Gospel depths
Our April 7, 2001, session at The School of Meanings and Values will focus on the following questions. Please review them now and begin thinking about your responses.
1. If the gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man has such simplicity, why could Jesus take four hours teaching it to one person and three weeks to clarify it for the apostles?
2. What is the import of the way the terms fact and truth are used in the following passages?
"The Master made it clear that the kingdom of heaven must begin with, and be centered in, the dual concept of the truth of the fatherhood of God and the correlated fact of the brotherhood of man" (1859.11)
"The gospel of the kingdom is: the fact of the fatherhood of God, coupled with the resultant truth of the sonship-brotherhood of men" (2059.4).
3. How can we grow in experiencing the fatherhood of God on the level of truth?
4. What did Jesus mean by the fatherhood of God?
5. What did Jesus' mean by the brotherhood of man?
6. How can we grow in experiencing the brotherhood of man on the level of truth?
7. How are themes of truth, beauty, and goodness woven together in Jesus' diverse expressions of the gospel?
8. What is a gospel?
9. How shall we express the gospel today?
10. Why did Jesus try to avoid the gospel message being changed into a message about himself?
Depths in Jesus' Gospel of the Family of God
Before we address the assigned questions--and added issues you may raise--let us remember to seek and to sustain spiritual unity. We do not need to strive or compete in quest of intellectual uniformity. Among many passages on this theme, I would highlight three:
"Each of the apostolic teachers taught his own view of the gospel of the kingdom. They made no effort to teach just alike; there was no standardized or dogmatic formulation of theologic doctrines. Though they all taught the same truth, each apostle presented his own personal interpretation of the Master's teaching. And Jesus upheld this presentation of the diversity of personal experience in the things of the kingdom, unfailingly harmonizing and co-ordinating these many and divergent views of the gospel at his weekly question hours. (1658.1)
"Many times during the training of the twelve Jesus reverted to this theme. Repeatedly he told them it was not his desire that those who believed in him should become dogmatized and standardized in accordance with the religious interpretations of even good men. Again and again he warned his apostles against the formulation of creeds and the establishment of traditions as a means of guiding and controlling believers in the gospel of the kingdom." (1592.2)
"If my children are one as we are one, and if they love one another as I have loved them, all men will then believe that I came forth from you and be willing to receive the revelation of truth and glory which I have made."(1964.3)
1. If the gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man has such simplicity, why could Jesus take an hour or a few hours teaching it to one person and three weeks (1617) to clarify it for the apostles?
"It is just because the gospel of Jesus was so many-sided that within a few centuries students of the records of his teachings became divided up into so many cults and sects. This pitiful subdivision of Christian believers results from failure to discern in the Master's manifold teachings the divine oneness of his matchless life." (1866.3)
"And then the Master, turning to all of them, said: "Be not dismayed that you fail to grasp the full meaning of the gospel. You are but finite, mortal men, and that which I have taught you is infinite, divine, and eternal." (1961.4)
Perhaps the gospel, in its simplicity and complexity, is like God:
"God can pass from simplicity to complexity, from identity to variation, from quiescence to motion, from infinity to finitude, from the divine to the human, and from unity to duality and triunity." (58.7)
2. What is the import of the way the terms fact and truth are used in the following passages?
"The Master made it clear that the kingdom of heaven must begin with, and be centered in, the dual concept of the truth of the fatherhood of God and the correlated fact of the brotherhood of man" (1859.11)
"The gospel of the kingdom is: the fact of the fatherhood of God, coupled with the resultant truth of the sonship-brotherhood of men" (2059.4).
"Knowledge is the sphere of the material or fact-discerning mind. Truth is the domain of the spiritually endowed intellect that is conscious of knowing God. Knowledge is demonstrable; truth is experienced. Knowledge is a possession of the mind; truth an experience of the soul, the progressing self. Knowledge is a function of the nonspiritual level; truth is a phase of the mind-spirit level of the universes. The eye of the material mind perceives a world of factual knowledge; the eye of the spiritualized intellect discerns a world of true values. These two views, synchronized and harmonized, reveal the world of reality, wherein wisdom interprets the phenomena of the universe in terms of progressive personal experience." (1435.2, from Jesus' restated discourse on reality)
"Divine truth is a spirit-discerned and living reality. Truth exists only on high spiritual levels of the realization of divinity and the consciousness of communion with God. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty of its enlightenment in the mind, but you cannot imprison truth in formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct. When you undertake the human formulation of divine truth, it speedily dies. The post-mortem salvage of imprisoned truth, even at best, can eventuate only in the realization of a peculiar form of intellectualized glorified wisdom. Static truth is dead truth, and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind. (1949.4)
(Grasping the fatherhood of God or the brotherhood of man on the level of fact means for the mind to have a stable grasp of a reliable teaching. The theme can root in the heart and be appreciated on higher levels of meaning and value in due season.)
3. How can we grow in experiencing the fatherhood of God on the level of truth?
(a) Ask for it in the attitude of prayer.
"Jesus never gave his apostles a systematic lesson concerning the personality and attributes of the Father in heaven. He never asked men to believe in his Father; he took it for granted they did. Jesus never belittled himself by offering arguments in proof of the reality of the Father. His teaching regarding the Father all centered in the declaration that he and the Father are one; that he who has seen the Son has seen the Father; that the Father, like the Son, knows all things; that only the Son really knows the Father, and he to whom the Son will reveal him; that he who knows the Son knows also the Father; and that the Father sent him into the world to reveal their combined natures and to show forth their conjoint work." (1855.3).
(b) Ascend from prayer, quiet listening for the response, and thanksgiving, to worship.
"Prayer is self-reminding--sublime thinking; worship is self-forgetting--superthinking. Worship is effortless attention, true and ideal soul rest, a form of restful spiritual exertion.
"Worship is the act of a part identifying itself with the Whole; the finite with the Infinite; the son with the Father; time in the act of striking step with eternity. Worship is the act of the son's personal communion with the divine Father, the assumption of refreshing, creative, fraternal, and romantic attitudes by the human soul-spirit. (1616.9-10)
(c) Practice relating to God as our father.
"1. The fact of existence. The relationships of nature and the phenomena of mortal likenesses are bound up in the family: Children inherit certain parental traits. The children take origin in the parents; personality existence depends on the act of the parent. The relationship of father and child is inherent in all nature and pervades all living existences.
"2. Security and pleasure. True fathers take great pleasure in providing for the needs of their children. Many fathers are not content with supplying the mere wants of their children but enjoy making provision for their pleasures also.
"3. Education and training. Wise fathers carefully plan for the education and adequate training of their sons and daughters. When young they are prepared for the greater responsibilities of later life.
"4. Discipline and restraint. Farseeing fathers also make provision for the necessary discipline, guidance, correction, and sometimes restraint of their young and immature offspring.
"5. Companionship and loyalty. The affectionate father holds intimate and loving intercourse with his children. Always is his ear open to their petitions; he is ever ready to share their hardships and assist them over their difficulties. The father is supremely interested in the progressive welfare of his progeny.
"6. Love and mercy. A compassionate father is freely forgiving; fathers do not hold vengeful memories against their children. Fathers are not like judges, enemies, or creditors. Real families are built upon tolerance, patience, and forgiveness.
"7. Provision for the future. Temporal fathers like to leave an inheritance for their sons. The family continues from one generation to another. Death only ends one generation to mark the beginning of another. Death terminates an individual life but not necessarily the family." (1604.1-7)
4. What did Jesus mean by the fatherhood of God?
To clarify the answer to this question is very helpful for the ongoing conversation with feminist theology, so influential in universities and many seminaries, especially in North America. The following thoughts briefly summarize some of the leading themes. To the Jewish achievement of the realization of the unity of God, Jesus added a revelation of the personality of God. The Creator of the universe and the Controller and Upholder of history, is the father, not merely of the people, but of the individual. As father, he is experienceable. Note that the teaching of the indwelling spirit often comes to mean, in practical terms, that we can experience God. The fatherhood of God implies that God is close and that we can experience our Father. The implied contrast was with the concept of God as king, not the concept of God as mother.
