Tag: Angels

Troublous Times

In this posting, we briefly discuss two quotations from The Urantia Book, both of which apply to these times. The first says our society is moving out of the sheltered bays of tradition into seas of destiny. The other looks at a troubling forecast by Jesus which may indicate workings of the Most Highs as they guide political evolution;[1] that the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of mortals is also mentioned in the Bible.

Urantia society can never hope to settle down as in past ages. The social ship has steamed out of the sheltered bays of established tradition and has begun its cruise upon the high seas of evolutionary destiny; and the soul of man, as never before in the world’s history, needs carefully to scrutinize its charts of morality and painstakingly to observe the compass of religious guidance. (Urantia Book, 1086.6)

These seas of destiny will not be smooth like the sheltered bays of tradition we have resided in these many years. While the bays were enjoyable, such tranquility rarely causes human mortals to struggle and improve themselves. The vast majority of humanity would rather sit underneath a palm tree with a jolly beverage than move out and transform society. The urge to instigate societal transformation necessarily requires some sort of motivation, a “slap in the face” to get things moving.

Human beings need a firm moral foundation for these uncertain times; we must follow our compass of religious guidance. Only when we base our lives on living truths taught by Jesus will we be able to sail safely upon these seas of destiny.

Whatever the source of this pandemic, it is our slap in the face, a wakeup call saying we must make our native planet safe for everyone; we are all in this together. There is no safe space where we can hide to avoid this virus, to escape this mandate to move out and make this world of ours safe for every living creature. Many governments all over the world are failing in their efforts to deal with this health and economic calamity. In addition, there is no sovereign Earth government to regulate dealings between nations.

On these seas of evolutionary destiny we will encounter methods to utilize in guiding society toward recognizing spiritual reality, and basing society upon it; if this does not happen society will collapse because any society not based upon spiritual reality cannot endure.[2] Study any previous society in our history; all of them failed because they were not based on spiritual reality; God.

On the morning of his last free day on Earth, Jesus taught a group of believers, disciples, and the apostles near their camp in Gethsemane. This presentation, which lasted almost two hours, was about the relationship between the Kingdom of Heaven and kingdoms on Earth. He emphasized believers should follow laws of earthly kingdoms as well as adhere to spiritual directives such as the Golden Rule. The only exception was when earthly rulers should require homage given to them; years later, Peter was crucified in Rome because he refused to worship Caesar. This discourse by Jesus is summarized in The Urantia Book, Paper 178, “Last Day at the Camp,” section one, “Discourse on Sonship and Citizenship.”

One paragraph in this address[3] is especially relevant to our current situation. Each sentence will be considered separately. When Jesus speaks about “you” he is speaking to each individual as well as the collective body of Kingdom believers.

Under the soon-coming persecutions by those who hate this gospel of joy and liberty, you will thrive and the kingdom will prosper.

After Jesus ascended, his followers were indeed persecuted by those resisting these new teachings; those having religious and political authority were afraid of losing positions of influence, power, and their very livelihood. They were more interested in material considerations of self-preservation than understanding and accepting these new spiritual teachings of joy and liberty. In spite of this resistance, the Kingdom of Heaven did indeed thrive, prosper, and grow.

But you will stand in grave danger in subsequent times when most men will speak well of kingdom believers and many in high places nominally accept the gospel of the heavenly kingdom.

As the centuries passed, modified teachings of Jesus spread even farther, eventually covering most of the Earth; many nations and their leaders appeared to accept these teachings. Nominal Christianity was, and still is, one of the most prominent religions on our planet. However, this apparent acceptance shielded an underlying insincerity; this reception of the teachings was superficial and incomplete. The transformed message of Jesus did not generally bring about a fundamental spiritual renewal in individual believers; they did not truly manifest fruits of the spirit in their lives. Because of this artificiality, grave danger was lurking unseen.

Learn to be faithful to the kingdom even in times of peace and prosperity.

Being faithful to the kingdom means not only incorporating these truths into our daily lives, but also sharing them with sisters and brothers, contributing to growth of the kingdom. Believers need to be focused at all times on spiritual reality, upon values of the kingdom; this is especially true when things appear to be easy, when everything seems to be going well. During these idyllic times we are vulnerable to unforeseen events suddenly overwhelming us, catching us unprepared, obliterating our complacency, and bringing calamity upon us.

Tempt not the angels of your supervision to lead you in troublous ways as a loving discipline designed to save your ease-drifting souls.

