#75 An example of our world’s problems.

I stopped writing posts for a while due to my own life challenges this year. So, here I continue with posts as they occur in my life today.

 

 

I was sitting in a local coffee shop with a copy of the big blue Urantia Book sitting on my table. I do this every time I go to this particular place. I do it because my inner guidance had instructed me years ago that someone would come to sit with me when they saw the book … they would need guidance. As my life is somewhat lonely on this world due to my particular life history I look forward to any new people with which to interact.

For three years no one commented on the book conspicuously presented on my table.

Then about a week ago a young woman in her early twenties stopped and asked me if I could tell her what that book was. I was just about to leave and was so surprised at her question after all the years of waiting I invited her to sit and said I could.

I’d had a lot of experience in my incarceration adventure with many different types of individuals commenting on my personal belief system and experiences. I learned that when one is approached with such a question it is often best to ask their frame of reference first.

I asked, “ Why do you wish to know?”

She answered, ” I’ve seen that book on several occasions and wondered what it was. I keep feeling that I might need to read it.”

I continued with my next question, “I don’t mean to intrude into your privacy, but can you tell me what religious thought you follow?”

She answered, hesitantly, that she was Christian without any particular designated church like Baptist, Mormon, Catholic or such.

I explained that was helpful and then proceeded to let her know up front that depending on her frame of reference in Christianity that she might have problems with the content of the book at first  but, if she would give it a chance she would see that it did not conflict with the Christian Belief System.

I gave her my standard short version of what the book was about with the following three concepts as my own summary of what was important about all the content.

1) The book was NOT to be used as means of creating a religion. It is not a “Holy” thing. It was only historical information for assisting the reader with their own personal journey in spiritual development. It is not an easy read and will take much effort.

2) The Basic message delivered in the book was threefold: A history of the universe as seen from the viewpoint of the spiritual. A history of our world Earth/Urantia from a viewpoint of someone like an “angel” who was able to record things for us that were not usually available to an average person. A detailed observation of the life of someone our world knows by the name Jesus, but not in the way a particular religion might portray the individual.

3) The message of the book is: God is always with us because we have a part of Him within us which allows us to communicate with Him at any moment. God wants us to have a loving relationship with Him [Her] of our own free will without coercion of any kind. God wants us to love others as He loves us .

I then explain that the book has a great deal more to explain those three basic concepts.

She wanted to know more and began to ask questions of an intelligent nature. She seemed to be hungry for information while inserting her own brand of Christian belief into each comment or question. From her comments I knew she was what I might say was a “Fundamentalist” Christian belief system. Her belief was a literal belief that the Bible was the only true word of God and anything else was false. Yet, she still wanted to know about this big blue book.

She asked me if I was a Christian to which I answered no. I explained that I had been raised in the Lutheran  brand of Christian thought but rejected much of that as I learned that it was incomplete and had many concepts that were not conducive to true spiritual advancement. I added that I DID follow the actual teachings of the one she knows as Jesus who I know as Michael and that I follow the thoughts of God internally not from others outside of my own connection.

She reacted as if I was deluded and said “Don’t you believe that you must take Jesus as your personal savior to be saved?” I answered that I think she needed to learn more about that concept and that was in part what the UB was for… more detailed explanation of our somewhat distorted belief system upon our world.

She was not confrontational at all and asked if her new husband of a week could join us. I agreed and he joined us in our discussion without all the background information I had given her.

He was friendly at first until he discovered the nature of our discussion. Then he became quite disturbed that if I was not a “Born Again” in the blood of the Savior that I was probably not worth listening to and he began to use his dogmatic beliefs in an attempt to sway my beliefs.

I’d experienced this many times before and did what I was taught and did not engage in his desire to be right. Instead, I asked questions and pointed out his own words were without clarity. For example, he stated that the Bible was the exact word of God. I asked him if he had direct knowledge of this. He answered no but he believed it.

I asked if he was familiar with the concept of how the Bible was compiled? He said Yes.

I asked him about Revelations, a book of the bible, and if he believed that the text therein was written by man? He said it was a vision given to John by God thus real. I asked if he had any knowledge about the historical fact that those same words of vision had been written by another man named Enoch many years earlier and were rewritten as if John had written them. He said no and did not believe it. I suggested he check on my suggestion. He said he would. I then explained that many of the Biblical texts were attributed to the various Apostles which was the process at the time. [ Today we might call it plagiarism] …Scribes often wrote about WHAT the speaker might have discussed in a teaching as if THEY had originated the thought. The speaker was HONORED with the authorship of the thought and through the ages many came to believe it was the attributed writers own inspired thought.

He was, I learned, a kind of Biblical scholar and so was his new wife. He Knew a great deal but only from a very limited view of interpretation of ONE SOURCE of information … the Bible… and even that source was a new version which had been changed many times over the centuries.

After about two hours of question and answer, with me explaining that my point of view came from personal experience and not just the thoughts of others he finally agreed that I was OK but probably still going to “hell” unless I repented of all my inherent sin and took “Jesus” as my personal savior.

I invited both of them to read about my experiences on this blog site and then if they had any questions ask me. They lived in Hawaii and I said email was just fine. No questions yet. 🙂

This kind of encounter is typical when individuals are confronted with my story and to a lesser degree the content of any other philosophy that does not match their dogma.  In this narrative I used a Christian dogma example. It could just as easily be any other of the many world belief systems. Each is extreme if taken literally and with zealous belief.

Yet most still have the same basic message. Belief in a God by what-ever name. A code of conduct involving God. A message regarding how one must interact with ones fellow humans.

The problem  is that few, if any, suggest strongly that one should seek inner guidance as opposed to blind obedience to a dogma as interpreted and taught by others outside of ones self.

People generally do not seek to learn for themselves. They rely upon the guidance of their guru, priest, pastor, or other “enlightened” or “learned” leader because it is how our world has been structured for thousands of years.

Only those who strike out on their own inner guidance begin to learn the truths of human existence.

On our world , even today, much of our world’s problems are the result of conflict between dogmas. The idea of the film known as the MATRIX is alive and well on planet Earth/Urantia. People do not have the eyes to see, the ears to hear anything outside what they are told to believe.

I invite you to consider that what you sense is not all there is.