"In preaching the gospel of the kingdom, you are simply teaching friendship with God. And this fellowship will appeal alike to men and women in that both will find that which most truly satisfies their characteristic longings and ideals." (1766.5)
A divine revelation of Personality--a mystery--is beyond our comprehension. We can be grateful for it, live joyously in it, pass it along to others, but we cannot fully comprehend it. It is a concept--with a truth or value level dimension--not just an idea.
It is not only a metaphor predicated on the human experience of the father, but a revelation of primal, cosmic relationships (cf. 1856.6, where God is presented as "the Father of all the children of men, a divine Father of the individual believer").
"The Master went on to explain to John how a child is wholly dependent on his parents and the associated home life for all his early concepts of everything intellectual, social, moral, and even spiritual since the family represents to the young child all that he can first know of either human or divine relationships. The child must derive his first impressions of the universe from the mother's care; he is wholly dependent on the earthly father for his first ideas of the heavenly Father." (1922.3)
5. What did Jesus' mean by the brotherhood of man?
(a) The brotherhood of all humankind.
"Simon Zelotes asked, "But Master, are all men the sons of God?" And Jesus answered, "Yes, Simon, all men are the sons of God, and that is the good news you are going to proclaim" (1585.5; cf. 1649,3; 1681.L; 2067.1; 2064.3).
(b) The brotherhood of the faith-sons and -daughters of God.
"Then said Jesus to Pilate: "Do you not perceive that my kingdom is not of this world? If my kingdom were of this world, surely would my disciples fight that I should not be delivered into the hands of the Jews. My presence here before you in these bonds is sufficient to show all men that my kingdom is a spiritual dominion, even the brotherhood of men who, through faith and by love, have become the sons of God. And this salvation is for the gentile as well as for the Jew." (1991.3; cf. 1460.6; 1541.4; 1596.5; 1598.L; 1601.2-4; 1603.0; 1865.1; 1957.2; 1958.1; 2053.0; 2085.3).
Why did Jesus use such a key term with multiple meanings? Consider his use of the term "kingdom of heaven": "Wherefore must we always examine the Master's teaching to ascertain which of these five phases he may have reference to when he makes use of the term kingdom of heaven. By this process of gradually changing man's will and thus affecting human decisions, Michael and his associates are likewise gradually but certainly changing the entire course of human evolution, social and otherwise." (1863.5) If we speak, artistically moving between one meaning and another--consider the relations between the meanings!--we are following a method of bringing hearers into the dynamic relations of truth. The phases of the kingdom Jesus noted in this context were:
"1. The personal and inward experience of the spiritual life of the fellowship of the individual believer with God the Father.
"2. The enlarging brotherhood of gospel believers, the social aspects of the enhanced morals and quickened ethics resulting from the righn of God's spirit in the hearts of individual believers.
"3. The supermortal brotherhood of invisible spiritual beings which prevails on earth and in heaven, the superhuman kingdom of God.
"4. The prospect of the more perfect fulfillment of the will of God, the advance toward the dawn of a new social order in connection with Improved spiritual living--the next age of man.
"5. The kingdom in its fullness, the future spiritual age of light and life on earth." (1862-63)
Thus we can speak today of the universal family with various meanings in mind.
6. How can we grow in experiencing the brotherhood of man on the level of truth?
(a) Learn to love individuals.
(b) Reason from the actuals and potentials you have discovered in your own relationship with God to the actuals and potentials that must be in the other, too.
"You become conscious of man as your creature brother because you are already conscious of God as your Creator Father. Fatherhood is the relationship out of which we reason ourselves into the recognition of brotherhood. And Fatherhood becomes, or may become, a universe reality to all moral creatures because the Father has himself bestowed personality upon all such beings and has encircuited them within the grasp of the universal personality circuit. We worship God, first, because he is, then, because he is in us, and last, because we are in him." (196.10)
(c) Practice the golden rule in its many-leveled fullness (1650-51).
(d) Meditate on the teachings of brotherhood. Each person is a created, indwelt, evolutionary, free-will moral son or daughter of God!
7. How are themes of truth, beauty, and goodness woven together in Jesus' diverse expressions of the gospel?
The gospel is primarily a proclamation of truth--"news." Truth is the value governing inquiry, thinking, and realization. Even beyond the basic message of the family of God, truth themes predominate; for example, after the epochal sermon, Jesus proclaimed "the higher and more spiritual phases of the new gospel of the kingdom--divine sonship, spiritual liberty, and eternal salvation" (1705.5; note: divine sonship doesn't mean that the individual believer is divine, only that divinity (the "unifying, and co-ordinating quality of Deity" [3]) characterizes the relationship between the creature child and the Creator parent.). But when truth is realized on the spirit level, its beauty is felt. And the summit of truth is the realization of the loving relationships in the family of God. If you are not experiencing the beauty of truth, you have not reached the spiritual level of the realization of truth. You are on the level more of fact than truth.
Beauty is the school of feeling, and love is closely associated with feeling. A "finite human being can actually feel--literally experience--the full and undiminished impact of such an infinite Father's LOVE" (50.4). When we find gospel expressions highlighting joy or supreme desire, the beauty dimension of the gospel is becoming explicit.
Goodness is the norm governing doing. Goodness themes in the gospel highlight activities in which we participate in divine goodness. Although the gospel is not a commandment, the truth of the family of God is presupposed in the commands of love for God and the neighbor. Talk of doing the Father's will, and of worship and service can express the gospel in terms of activities. As such, these gospel expressions touch on the realm of goodness.
"Love is the ancestor of all spiritual goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful." (2047).
"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.'" (1585.7-86.0)
Notice the clear relation of fact, truth, and the goodness theme here:
"Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I lived a God-revealing life among you; on the truth that you and all other men are the sons of God; and it shall consist in the life which you will live among men--the actual and living experience of loving men and serving them, even as I have loved and served you." (2043.1)
To move fluently and spontaneously in your own gospel expressions, you must grow to experience the integrated dimensions of truth, beauty, and goodness that are being proclaimed.
In contrast with John, though Jesus also called hearers to repentance, "such a message was always followed by the gospel, the good tidings of the joy and liberty of the new kingdom" (1509.2). The theme of liberty implies being set free to do good and to live in goodness.
Jesus put the gospel this way: "the supreme desire to do the Father's will coupled with the supreme joy of the faith realization of sonship with God" (1931.2). "I have freely proclaimed the gospel of salvation to this people; I have told them of sonship with joy, liberty, and life more abundant in the spirit" (1902.4). "Sonship with God, by faith, is still the saving truth of the gospel of the kingdom. You are to go forth preaching the love of God and the service of man. That which the world needs most to know is: Men are the sons of God, and through faith they can actually realize, and daily experience, this ennobling truth. (2052.4)
8. What is a gospel?
A gospel expresses the essential core of spiritual truth most appropriate to a group of hearers.
"Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which redeemed man from the superstition that he was a child of the devil and elevated him to the dignity of a faith son of God. Jesus' message, as he preached it and lived it in his day, was an effective solvent for man's spiritual difficulties in that day of its statement. And now that he has personally left the world, he sends in his place his Spirit of Truth, who is designed to live in man and, for each new generation, to restate the Jesus message so that every new group of mortals to appear upon the face of the earth shall have a new and up-to-date version of the gospel, just such personal enlightenment and group guidance as will prove to be an effective solvent for man's ever-new and varied spiritual difficulties." (2060.6)
We need thus to ask what spiritual difficulties our hearers are facing and facilitate the Spirit of Truth's expressing the gospel appropriately.
It is worth noting that a gospel of some sort functions on many universe levels.