This is the kicker to the entire paragraph. When spiritual reality has been ignored for a considerable length of time, there comes a moment when the tipping point is reached, when the system can tolerate no more abuse, and misfortune follows. We do not need to know how or upon whose orders these “angels of our supervision” operate. If we ignore our spiritual potential and become complacent, the angels watching over us may lead us into “troublous ways” in an effort to guide us into more spiritually productive efforts. These angels may be our individual guardian angels, and for society they would be the angels of progress or the angels of the churches. Their directions would come from the Most Highs.

What does this mean for our current situation? Our society has become mired in secularism for so long our Heavenly Father seems to be of minor importance. God has been marginalized and forgotten, to our peril. Therefore, our guiding angels may be directed to lead us into difficult times in an effort to help us become somewhat aware of spiritual reality and our obligation to humanity.

The way to make the best use of these opportunities is to examine our faith, becoming certain it is sincere. Next we need to accept the new covenant, a sincere commitment to follow God’s guidance knowing we will be assisted. We must choose to do His will at all times; if we are honest we will know how to proceed. Finally we must recognize our own light of truth and go forth sharing these teachings of love, joy, and service.

These times try our souls and force us to seek new ways of living. These times can transform society so every living soul becomes treasured, loved, nurtured, and assisted so they can become productive members of global society with global government.

These seas of destiny will become extremely rough and last far longer than we can imagine, but they are necessary to bring about an equitable society for each individual citizen, a citizen of the cosmos.

  1. All references are to The Urantia Book one column edition and refer to page.paragraph, 1488.2 ↑

  2. 2075.12 ↑

  3. 1931.1 ↑

Heavenly Family

Heavenly House

Today we talk about two new Talking Points pages: Heavenly Family and Spiritual Guidance. Jesus wanted to promote the idea of a Heavenly Family but the Jewish people in his time were expecting the Messiah to appear and institute the Kingdom of Heaven and free them from Roman rule. Earthly kingdoms ruled by a king are no longer relevant in our society. We also briefly discuss the various ways in which we are spiritually guided.

In the time of Jesus, the relationship between the individual and God was described in terms of the kingdom of heaven because in those days there were real kings, the Jewish people in fact lived in the Roman Empire. The Jewish people were impatiently expecting the messiah to establish the kingdom of God that would free them from Roman rule.[1] They were eagerly expecting the kingdom of God to be established; therefore they would accept nothing else. The concept of a kingdom of heaven has lost its relevancy for our world; our description of a relationship with God needs to be revised for current reality.

Jesus wanted to substitute the concept of the heavenly family for the kingdom idea but he did not succeed.[2] The idea that the messiah would come to deliver Israel from its oppressors and begin the kingdom of God on Earth was strong; the concept of a heavenly family did not catch on because it was too advanced for that time.

Jesus wanted to represent the relationship between the individual and God as a family relationship because, for Jesus, the family was the most important aspect of life. He certainly exemplified this in his personal life, especially when he masterfully guided his earthly family after the death of Joseph. This period of dedicated service to his family is a shining example of a loving father watching over his family. People need to know the true Jesus and that the way he lived was a living demonstration of his teachings.

The primary purpose of the bestowal of Jesus to our planet was to portray to us, and the rest of his creation, the nature of our Heavenly Father. In his family life, Jesus certainly personified the earthly father who is a companion to the children and who is dedicatedly loyal to all of them. Jesus was loyal to such an extent he stayed in jail with his younger brother Jude for more than a day until the case against Jude could be settled.[3] The entire life of Jesus was a portrayal of the loyalty of God to His children. For companionship, God is actually present within us; He is certainly a part of us, guiding and teaching us; our Heavenly Father is the most intimate companion any mortal can have.

It is time for a restatement of the teachings of Jesus, our creator father and our earthly brother. The key element of this restatement is family. Everyone has been part of a family. Some families are more nurturing for their children than others it is true, but we all have some sort of family experience. What could be more natural as a simile for our relationship with God than family?

Every family needs to function as a united whole; when any part of a family separates itself from the rest of the family there is pain for the entire family. For everyone and anyone, the path of happiness is connection with all our sisters and brothers while the path of sorrow is separation and isolation.[4] The Heavenly Family needs to be a united whole with everyone working for the betterment of everyone else. This might seem to be a lofty goal, but remember our Heavenly Father is assisting us at each step along the way.

