because of manmade disasters.

Ukraine

News outlets bombard us with information about the war in Ukraine, there is no need to add to it here; for example, BBC has a page with the latest news from Ukraine.

The driving force for the invasion of Ukraine is that Vladimir Putin in Russia wants to recreate the Soviet Empire and Ukraine is the keystone of this enterprise. There is no telling how far he is willing to go in order to realize his goal and there appears to be no reasonable end game.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been able to do something that no other leader of a country under siege has been able to do in the history of warfare. Using video hookups he addressed 10 parliaments in two weeks including Canada, the United States, Israel, European Union, and Japan. His voice is a powerful plea for freedom; his speeches receive standing ovations everywhere.

That being said, naked aggression by Russia in Ukraine is not the problem; it is rather the symptom of a deeper problem.

Failure of National Sovereignty

War on Urantia will never end so long as nations cling to the illusive notions of unlimited national sovereignty. There are only two levels of relative sovereignty on an inhabited world: the spiritual free will of the individual mortal and the collective sovereignty of mankind as a whole. (1487.9)[1]

When we see photos of our native sphere from space we see no national boundaries, we see no arbitrary lines on the land. There is only one Earth, one people. Seeing photographs of our planet from space emphasizes the truth that the only valid forms of sovereignty are that of the individual mortal and that of the planet as a whole. Everything in between is invalid.

This war in Ukraine is proof positive of the failure of national sovereignty. Even if the fiction of national sovereignty were valid within the borders of a national entity, that would not give any nation permission to invade another sovereign nation unless actively provoked. In this case, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has no legitimacy whatsoever.

You cannot prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with the delusional virus of national sovereignty. Internationalism is a step in the right direction. An international police force will prevent many minor wars, but it will not be effective in preventing major wars, conflicts between the great military governments of earth. (1489.1)

The United Nations is a good example of internationalism and it has had some effect on minimizing small wars, but it is powerless when a major nation such as Russia is involved. As long as nations are “infected with the delusional virus of national sovereignty” there will be wars. There is no getting around this truth: humankind would rather fight than seek peaceful solutions. We absolutely need peace seekers.

How many international bodies such as the League of Nations and the United Nations will it take before we realize they cannot be effective; now many global wars will be necessary to make our society realize war is not the answer to anything; war brings only pain, suffering and unnecessary death. (1490.3) We need Earth Federation.

Earth Federation

Another world war will teach the so-called sovereign nations to form some sort of federation, thus creating the machinery for preventing small wars, wars between the lesser nations. But global wars will go on until the government of mankind is created. Global sovereignty will prevent global wars — nothing else can. (Emphasis added) (1490.7)

There are examples where groups have surrendered sovereignty to a larger group. One is the United States of America; each state has surrendered their individual sovereignty to the national government. Each state has its own laws that are based on the national constitution while international relations are dealt with by the national government. Another example is Great Britain; England, Ireland and Scotland fought many wars before they united. It is vital for the future of Earth that such an arrangement be realized on a global scale.

There is a proposal for a government of all mankind, the Earth Federation. This effort has been growing for decades; the 15th Session of the Provisional World Parliament was held online last December; there is a Constitution for the Federation of Earth. This constitution has been approved and amended by the Parliament; it is a well thought out document detailing a parliamentary form of government for planet Earth.

“The principles at the heart of the Earth Federation Movement are the most fundamental principles of ethical and political thought…. The conceptual foundations of the Earth Constitution, upon which our work is based, involve only the most fundamental and universal of principles, principles necessary for coherent, integrated, and consistent thought regarding the human condition at the dawn of the 21st century.“[2]

The World Parliament has three houses: House of Peoples, House of Counselors, and House of Nations. Membership in the first is based on population (similar to our House of Representatives), the second is made up of scholars chosen by colleges and universities, while in the third each nation is represented equally (similar to our Senate).

Under Earth Federation, nations of Earth are grouped into five Continental Divisions.: one for the four major continents and Oceania, which includes the rest. The chief executive consists of five members, one from each Continental Division, who serve for five years. Each member is president for one year but all decisions must be unanimous. There will be no President of Earth.

The political sovereignty of representative mankind government will bring lasting peace on earth, and the spiritual brotherhood of man will forever insure good will among all men. And there is no other way whereby peace on earth and good will among men can be realized. (1491.7)

Bringing Earth Federation into full implementation will be a long, painful, and difficult process; there is however, no other way to realize PEACE ON EARTH.

  1. All references are to The Urantia Book, unless otherwise noted, in the format page.paragrah for the one column version. ↑

  2. http://worldparliament-gov.org/earth-federation/earth-federation-movement-foundational-principles/ Retrieved 3/28/22 ↑