"Step by step, life by life, world by world, the ascendant career has been mastered, and the goal of Deity has been attained. Survival is complete in perfection, and perfection is replete in the supremacy of divinity. Time is lost in eternity; space is swallowed up in worshipful identity and harmony with the Universal Father. The broadcasts of Havona flash forth the space reports of glory, the good news that in very truth the conscientious creatures of animal nature and material origin have, through evolutionary ascension, become in reality and eternally the perfected sons of God." (295.3)
The gospel of the evangels of destiny (388.9) gospel highlights spiritual liberty and divine sonship. The seraphic evangels (552-53) are "dedicated to the proclamation of the gospel of eternal progression, the triumph of perfection attainment." They teach "the conservation and dominance of goodness" and counsel human teachers of truth to emphasize the goodness of God and the love of God. They proclaim perfection attainment for the system as well as the individual. And we receive a sample gospel proclamation addressed to us in the superb message of a Mighty Messenger (448).
We are told of the sequence of epochal revelations to this planet (1007#4), each of which proclaimed the Fatherhood of God. The gospel of Hap's college of revealed religion worked patiently on mortal tendencies to conform to custom and to fear diverse forces of the natural and spiritual realms (747.4-6; 749.4). Adam and Eve were unable to proceed normally with the proclamation of the brotherhood of man and had to begin with the simplest forms of religious belief (839.4). Melchizedek emphasized salvation by faith in the one God (1017; 1052.1; 28.8).
9. How shall we express the gospel today?
(a) Choose a name for God that represents your relationship with the God whom you have discovered (22-23).
(b) Study Jesus gospel not only with your mind but with your life.
(c) Work to understand those around you and discover their spiritual difficulties.
(d) Contemplate how facets of gospel truth minister to those spiritual difficulties and seek to facilitate the Spirit of Truth's expression of the gospel.
(e) When your life with the Father is brimming and your love for your fellows is abundant, then your thoughts, words, and deeds can be channeled effectively in gospel proclamation. You don't have to force the staying and hearing of certain key phrases. The verbal expression will come spontaneously when the thought is full of truth and the deeds of service are in gear.
"The well-meant efforts of Jesus' early followers to restate his teachings so as to make them the more acceptable to certain nations, races, and religions, only resulted in making such teachings the less acceptable to all other nations, races, and religions." (1670.2)
"These material-minded sons in darkness will never know of your spiritual light of truth unless you draw very near them with that unselfish social service which is the natural outgrowth of the bearing of the fruits of the spirit in the life experience of each individual believer." (1930.1)
10. Why did Jesus try to avoid the gospel message being changed into a message about himself?
Wise teaching follows a sequence of priorities.
"When you enter the kingdom, you are reborn. You cannot teach the deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh; first see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple. Introduce men to God and as the sons of God before you discourse on the doctrines of the fatherhood of God and the sonship of men. Do not strive with men--always be patient. It is not your kingdom; you are only ambassadors. Simply go forth proclaiming: This is the kingdom of heaven--God is your Father and you are his sons, and this good news, if you wholeheartedly believe it, is your eternal salvation." (1592.6-93.0)
The gospel has a broad appeal that is compromised if you reverse the proper sequence in revelation. Many problems in our planet's history result from disregarding this wisdom.
"You may preach a religion about Jesus, but, perforce, you must live the religion of Jesus" (2091.10).
What implications does this wisdom have for those of us who want to introduce others to The Urantia Book? Clearly, like Peter and Paul, we can gain some impressive results by inverting the divine order. If students of The Urantia Book discipline ourselves to follow the Master we profess to love, in devotion to the revelation we aspire to serve, then we will heed these teachings, even as we pursue diverse projects for planetary uplift.
Depths in Jesus' Gospel: Edited Transcription of a Lecture
by Jeffrey Wattles for The School of Meanings and Values
April 7, 2001
Welcome. I’m Dianne Bishop. I’m the President of the School of Meanings and Values. What you’re about to see is a presentation of the School given in Encino, Ca. on April 7, 2001. Our purpose in sponsoring this presentation is to share with those who are seeking a deeper understanding of the Urantia Book teachings and to integrate those teachings into their lives. Your purchase of this tape is a very big help to us in pursuing our goal. The School of Meanings and Values appreciates very much your help in this and hopes you enjoy the video.
Dianne Bishop
Welcome to our next speaker. This is a very exciting time for us at the School to have such incredibly distinguished people come all the way out here to meet with us and to speak with you. And we welcome all of you. I want to introduce you to Jeffrey Wattles. Jeffrey was born in 1945 in Chicago, and he received his B.A. from Stanford and his M.A. and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Northwestern University. Guess what? He teaches philosophy at Kent State University and he is in demand as a guest preacher. He lives with his Japanese wife, Hagiko, and his 15-year-old son, Ben, in Stow, Ohio. He plays the guitar, and he loves the outdoors and ice skating. What a combination! His topic today ”Depths in Jesus’ Gospel” is a welcome one. It is a foundation for so many things, anyway. So he’ll be exploring the gospel as the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, which is much more than a slogan. Welcome!
Jeffrey Wattles
A kindergarten teacher was doing an art experience with her students, and these young ones, 5 years, 6 years old, were drawing. The teacher would go around from one to the next, looking over their shoulder, and seeing what was being drawn. At one student she stepped over and asked, “What is it you’re drawing?” The young girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The teacher said, “Well, no one knows what God looks like.” And without looking up and without missing a beat, the young girl said, “They will in a minute.”
And so they know what God looks like by looking at you and you and you and you.
Let’s take a moment of silence together to appreciate the fact and the truth that each one of you, near and far, is a divinely created, spiritually indwelt, evolutionary, free-will son or daughter of the living God. . . .
Thank you very much!
I am very grateful to the School of Meanings and Values for the terrific opportunity to be here addressing you on what has been my favorite topic for 30 years–Jesus’ gospel.
In the philosophy of living as I understand it, there’s a move back and forth between the rich and wise simplicity of spiritual truth and the sometimes complex paths of thoroughness in the expression of spiritual truth.
We’re going to be looking at this passage that I’ll read through with you:
When you enter the kingdom you are reborn. You cannot teach the deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh. First see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple. Introduce men to God and as the sons of God before you discourse on the doctrines of the fatherhood of God and the sonship of men. Do not strive with men always be patient. It is not your kingdom; you are only ambassadors. Simply—“
This is my emphasis at the moment:
“Simply go forth proclaiming: This is the kingdom of heaven: God is your father and you are his sons, and this good news if you wholeheartedly believe it is your eternal salvation.” [1592-93]
We all know how simple it is, and I am convinced that the depths contained in that simple simplicity are greater than I will be able to encompass in a lifetime of seeking and striving and probing. The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man has such richness! Day by day there are new meanings and values that the progressive individual finds in his or her quest.
Awakening to Diverse Projects
Let me situate what the book calls the gospel movement. Three times the phrase is used: “the gospel movement.” We’re told that Judas deserted it. We’re told that its early cradle was Jerusalem. We’re told that the enemies of Jesus thought they could stamp it out by doing what they did to Jesus and intimidating people. The fact that this phrase is repeated three times--“the gospel movement”--suggests to me that there is something important there that we should continue to think about today. Let me offer you some context for thinking about this gospel movement.
The Urantia Book gives the seeds of a school of thinking, a school of feeling, and a school of doing. After this life when we go on to what’s next for us, we will be enrolled in a school of thinking, a school of feeling, and a school of doing. Each of these phases of our education is provided for in the depths of Jesus’ gospel, and much of what I have to offer you today is just an expansion on this thought.
First I’m going to look at the school of doing. I’m going to look at the projects that the authors of these inexpressibly wonderful papers highlight.
First of all, I want to note the Deities’ divine perfection plan on page 85. First of all is the Father’s plan, the Father’s plan of progressive attainment, highlighting the themes of evolutionary ascension and the bestowal of the Thought Adjusters. Those themes are crucial to the Father’s plan of perfection attainment. That is the overarching project, the project of projects. It embraces everything, from page 21 when they begin to talk about how it is that the supreme ambition of every God knowing person is to become like God as God is in his Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy . . . to when at the end on page 2097 they talk about the great challenge to modern man to develop better communion with the Thought Adjuster. These are just two of many, many ways in which this overarching project of ascension and spiritual growth and coordination with the larger universe is expressed to us. In so many ways this is the overarching project and every other more, in some sense, limited project that we could undertake, doesn’t truly get off the ground unless it’s anchored in this universal project.