The masses truly need to know about the life of Jesus; they need to know how his life was a prefect reflection of his teachings; they need to know the immanence of our Father is a vital part of our being. God is with us and invites each one of us into the Heavenly Family. Within the spiritual realm of this family we find harmony, we attain a greater appreciation of our Father, and we better understand our sisters and brothers. Our Heavenly Family should be the foundation of our spiritual life, the wellspring of our faith and the vehicle for our manifesting the fruits of the spirit in our daily lives.

Even though we have no conscious awareness of it, we are always surrounded by spiritual assistance. While there are many spirit beings and forces impinging upon us, we will discuss only three: the spark of God dwelling within each of us, the Spirit of Truth, and our Guardian Angels.

Every mortal with a normal mind living on this planet has as a part of their being an actual fragment of God, called our Thought Adjuster, or Monitor; this is also discussed in the God Within page. God is therefore infinite, can be everywhere, and yet at the same instant actually dwells within each of us; He is both within us and outside us guiding us toward His presence. We need not go any farther than our inner experience to find God and commune with Him.[5] The presence of our Heavenly Father within each mortal is also mentioned in the Bible.[6]

After the Last Supper, Jesus addressed the apostles, telling them about the Spirit of Truth he would soon bestow upon the world; he said he would leave with them one who would teach them truth and comfort them, the Spirit of Truth.[7] He told them he could be with each of them at the same time; he would not leave them (or us) without guidance and he would be with them, teaching them.[8]

This spirit guide is exactly like Jesus except for the material body and will live with each of us. Jesus tells us: in this very manner will my Father and I be able to live in the souls of each one of you and also in the hearts of all other men who love us and make that love real in their experiences by loving one another, even as I am now loving you. (Urantia Book 1949.1) He lives in us as the Spirit of Truth just as the Father lives in us by means of the Thought Adjuster. Each of us has powerful spirit guides dwelling with us and they will certainly show us the way if we let them.

We are familiar with the Spirit of Truth since it is mentioned in the Bible where it is called the Holy Spirit.[9] It powerfully activated the apostles at Pentecost, especially Peter.[10]

Our guardian angels assist us in our earthly life, they are the traditional angels of heaven that we are familiar with from the Bible.[11] They have real forms but do not have physical bodies and they do not have wings.[12] Other than this they are very much like us, in fact we were created just a little bit lower than them.[13] Angels have been on this planet since the appearance of intelligent life.

Every person has a guardian angel to watch over them but the number of mortals each angel oversees varies according to the spiritual progress each person has made. At first each angel has oversight over one thousand mortals; as individuals make spiritual progress this ratio changes, decreasing to one hundred, then to ten. Finally persons who have made the most spiritual progress each have a personal guardian angel; actually there are two of them because they always work in pairs.[14]

These guardian angels act according to the directions of their supervisors rather than upon our direct requests; they have orders independent of whatever our passing fancy might be. Our choices may make their work on our behalf easier or more difficult but they do not necessarily respond to our prayers. Any response to prayer comes from God and He may use beings other than our guardian angels to answer our prayers. Guardian angels actually do guard us but they will not interfere with any of our free will choices; our free will decisions are held sacred by all higher beings. When we do make such a free will decision, our angels will do everything possible to help us make the best use of our chosen course.[15] If it is a worthy decision they will help us all they can, if on the other hand it is not, they might work with us to assist us to see the better way, arrive at a better choice.

Contrary to what our physical senses tell us, we are not alone in a friendless world. We are guided, guarded and protected by loving spirit guides. We hinder their work when we engage in selfish materialistic activity, when we put ourself ahead of our sisters and brothers, when we trample on the rights of those beaten down by society, and when we ignore spiritual reality. We must go forth with the certain knowledge of God’s guidance in our lives. Although there may be momentary setbacks, our Heavenly Father is with us and when we trust in this truth we cannot fail.

  1. All references are to The Urantia Book unless otherwise stated. The number refers to the single column version in the format page.paragraph; 1500.2 and 1501.1 ↑

  2. 1860.6-7 ↑

  3. 1415.6 ↑

  4. “The Book of Joy – Lasting Happiness in a Changing World,” His Holiness the Dali Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams, Avery, New York, 2016, p 99 ↑

  5. 62.1 ↑

  6. Bible, I Corinthians 3, 16 ↑

  7. 1947.2 ↑

  8. 1948.2 ↑

  9. Bible, Acts chapter 2 ↑

  10. 2060.2 ↑

  11. 1241.2 and Bible, John 20:12 ↑

  12. 1246.1 ↑

  13. 1248.3 ↑

  14. 1242.2-3 ↑

  15. 1246.2-3 ↑