Urantia

Urantia apparently means earth, but here it refers to the Book of Urantia, sometimes called The Urantia Papers. It is a document that is said to be authored by celestial beings as a special revelation to our planet, Urantia. (Earth’s name of old, they say.)

The Book of Urantia was first published by the Urantia Foundation in 1955. IT is said to be a deeply religious book, and it is about Jesus...it even has a plan of salvation for mankind much like the Bible does but while the Book of Urantia mimics the Bible, and even talks of the savior Jesus and his teachings, it is quite different from it in essentials.

For example, compare the essentials of salvation... as per the Book of
Urantia with that of the scripture that has been handed down through the ages:
Urantia reads:
John asked Jesus, "Master, what is the kingdom of heaven?" And Jesus answered: "The kingdom of heaven consists in these three essentials: first, recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God;second, belief in the truth of sonship with God; and third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God -- to be like God. And this is the good news of the gospel: that by faith every mortal may have all these essentials of salvation." [1585:7]

The Bible reveals:
Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled, but Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts, Chapter 16)

It was a young psychiatrist named William S. Sadler from Chicago who is most named as responsible for the publishing of the Book of Urantia. He is named as only one person, a singled out member of a huge part of something considered the Urantia Book Movement. According to wikkipedia and the Urantia website, over 400 people were involved in it at the time of it's beginnings, but most of these remain anonymous, however, Sadler gets the fame.

Sadler, (despit the name) is described as a happy man, and is said to have been very knowledgeable about the Bible, even said to have graduated from the famous Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, andthis with "the highest grades in the history of the school." In regards to Sadler, Wikipedia says that he "was a well-known skeptic of psychic phenomena and devoted a substantial amount of his time to exposing the proponents of the paranormal as frauds and charlatans and writing numerous books on the topic," which is interesting for a man who deviates from the Bible in order to work on promoting the book of Urantia, a book supposedly written by celestial beings.

Replacing the Bible with the Book of Urantia as some new revelation, Unrantia literature is very emphatic in stating that it “does not advocate a new organized religion." Instead they believe the Urantia viewpoint “builds upon the religious heritage of the past and present, encouraging a personal, living religion based on faith and service to one's fellows.” It should be easy to see that Urantia is not "Christianity" at all since is does not mention faith in Jesus or serving God... but if it is not.. then what exactly is it? They claim this is it not "a new organized religion" and that the book of Urantia is the book of truth;" but is it?

The book iteslef tells it's readers that Urantia will give the reader a “new picture of Jesus Christ," and that it will "quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world." So is it a new religious organization, or isn't it? Who will decide? And who is telling the truth?

Quoting the Unrantia book as if it were the Holy Bible itself, using chapter and verse, the Urantia foundation says a lot of things... inall 2097 or so pages of the Book. Baptism, illumination and salvatio... even Jesus, Urantia has it all. Not only that, it would appear to be written with Christians in mind. Amidst all this "awesome," "new" revelation, the Unrantia Foundation claims, “The time is ripe to witness the figurative resurrection of the human Jesus from his burial tomb amidst the theological traditions and the religious dogmas of nineteen centuries."

What exactly is a "figurative resurrection?" And exactly how does witness something that is only figurative?

You really have to wonder.

Apparently these people do not realize that Jesus is risen from the dead already. Is it possible that the Chicago based Moody Bible Institute's highest-scoring-graduate, (Sadler) missed something in his Christian education? After all, in Christian terms, Christ is risen... and it wasn't figurative either. The tomb was empty! Christians believe in the ressurection of Christ and they believe that Jesus, heir of earth, is God in the flesh and though he was crucified that day at Calvary upon a cross and died, he was laid in a tomb but now is risen and because he is risen they will be raised too.

There is nothing "figurative" about it.

Of course the "new" revelation has mass appeal, after all it also teaches that their particular Urantia brand of “spirit-born souls” (those who get this baptism, illumination and salvation through the Urantia spiritual teachings) will “quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world." They will al be "leaders." According to Urantia wisdom, "Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings...who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men." [19,5:9-4]

How interesting... Keep in mind this is not the real historical, biblical Jesus.. this is a new Jesus, one with the special Urantia mindset. The old Jesus has been rejected, in fact he is not even resurrected yet... and when he does, it will be only "figurative."

Urantians say two major "blunders" of Christianity are: 1. Christians "connect the gospel teaching directly onto the Jewish theology" (Urantia teaching there is no atonement of Christ for you, and 2. Christians "organize the Christian teaching so completely about the person of Jesus. (149:2.2)

They also say that "Jesus is never satisfied with mere forgiveness." This is because in their ideaology, there is no such thing as being sealed for redemption, and there is no real salvation. The best one can hope for is eternal rehabilitation. (See: Urantia 188:5.2)

According to the Bible Salvation is a free gift from God, one that you recieve when you put your trust in what Jesus did an an atoning sacrifice for sin. According to Urantia's teachings, salvation and forgiveness for sin is not necessary and if you think it's necessary they will tellyou that forgiveness from God is not enough to be right with God, which is simply not the truth. What these Urantian people say, (Jesusonioan tthey call themselves,) is very different from the Bible.

Stripped of all the religious fluff, you find Urantia is what the apostle Paul would call, "another gospel." (One which really is no gospel at all!) Denying the real JEsus CHrist, it teaches that your only hope is in yourself (and of course your eternal rehab situation.) They deny that God is faithful to his promises, faithful to his Word, even to the point of saying "mere forgiveness is not enough."

These witings are not from God, nor do they claim to be. Instead they have come from unrevealed, unnamed " superhuman "personalities and the means by which the papers materialized was unique and unknown to any living person. Dr. Meredith J. Sprunger, writing for Urantia at their website even says, "claim of authority is not a valid philosophical criterion of truth....Whether supermortals or human beings wrote the book, it must be evaluated by its content, not by who may have written it."

The Bible on the other hand, reveals who wrote and said what... and it is written by men... iwho were moved to write it by divine inspiration, nspired by a true a living God who's word they followed and heard. Unlike Urantia, the Bible has stood the test of time and it will stand forever. After all, it is "not by bread alone" that man shall live, and God... is true and faithful.