The next part of the Deities’ perfection plan is the Eternal Son’s bestowal plan--“the Son revealing the Father and rehabilitating that which misguided creature will has placed in spiritual jeopardy.” Now this revelation of the Father, the bestowal plan, is what we were privileged to receive on this planet when Michael of Nebadon came down to become Jesus of Nazareth and to do what? To launch the gospel movement, if I may put it that way.
The entirety of Part IV is devoted to it. In terms of number of pages is it a third, 700 pages, something like that? It’s an enormous chunk devoted to rehabilitating this gospel movement. It’s in some sense a more specific project, a more, in some sense, limited project. It’s an application, it’s a continuation, it’s an extension of the Father’s calling mortals to the perfection that’s implied in his creating us in his image.
The last plan is the plan of mercy ministry, and that’s the one carried out by the Infinite Spirit and the daughters of the Infinite Spirit. There are so many diverse projects that are highlighted in different areas of the book. So many people are called to work in social, economic, biological, political areas, areas that play very important roles in the development of what needs to take place in the next thousand years, in the next century, in the next decade, in the present year!
But there are a number of projects that are especially high leverage projects, high leverage, because we know that, in the logjam of planetary problems that we humankind have backed ourselves into, the leadership and teamwork required to transform this planet into the beautiful place that it appears to be from space and that we know it to be in our deepest moments of spiritual communion, it’s going to take a spiritual renaissance for that to happen.
And so when the authors highlight specific projects with high leverage for that spiritual renaissance, one of the first that they highlight is the Divine Counselor’s project proposal. The Divine Counselor makes a clarion call for volunteers when he says, “The religious challenge of this age is...” and so on (it’s on page 43). You’ve read it many times. It’s the project of constructing a new and appealing philosophy of living. Divine Counselor. Who’s he? The counsel of God is saying to us that some of the folks who are qualified to do so would do well to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living. And what’s that going to look like?
It’s a philosophy that culminates in love, a vision of love, an experience of love. In its simplicity, stated most succinctly, it’s all about love. But it’s a philosophy that’s based on the integrated and exquisite modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. That’s the tripartite, macro structure of this new philosophy of living. But then there’s another level of complexity that you get as you study page 43, and that is that these remarkable qualities of truth, beauty and goodness can be realized on material, intellectual and spiritual levels. And to some extent I’m going to be looking at Jesus’ gospel with you through the lens of this new philosophy of living. I’m going to be suggesting to you that there is leverage in interpreting Jesus’ gospel if we look at some of these, may I use the word “categories”? It’s a philosopher’s word. It sounds too stiff and dogmatic perhaps. How about concepts instead of categories? All right, so that’s one of the high-leverage projects that is emphasized.
And then there are many other great projects that the authors of the book discuss. I’ve already mentioned proclaiming the gospel to Christianity, to Hinduism, to Buddhism. All Urantia is waiting for this proclamation of the real gospel. You see that there are various expressions of it in different parts of the book. It’s probably more highlighted than any other project by far, other than the overarching project of getting with your Thought Adjuster and growing and ascending in this wonderful universe. But there is also the project of sharing this fifth epochal revelation. And there are a couple of lines where it says, “The great hope of Urantia is for a new revelation that will unite in loving service the numerous families of Jesus’ present day professed followers.” [2086] And, folks, let’s get ourselves unified first if we want to go try to unify others; and let us not have separations, and divisions in our heart between those who read the Urantia Book and other followers of Jesus who don’t. Oh, that spirit of unity is needed. I know in my heart I have to refresh that feeling over and over again when a little shadow flits across my heart as it does occasionally. So we’re learning that process.
These projects have different requirements, and if we understand the requirements of Jesus’ gospel movement, then we’ll trim our project in a certain way; we’ll focus our activities in a certain way. Certain things we will do, certain things we won’t do. Some things will be foreground, some things will be background. We ought not conflate and confuse and merge the projects together as if they’re just kind of one. No, the revelators speak to us in much more articulate ways if we will read and study and listen.
Ten Questions
I want to orient our work today with ten questions. I will read through them with you to let you begin to meditate on what we’re going to be focusing on during the time I am privileged to have with you this weekend.
1. If the gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man has such simplicity and can be stated so quickly why could Jesus take four hours teaching it to one person and three weeks to clarify it for the apostles?
2. What is the import of the way the terms fact and truth are used in the following passages? “The Master made it clear that the kingdom of heaven must begin with and be centered in the dual concept of the truth of the fatherhood of God and the correlated fact of the brotherhood of man.” That’s from page 1859, close to the bottom of the page. And the second passage is this: “The gospel of the kingdom is the fact of the fatherhood of God coupled with the resultant truth of the sonship-brotherhood of men.” That’s from 2059, paragraph four.
3. How can we grow in experiencing the fatherhood of God on the level of truth?” (1855.3; 1616; 1604)
4. What did Jesus mean by the fatherhood of God? (1856.5; 1766.5; 1922.3)
5. What did Jesus mean by the brotherhood of man? (1585.5; 1991.3; 1460.6)
6. How can we grow in experiencing the brotherhood of man on the level of truth? (1898; 196.10; 1650-51)
7. How are the themes of truth, beauty, and goodness woven together in Jesus’
diverse expressions of the gospel? (43; 50-4; 1509.2; 1585.86; 1705.5; 1902.4; 1931.2; 2947)
8. What is a gospel? (2060.6; 388.9; 552-53; 295.3)
9. How shall we express the gospel today? (22-23; 1670.2; 1930.1)
10. Why did Jesus try to avoid the gospel message being changed into a message about himself? (1592-93)
A Thought about Spiritual Unity
Before going further, a comment about spiritual unity.
Each of the apostolic teachers taught his own view of the gospel of the kingdom. They made no effort to teach just alike; there was no standardized or dogmatic formulation of theologic doctrines. They all taught the same truth. Each apostle presented his own personal interpretation of the Master’s teachings, and Jesus upheld this diversity of personal experience in the things of the kingdom, unfailingly harmonizing and coordinating these many and divergent views of the gospel at his weekly question hours. Many times during the training of the twelve, Jesus reverted to this theme. Repeatedly he told them, it was not his desire that those who believed in him should become dogmatized and standardized in the accordance with the religious interpretations of even good men. (1592)
In other words, you could have your outstanding teachers marching before you teaching wonderful things, but those outstanding teachers should not be permitted to function for you in a way that constructs dogma, so that you say: “Oh this is the way it is.” Teachers can function as a help, sure, but not more than just, you know, a help for today or maybe tomorrow. But let’s all keep going, and let’s all keep the freshness and the originality of the ever-new realization of truth going.
“If my children are one as we are one and if they love one another as I have loved them all men will then believe that I came forth from you,” Jesus prayed in Gethsamene, “and all men will be willing to receive the revelation of truth and glory which I have made.”
That tells you what’s at stake in striving for and sustaining spiritual unity and loving one another as Jesus loved us. Without that, who’s going to believe us? Who’s going to believe us? We know it.
Simplicity and Complexity in Jesus’ Gospel
There’s no hurry in getting through these questions. Let me first address the question about the simplicity and complexity of Jesus’ gospel. On the one hand it’s something Jesus could teach so quickly: “Simply go forth proclaiming God is your Father and you are his Sons and this truth if you wholeheartedly believe it is your eternal salvation.” Was that under ten seconds? I think it was.
How could it take an evening? How could it take weeks? I propose to you the following thoughts on the theme of simplicity and complexity, beginning on page 1866, paragraph 3. There’s a quote very close to my heart. It overlaps with the same theme that we’ve just been presenting.
It is just because the Gospel of Jesus was so many sided that within a few centuries students of the records of his teachings became divided up into so many cults and sects. This pitiful division of Christian believers results from failure to discern in the Master’s manifold teachings the divine oneness of His matchless life.
If we lose sight of the divine oneness of his matchless life then we’ll have these divisions, we get little boxes, and we get sects and conflict.
Next, from 1961, paragraph 4, we have the following very direct explanation of why it is the gospel is more than just a slogan about the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
And then the Master turning to all of them and said, "Be not dismayed that you fail to grasp the full meaning of the gospel; you are but finite mortal men and that which I have taught you is infinite, divine, and eternal.”
We can say it so quickly. Do we understand it so quickly? It’s unfathomable because it’s about personality and personality is a mystery.
Perhaps the gospel--and this is my third answer to you to the first question that I posed--perhaps the gospel in it’s simplicity and complexity is like God. Listen to this quotation from page 58.
God can pass from simplicity to complexity, from identity to variation, from quiescence to motion, from infinity to finitude, from the divine to the human, and from unity to duality and triunity.
And guess what? If we get to Paradise we can begin to understand that! Isn’t that worth a 200 billion year struggle! Isn’t it worth it to get there? Of course it is! And as we watch this gospel go back and forth from unity to complexity, we’re going to be seeing, “In the gospel of the Kingdom resides the mighty Spirit of Truth.” You think we’re just tossing around a phrase? Sometimes we do toss around a phrase. That’s when maybe it’s not so happy as other times. But moving from this thoroughness of work and complexity and depth back to the simplicity; learning how to go from the simplicity and complexity, back and forth, deepens our appreciation, qualifies us as a teacher, deepens our life and understanding so that we can shape that wonderful teaching as Jesus did, just suited to our hearer. The more we know of our hearer, the more God has been able to teach us as we’ve been in prayer for our hearer, the more we’ll be able to express through the depth of understanding, just the way, just the way to help that person have a real opportunity to see the evidentness of truth and say “Yes” to that truth.
Fact and Truth
Now, here’s my question. I went a little bit quickly over the first couple of introductory parts. The next one I want to spend a little bit more extensive time with you. What is the import of the way the terms “fact” and “truth” are used in the following passages?
There is your quotation. It’s from page 1859, and that’s in the paper where they’re commenting on how Jesus taught his gospel of the kingdom. They talk about different phases of the concept of the kingdom of heaven, and how Jesus would use language so creatively. He used the same phrase with different meanings at different times so as to “change the will.” Jesus and those who work with him, by this technique, are changing the will of their hearers and thereby bringing about this better world that we all long to help assist in.
The Master made it clear that the kingdom of heaven must begin with and be centered in the dual concept of the truth of the fatherhood of God and the correlated fact of the brotherhood of man.
The word “concept” is crucial here. The word “idea” is not a synonym for the word concept. A concept means what? There is the idea moment but there is also the spiritual component. There’s an intellectual and a spiritual dimension in what a concept is. And the greatest example that I have ever found in my life that illustrates what a concept is, we find on page 1373. And that’s where they talk about how Jesus for three years wrestled with a tough issue. On the one hand he was operating with the principle, “Be true to your highest convictions of truth and righteousness.” On the other hand he was working with the principle, “Honor your parents.” As long as you live under their supervision and guidance, you have some obligation to adjust yourself to their supervision and guidance. And he spent three years wrestling. It would have been easy to overthrow one side or the other side in that tension but he didn’t do it. He struggled making the daily adjustments. And what did he come up with at the conclusion of those three years? A concept. A concept of what? Of group solidarity. And what were the ingredients in that concept? Loyalty, tolerance, friendship and love. The ingredients in that concept were virtues. Those are the ingredients in a concept.
Now, you can acquire ideas as fast as you can turn those pages. A number of us read the book the first time in three months. Yes, you can read the book in three months. For some reason it took Jesus a little longer to acquire the concept of group solidarity. Why was that? It’s not because he was slow. It’s because he was forming a concept, not just getting an idea. We can get ourselves the idea by reading a single paragraph. The only way to acquire a concept is to go through whatever struggles of life there are between you and what you’re trying to learn.
So, so far we’ve commented on one word. So there are two sides that are brought together in a concept, the truth and fact side. Now, we can talk about truth on the spiritual level; and sometimes you’ll see in this book (on page 43), that you can have truth on the material level. We talk about the truths of science, truth on the intellectual level, truths of philosophy, truth on the spiritual level; the truths of spiritual experience. That’s the way this term is used expansively on page 43. But now look at a couple of other uses of the word truth. These uses help us understand the distinction between truth and fact. From page 1949, we have the following quotation:
Divine truth is a spirit discerned and living reality. Truth exists only on high spiritual levels of the realization of divinity and the consciousness of the communion of God. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth. You can experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty of its enlightenment in the mind but you cannot imprison the truth with formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct. When you undertake the human formulation of divine truth, it speedily dies. The post-mortem salvage of imprisoned truth, even at best, can eventuate only in the realization of a peculiar form of intellectualized glorified wisdom. Static truth is dead truth and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in a human life.
The next commentary on what it means to unite fact and truth draws a distinction between them. This is from 1435, Jesus’ restated Discourse on Reality.
Knowledge is the sphere of the material or fact-discerning mind. Truth is the domain of the spiritually endowed intellect that is conscious of knowing God. Knowledge is demonstrable; truth is experienced. Knowledge is a possession of the mind; truth an experience of the soul, the progressing self. Knowledge is a function of the non-spiritual level; truth is a phase of the spirit-mind level of the universes. The eye of the material mind perceives a world of factual knowledge; the eye of the spiritualized intellect discerns a world of true values. These two views synchronized and harmonized reveal the world of reality wherein wisdom interprets the phenomena of the universe in terms of progress ive personal experience.
Now, you will observe that these authors do not always use the same words with the same meanings, throughout the book. That is deliberate. If they always used the same words with the same meanings, do you know what that would do to our minds? It would turn us into dogmatists. We would know whenever that word comes up what that’s supposed to mean; and if someone used it differently, we would know how that should be used. So it would turn us into dogmatists. Ever so subtly they help our minds outgrow dogmatism by using these words in different ways. Now, the passage we’re trying to understand talks about the truth of the fatherhood of God and the correlated fact of the brotherhood of man. We’ve said enough I think, with the last two quotations, to have a sense of what truth means. It means, ohhhh, that sense of “The Father is with us!” We are conscious of that. We are aware of that. We are feeling that in our souls. When the mind is so filled with the glory of the wonder of the fatherhood of God, at that moment, the theme of the brotherhood of man, can’t--our minds are limited--can’t have the same level of spiritual vibrancy.
That second theme has a coordinate status, but somehow it’s on the level of fact for us. It’s the consequence of the fatherhood of God. We can remind ourselves, “Oh yes, I recognize that”; and how often in our life is our realization of the brotherhood of man on the level of fact! Oh, this is my brother; this is my sister. We say these things; we know we’re saying these things truly but we’re not at that moment, filled with the rejoicing of the realization “There’s my sister! There’s my brother!” There are times when the consciousness is full like that, and we’re experiencing the brotherhood of man, as it were, on the level of truth. At those moments the theme of the fatherhood of God is in the background. It’s, as it were, on the level of fact. But gospel consciousness, if I could use this term, always has these two moments in it; and if you are engaged in the authentic proclaiming of the gospel by thought and word and deed, then one of these themes will be on the truth level of your realization and the other will be right alongside it on the level of fact.
Now, we need to say a little bit more about the meaningfulness of the statement that--we talk about the correlated fact of the brotherhood of man. Here’s the associated quote, you’ve already heard it:
The gospel of the kingdom is the fact of the fatherhood of God coupled with the resultant truth of the sonship, brotherhood of man.
So, from this passage you get the idea very quickly that the roles can shift. One theme is realized on the level of truth, the other on the level of fact. It can shift back and forth. That’s the dynamism of this gospel. But if neither, if neither theme is on the level of truth realization for you, then you’ve got a phrase, then you’ve got a slogan, maybe the greatest slogan in the world, but you’re not doing the gospel! Something else is happening. See? Thank you for your receptivity. I feel like I can go home now, You’ve got it. Well, yes I can tell you a little bit more but, thank you, to me that has been so important to realize that, and it’s just by looking at little things, studying little things.
Now someone says, quite wisely, you know, be careful of the over-analysis of truth. You can overanalyze, you can parse and you can have pieces on the table, pieces all over the floor and miss it. I hope I’m not over analyzing, but, as a philosopher I’m a little bit in that business of pushing the envelope on that edge. So, you got to help me, let me know when I come to the over-analysis side because I know how easy it is to do.
What Is a Gospel?
I think what I’d like to do with you now is to raise the question. “What is a gospel?”
Well, everybody knows the quick answer. The quick answer is the gospel is that, the good news. The gospel is the good news. All right, once we say “good news” we know that we’re in the truth area. If you take the word “news” seriously it sounds like we’re on the fact side of truth, but when you talk about “good,” that brings in the value level of realization. So I wish to propose to you some reflections on the meaning of gospel. The gospel wasn’t just something that happened with Jesus. Of course, we know that Melchizedek had a gospel. There have been other great teachers who have brought gospels. But the gospel has a universe function.
There are a group of angels called the Evangels of Destiny. You can read about them on page 388, and they teach spiritual liberty and divine sonship. And there are the Seraphic Evangels about whom you can read on pages 552 and 53. And these Seraphic Evangels are “dedicated to the proclamation of the Gospel of eternal progression, the triumph of perfection attainment.” Now when you think for a moment about the function of the gospel and what it’s doing, it’s the essential spiritual core message that you need at your stage. And when we’re ascenders and when we’re enmeshed in the struggles of universe growth we’re going to need this assurance of eternal progression, the triumph of perfection attainment. And then what’s the good news after we’ve made it, so to speak, attained Paradise? On page 295 we read the following:
Step by step, life by life, world by world, the ascendant career has been mastered, and the goal of deity has been attained. Survival is complete in perfection and perfection is replete in the supremacy of divinity. Time is lost in eternity, space is swallowed up in worshipful identity and harmony with the Universal Father. The broadcasts of Havona flash forth the space reports of glory. The good news . . .
There’s a gospel even on that level, good news, the good news--
. . . that in very truth the conscientious creatures of animal nature and material origin have through evolutionary ascension become in reality and eternally the perfected sons of God.”
Let’s look at the function of a gospel, in our time and in Jesus’ time. This is from page 2060, and this passage is so important I have spent so much time in fruitful meditation upon this passage. I don’t know if I’m ever going to be done with it. But here it is. Please begin to quiver.
Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which redeemed man from the superstition that he was a child of the devil and elevated him to the dignity of a faith son of God. Jesus’ message as he preached it and lived it in his day was an effective solvent for man’s spiritual difficulties in that day of its statement. And now that he has personally left the world he sends in his Spirit of Truth, who is designed to live in man and for each generation to restate the Jesus message so that every new group of mortals to appear upon the face of the earth shall have a new and up-to-date version of the gospel, just such personal enlightenment and group guidance as will prove to be an effective solvent for man’s ever new and varied spiritual difficulties.
Are you about to just take off like a rocket? This is what the gospel is. Who formulates it? Now, I asked you a question to be thinking about. How shall we formulate the gospel for today? Sometimes I do this to my poor students. I ask them a question with a curve on it; and in order to answer the question well they have to fight the question. There’s an assumption in that question, and the assumption is that we’re in the business of formulating the gospel. What does it say here? Are we in the business of formulating the gospel? No. Who formulates the gospel? The Spirit of Truth formulates the gospel—each generation! Are you beginning to quiver all over again?
So what are we going to do? You know, I’d like to have the telephone hooked up so that I could hear with unmistakable clarity and distinctness what the gospel formulation is that the Spirit of Truth is giving for this generation to deal with its spiritual difficulties. But you know what? I don’t have a telephone to the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of Truth doesn’t tell me what I would dream of hearing in so many words. Probably the Spirit doesn’t tell me because I’d become a fanatic, and, boy, would I try to put that over as dogma with you! So they’re probably withholding from me what they won’t withhold from you!
Ok, so how are we going to go about finding what the Spirit of Truth is saying to this generation?
Polly Friedman
(from audience)
In the quote it says, “The Spirit of Truth lives in man,” so we look within ourselves is what I think.
Jeffrey Wattles
We look within. And if we don’t have exactly a telephone style of communication we get the revelation of truth and beauty and goodness adjusted as best we can. That’s a wonderful answer. There’s the answer with the core simplicity that goes right to the heart and everything else I had in mind to say is mere, bordering on meaningless complexity if it loses the spiritual core simplicity of what Polly just said. And I can always rely on others in a group to supply that which I was not about to supply.
But now there’s something else here. Of course we have The Urantia Book, which is emphasizing for--you know, say seventy years ago, for the 1930’s, the 1940’s. We’re told, really straight out, what the gospel is for that generation. And when you look at the difficulties that that generation was dealing with, it seems to me a lot of the difficulties that they’re dealing with are nationalism, warfare, inhumanity of folks to one another; and the basic message that heals that on a spiritual level and stimulates the outworking of it on a social level is the message of the brotherhood of man.
Do we still have those spiritual difficulties? Sure. Is that phase of the gospel still highly relevant? Of course, it’s still highly relevant. How you get it said, how you put the concept into words is another matter. Oftentimes, I actually do say such a thing as “the brotherhood of man,” and I find a great understanding and acceptance of that. More and more people are willing to hear the thing put just that way.
The fatherhood of God. Every single epochal revelation taught the fatherhood of God. In the good years of the Planetary Prince’s staff every--is that obsolete? No. We can give reasons why it is that the gospel as expressed in our beloved book here will still work today. And I don’t want to take anything away from that conclusion that we appeared to have reached. But I want to find something else in this quotation that I think can help us grow into the curve of attuning to what the Spirit is saying.
We can ceaselessly inquire what are the spiritual difficulties being faced by those with whom we’re interacting. That’s not a simple question. It’s not an obvious matter. Whenever I have the chance to talk with someone who is thick into spiritual work, I love to ask the question, “What do you think are the main spiritual difficulties that people are dealing with right now?” Or “What are the spiritual needs that are being ministered to by various religions on the planet today?” The more we understand and appreciate about the spiritual needs of others the more we’ll be able to be in tune with how it is that the Spirit of Truth is reaching those people. If you set forth a list of spiritual difficulties, and if you set forth the many-sided truths of the gospel, and you start to think of the pathways between this glorious gospel of Jesus and the spiritual difficulties being faced today; it is electric! The sparks just begin to fly out of the potential difference between this infinite reservoir of divine and eternal truth and these spiritual difficulties that we mortals are dealing with today.
Now this quotation talks about spiritual difficulties, and if you just talk about difficulties, you might think of all kinds of difficulties. You might think of biological, sociological, economic, political difficulties. When people identify some difficulties as bio-, socio-, psychological, political--that type of difficulty--ask, “Now what are the spiritual difficulties implicit in those material difficulties?” There is an inter-relation. So when you think about the difficulties a generation is dealing with, well, you’ll come up with a list, and some of them will strike you as spiritual difficulties.
What does this mean? Are these the difficulties that the Thought Adjuster has in trying to reach the mind of that mortal subject? Or are these the difficulties that the mortal mind has in reaching out for divine truth? Already you can see two different interpretations of this word “spiritual difficulties.” Again inter-related. And you start to see how from just a few sentences you could have workshops for days, working on the implications. And from that enhanced sense of the spiritual difficulties of the people with whom you interact you will be, I believe, far more attuned to how the Spirit of Truth is expressing the eternal gospel to the people with whom you interact.
What is a gospel? We started out with saying, “Oh-the gospel is the good news.” Where are we now? We’re looking at that, that dynamic, electric transmission, as eternal, infinite, and divine truth reaches out to the spiritual difficulties of a generation of mortals or whatever group or individual you happen to have the privilege of expressing truth to, and the more you’re sensitive to those needs and the more you’re alive to that truth, the more . . . you don’t have to formulate. If you fill your thoughts and words and deeds with that truth and those needs, it will naturally, spontaneously let itself be formulated, as it were, in your ministry of word and deed to that brother and sister; to those brothers and sisters.
What is a gospel? It functions on every universe level, giving a core spiritual message addressing the spiritual needs of the people that it’s reaching.
Beauty and Goodness Dimensions in the Gospel
This is from what Jesus says as presented on page 1931:
Remember that you are commissioned to preach this Gospel of the kingdom, the supreme desire to do the Father’s will, coupled with the supreme joy of the faith realization of sonship with God.
Let’s just stop right there for a moment. There’s a very interesting continuation. We’ll look at the continuation in a minute but let’s just stop right there. Please notice the flexibility and freedom of Jesus’ way of expressing the gospel. He’s not rigid. He doesn’t only always say or always only say something like “fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man,” however that might creatively be worded. Sometimes it’s not even precisely those themes to which he gives voice when he is expressing the gospel. So here we’re seeing some many-sidedness, and we want to learn from that many sidedness.
The theme of supreme desire and supreme joy is associated with the school of feeling. Feeling has to do with our supreme desire; feeling has to do with our supreme joy. Now, you study the book, you find that you can’t keep things in categories, you can’t put them in boxes. Boxes have their use, but things don’t stay put for long because they are intertwined. But to a very significant extent, I believe, there is an association between love and feeling and beauty and feeling. So I’m wanting to suggest to you that when Jesus is talking about our supreme joy and our supreme desire he’s expressing the gospel in terms of beauty. And we know the Spirit of Truth is also the spirit of idealistic beauty. There’s a beauty dimension to the gospel. One thing that I find most important to observe in the history of philosophy is the philosopher’s adventure into truth. And what I find is that curious people move into science; they don’t just occupy themselves with recognition, honest recognition of fact but they sharpen the knowledge of fact through science. And then people who are progressive thinkers keep thinking about the implied meanings involved there, and so they begin to develop philosophy. But very often that’s as far as it goes, and because they don’t rise to the level of the spiritual realization of truth; they don’t experience the beauty of truth.
Now, when truth comes to you initially it’s going to be an idea planted in the mind. As Jesus says the sower sows the word. Imagine the sower sowing the word. That word comes to the hearer in the mind. If the hearer lets that word root deep in the heart, if the hearer takes that to the level of intellectual meditation, at least turning it over in the mind, letting associated ideas begin to come into play, letting it sink in gradually, gradually, the joy of truth and the beauty of truth will dawn. But again, if we’re not experiencing the beauty of truth we’re not at the spiritual level. Because at the spiritual level the separation between truth and beauty and goodness practically blurs.
So truth fully realized is truth realized in beauty, and that’s the spiritual level. And what does Jesus say? He says “Love is the spiritual ancestor of all goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful.” What can that possibly mean? How can love be the essence of the true? This is how it works. Truth is a gift of the Creator revealing reality to the mind that the Creator has given us. We’re totally creature. Truth is a gift. Why are we here? Because he loved us. He wanted kids, lots of kids! So he gave us a mind that could realize the facts, the meanings, the values that we need to cope and ascend and grow, and that capacity to realize truth, and the truth that we are thus enabled to realize through the ministry of the daughters of the Infinite Spirit and so on. That’s an expression of love. Just to be able to have faith rather than anxiety when those moments of anxiety, just a shadow comes into the heart for a moment, and we can remember.“Faith? Oh yes, faith. There it is again. Ahh.” That’s a gift. That’s a gift of a loving God, and once we realize that our grasp of truth is a gift of love then we can understand why Jesus says that love is the essence of the true. And we’re given a beautiful planet. Isn’t it a beautiful planet despite what we keep trying to do to it. Ohhh, the 21st century; we’re quivering in a different sense about that. But it’s a beautiful planet, and the beauty of the creation is a gift to creature mind. Whenever we enjoy beauty--look at that garden out there. The lovely garden here at the the Holy Spirit Retreat Center, here in Encino, California, is a gift of love, a gift of the Sisters who have established this place, of the gardener who does it, of the Creator who gave us the capacity to work with the beauties of pre-worked nature and embellish and make something so lovely as a garden.
So when there’s talk about the supreme joy, when there’s talk about the love of God--and very often the gospel is expressed in terms of love or friendship--it’s a little reminder: “There’s a little message about feeling here. There’s something about beauty here.” That dimension is being a little bit more activated.
Let’s talk about this phrase, “the supreme desire to do the Father’s will.” That would be what? Would that be a truth emphasis, would that be a beauty emphasis, or would that be a goodness emphasis theme? When we talk about doing, when we talk about doing we’re in that area of life that’s governed by the value of goodness. When we’re thinking we’re in that realm of life governed by the value of truth. When we’re in the feeling dimension of life we’re in that realm governed by the value of beauty. When we’re in the doing area of life, the school of doing, the governing value is the value of goodness.
There’s a wonderful statement on page 1589. Jesus is teaching, this is very early in the proclamation of the kingdom. Jesus has gathered, trained, and ordained his twelve apostles, and they are going down to bring the message to Jerusalem. They are equipped, they are ready. The plan is not, “Oh, let’s just stay in the boonies for the rest of our time.” They are going to take the message to the place that most of all needs to have the message, because Jesus’ Plan A, as I interpret it, is that the religious leaders in Jerusalem should accept this new gospel of the kingdom, and then the whole synagogue network throughout the Roman world and beyond would be carrying this wonderful gospel. Now, we know that Plan A was unsuccessful because of lack of cooperation on the other end. And that’s our task to do a better job and rehabilitate Plan A insofar as we’re part of that project.
If you are going to count yourself a follower of Jesus, you can’t totally put aside the gospel proclamation as a project. You need to do a little bit at least. Your main projects may be somewhere else, but you should be ready as a believer to minister the gospel truth to those who come your way, and you should be at least a little bit active, whatever else you may primarily be called to do.
Looking at this goodness theme, there’s a very remarkable sentence or so at the top of page 1589.
When the Father’s will is your law, you are hardly in the kingdom but when the Father’s will becomes truly your will, then you are in very truth, in the kingdom, because the kingdom has thereby become an established experience in you. When God’s will is your law, you are noble slave subjects, but when you believe in this new gospel of divine sonship my Father’s will becomes your will, and you are elevated to the high position of the free children of God, liberated sons of the kingdom.
I want to emphasize here the union of this supreme desire to do the will of God with becoming a son of God in the full sense.
Higher Phases of the Gospel
As we know, Jesus had many phases of his gospel of the kingdom. Right after the epochal sermon and the Capernaum crisis, Jesus shifts into a higher and more spiritual phase in his teaching, and you get the higher phases of the gospel of the kingdom, named as such: “The higher and more spiritual phases of the new gospel of the kingdom are: divine sonship, spiritual liberty, and eternal salvation.” (1704)
Okay, what does divine sonship mean? I want to meditate with you for a minute on that. What does divine sonship mean? One answer that you might think of is that Jesus is a divine son of God, and that divine sonship is the theme. One passage tells that if you look at the gospel in it’s fullness it does include a note about the divine and human combined nature of Jesus. But even at the beginning of the public work you have a reference to a new gospel of divine sonship. New gospel of divine sonship. The Foreword defines divinity as the unifying, coordinating quality of Deity. And these values of truth and beauty and goodness are divinity doing it’s thing, so to speak. Does that mean that we are divine? Well, not exactly. It talks about divine sonship. Sonship is a relationship. It’s the relationship which is divine. When we get to the level of the supreme desire to do the will of God, then our relationship to God has got to that level which these authors are willing to call divine. It’s astounding, isn’t it?
And the Foreword teaches us that reality divides into the deified and the undeified, and then from a certain perspective there’s a whole bunch in the middle that’s not so easy to sort out. But you know the amazing thing about faith? Faith puts you from the non-deified side into the deified camp. As removed as we are from Deity, faith makes the difference.
Do you begin to feel more the import of the gospel movement? The gospel movement is about giving people the opportunity to move from the undeified side, where the center of gravity in your life is on the self and the material, to the deified side. And, you still have all these other tugs and you’re not perfect, and it’s going to take a long time. What an amazing transformation is achieved by faith and as you go out there with your thought, word, and deed of the gospel! What a cosmic opportunity you are presenting to this brother and this sister!
So the theme of divine sonship is very important here and you will also hear in this passage on 1589:
“When you believe in this new gospel of divine sonship . . .”
That’s what belief will do for you, and at this point they’re not interested in the difference between faith and belief; they’re not running that program here.
“. . . my Father’s will becomes your will, and you are elevated to the high position of free children of God, liberated sons of the kingdom.”
That’s the spiritual liberty phase. Before that what are you dealing with? You’re dealing with the feeling, “Uh, I really ought to do this. I have to, I have to go into duty consciousness mode to get myself over these hurdles, to get yourself up in the morning, whatever it might be. I know I have to do that.” Duty consciousness beats a lot of alternatives. It can win a lot of skirmishes. It doesn’t win any cosmic battles. I’m not knocking duty consciousness. “The exhilarating joy of high duty is the eclipsing emotion of spiritual beings,” we’re told around page 300.
But if we’re just on the level of duty consciousness then there’s some kind of fight going on between our inclinations. We feel like doing something else, but we know something else is where we ought to be. We’re not yet in that condition of liberated sons and daughters of God. But when our supreme desire is to do the will of God, to become like God, to express that Thought Adjuster within, to be one with that Adjuster, to do everything we have to do experientially to go through our circles, that’s when the liberty really starts to land on us. That’s the goodness phase of the gospel. It’s a very high phase, and all kinds of believers can really make a genuine great start with something much less. You don’t have to have achieved that level of the supreme desire to do the will of God to start out. It takes time for that to ripen.
The Fatherhood of God
Let’s probe this matter about the Father. “How can we grow in experiencing the fatherhood of God on the level of truth, and what did Jesus mean by the fatherhood of God?” As soon as I state the question I’m sure from everyone there could be a fountain of wonderful, wonderful answers to this question. You all know what it takes. You can say, just worship God. That’s where you can really experience the Father on the level of truth, on the level of value, on the spiritual level. So that’s got to be one of the great answers to the question. And as we grow and as we develop that worship will grow and grow.
Another very interesting answer that I’ve collected here is that you can just ask. Just ask for what you need. There’s a very remarkable statement which, fortunately, is included in the Bible.
“Jesus never gave his apostles a systematic lesson concerning the personality and attributes of the Father in heaven. He never asked men to believe in his Father he took for granted they did.”
This is from 1855.
Jesus never belittled himself by offering arguments in proof of the reality of the Father.
Philosophers need to hear about that.
His teaching regarding the Father all centered in the declaration that he and the Father are one, that he who has seen the Son has seen the Father, that the Father like the Son knows all things.
And this is what I’m emphasizing now:
That only the Son really knows the Father and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
I’ll just pause right there. “Only the Son really knows the Father and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” So there are times in our lives where our knowledge of our heavenly Father has come to a certain plateau; things are starting to get a little static. We’re starting to go to sleep a little bit on our awareness of God the Father. We can read the first few papers of the book, and, yes, but it’s not quite doing for us what it often does for us. At such a time we can pray to the Eternal Son, to our Michael Son, to Michael of Nebadon, Jesus of Nazareth, “Son reveal to us more of our Father.” It’s an amazing prayer.
You know the bestowal plan. It’s all about the Son’s revelation of the Father. There’s some prayers that take so long, it’s uncertain about their answer. Divine wisdom might segregate, modify, transform, delay the answer. But the bestowal plan is all about answering that question.
And the word “our” becomes so significant. God is my Father and your Father, where the word “you” can be “you” singular. Yes, and we each have our individual relationship. But it’s also so important that God is our Father; and it’s so socializing. But now look what Jesus could have said. Jesus could have come and said “God is my Father and I’m the Creator Son of this local universe and you are my creature children. God is your grandfather.” My Father and your grandfather. He could have said that, and it would have been true. It would have been cosmically true. It would have been a grand revelation. But what did he do? He wanted us to share that same relationship with the Father that he has. So when we say our Father, the “our” might first be referring to the fact that God is Jesus’ father. Jesus is the one that brought us this beautiful gospel. Our Father is Jesus’ father, and if we do the work of the gospel movement well, if we follow Jesus in his way then we’re following indeed. But of course the other dimension of the “our” in the idea of “our Father”—refers to all of us, and it’s so socializing and when tensions and conflicts and this stuff that so often happens. The shadows come into our heart every now and then. And when we can get back to the “our,” then we’re beyond the shadows. There still may be issues. There still may be hard work to do. But when that “our” is fully refreshed in our soul, it’s a different activity. It’s a transformed activity.
So how can we grow in experiencing the fatherhood of God on the level of truth? I want to highlight one more thing. I want to highlight practicing relating to God as our Father. There’s something so special about this.
In the United States of America, especially, and then again especially in the universities and in the liberal seminaries and churches in the last quarter let’s say of the twentieth century, last third of the twentieth century, and we don’t know what the twenty first century will hold . . . there has been such an issue about the fatherhood of God. Feminist theology has done so many marvelous works of truth, standing up to patriarchy in religious institutions, standing up for a woman’s right and a man’s right to choose his or her name for God. There is to be no imposition. There is to be no orthodoxy. There is to be no pressure about the name that we use. “The name that we choose for God matters little.” What matters is the relationship, the dynamism of the relationship. But it’s sometimes been hard for those of us that have been in those seminaries, in those university situations, having the challenges in our face very aggressively, how to respond to that. And there’s marvelous teaching in the book in that regard about how we choose a name for God. There it is after this glorious, ineffable proclamation of the introductory paragraphs to Paper One--that’s the first gospel statement that we get. Those first paragraphs on page twenty-one and twenty-two give a gospel proclamation. Knowing how the history of philosophy has been shaped by only a few fragments of ancient philosophers that had their impact, I can tell you that if, from this book for some strange reason all were to be lost except those introductory paragraphs, it still would be enough to make a colossal effect! The first sentence does exactly as Jesus said to do. “First introduce men to God and as the sons of God” and then you can go on and talk about fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. What does that first sentence do? What does that first sentence do? It introduces us to God. It’s the handshake sentence. It says: “The Universal Father is the God of all creation, the First Source and Center of all things and beings.” And then we get the first lesson on thinking. “First think of God as a creator, next as a controller and last as an infinite upholder.” And then we get this poetic expression, “The truth of the Universal Father had begun to dawn on mankind when the prophet said, ‘You, God are alone. You have created the heaven of heavens and all the hosts . . . .” And--and it gets so beautiful and so poetic from Isaiah at those standpoints. So the beauty is touching us and--on it goes and after that the very first section is on the Father’s name. And that’s where we’re given this lesson on how to choose a name for God. And we aren’t just told, “Oh, choose a name, you know, that’ll be fine, just whatever name you like.” The Divine Counselor is not telling people to use that kind of freedom, but something much more deep is being given.
The text says:
When you have once become truly God-conscious, after you have really discovered the majestic Creator and begin to experience the realization of the indwelling presence of the divine controller . . .
Before you’re really ready to choose your name, you’ve got to be a little bit along the path. At least that’s the implication here.
. . . then in accordance with your enlightenment and in accordance with the manner and method by which the divine Sons reveal God you will find a name for the Universal Father which will be adequately expressive of your concept of the First Great Source and Center. And so on different worlds and in various universes the Creator becomes known by numerous appellations in spirit of relationship all meaning the same but in words and symbols each name standing for the degree, the depth of his enthronement in the hearts of his creatures of any given realm.
I summarize that as follows: You choose the name that reflects the quality of the relationship with God that you have developed.
It’s time to stop. Thank you very much for your attention.