True Religion

Seeking Higher Wisdom

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The difficulty we have discussing religion is those we are familiar with are different from the religion of Jesus. Organized religions we know today seek to socialize the worship of individual believers, while true religion as Jesus taught and lived, involves self-conscious relations between the individual and the Creator.[1]

Types of religions

Broadly speaking there are three types of religions. First is the primitive religion of fear, examples of which are in the Old Testament.[2] Next is the more civilized religion of the mind characterized by intellectual authority and ecclesiastic traditions.[3] This type of religion was the unintended product of the honest efforts of the followers of Jesus. This religion was a great improvement over the previous ones, but it does not represent the true religion of Jesus. As revealed in The Urantia Book, the religion he taught, true religion or the religion of the spirit, is a personal experience between each individual and our infinite Father in heaven.[4]

Modern humans do not generally seek the religion of the spirit because it takes effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress.[5] With traditional religions there may be little spiritual conflict; you can just go with the flow. With the religion of the spirit we must come to terms with the type of person we are and take definite steps toward correcting our manifold faults and errors. We actively seek to become more like our Heavenly Father; this is no easy task for evolutionary mortals such as us. The religion of the mind tells us what we need to do according to its teachings, while the religion of the spirit shows us the way to find our Father to our own satisfaction in this life. Such a religion of the spirit is not even considered a religion in our understanding of the term.[6] Our spiritual struggle is the quest of the ages: to find God, to actually and gradually become more like Him.

Real nature of religion

The following discussion is based on Paper 101 in The Urantia Book, “The Real Nature of Religion.”

Some form of religion has been with humanity since our earliest times; nearly a million years ago our first human beings, Andon and Fonta, struggled with such feelings.[7] Religion therefore can range from the primitive savage to modern individuals and on to the matchless faith of Jesus as he lived on Earth.[8]

True religion is not something to be reasoned out, however viewed from within it is totally reasonable; it is not a result of logic but it is logical. Religion is the experiencing of divinity in the consciousness of a moral being of evolutionary origin; it represents true experience with eternal realities in time, the realization of spiritual satisfactions while yet in the flesh.[9] (Urantia Book, 1104.4)

Religious impulses originate from the interaction between our indwelling spark of God, the Thought Adjuster, and our growing soul. This interaction takes place in the most spiritual part of our mind. It is your thoughts, not your feelings, that lead you Godward. (Urantia Book, 1104.6)

The method of science is reason while that of religion is faith. Revelation is a compensation for our lack of spiritual insight.[10] Our faith should be informed by revelation, such as The Urantia Book, to give it a stronger basis. While revelation cannot assure faith, it can inform and guide our efforts to gain a closer relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Even though it originates in the mind as we seek to learn more about God, religion is a spiritual experience not dependent on education or reasoning. Sometimes prophets do not have wisdom of the world. Faith is available to everyone who sincerely seeks, no exceptions.[11]

From our first free will decision until we are in the literal presence of our Heavenly Father on Paradise, our entire religious experience is based on personal interactions with our Thought Adjuster; even after that exhilarating experience, our spark of God within will be guiding us into greater realizations of divinity.[12]

When we incorporate the faith of Jesus into our lives we can begin to realize spiritual reality. Jesus discovered his Heavenly Father in his mortal experience; so can we, his brothers in the flesh, make the same discovery. Jesus was and is the new and living way whereby man can come into the divine inheritance which the Father has decreed shall be his for but the asking.[13]

Besides consciously choosing to do the will of our Heavenly Father, what else can we do to assist the growth of our faith? Is there some manner in which we can help further progress? First we need to recognize the primacy of God in our daily lives, make Him the foundation of our existence. Second, we must be totally consecrated to do His will; our priorities must be firmly in place. Next we must develop a plan of action for self-improvement.[14] In this assessment we examine items in our life and determine if they bring us closer to God or do they take us farther away. When he was a teenager, Jesus devised such a test, seeking to learn which actions and institutions lead us closer to God.[15] So should we seek to know how to draw ourselves closer to God. Does our emotional life display an effort to approach Godliness, or the reverse? We will not be able to make rapid transformations, but with sincere prayer and motivation, progress can be made. This personal evaluation must be made in every aspect of our lives: our relationships, our work life, our relaxation activities, our family life and our service for others.

Faith changes our lives

It is essential we realize this is a process and we are mortal human beings. Our spiritual aspirations will always be greater than our achievements. As long as we have faith God is with us and guiding us, we will make progress. We know our Heavenly Father has a plan for our lives; all we need do is trust and in faith follow His guidance.

We know we have faith when our lives are thereby changed, merely accepting something as true does not count as faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a living attribute of genuine personal religious experience. One believes truth, admires beauty, and reverences goodness, but does not worship them; such an attitude of saving faith is centered on God alone, who is all of these personified and infinitely more. (Urantia Book, 1114.5)

True religion warns us we should believe in the highest ethical and moral realities. Again, such a faith must transform our lives, otherwise it is not faith. And such a religion is simply the experience of yielding intellectual loyalty to the highest dictates of spiritual consciousness. (Urantia Book, 1115.4)

It is only when we gain spiritual insight through true religion that we can realize with certainty there is much more to our existence than this physical life. It is only in the spiritual sense that we are a child of God because we have this spark of God within us.[16]

Religion is our hope for a better life now and into the eternal future; this eternal future is ours for the asking, there are no preconditions whatsoever. Our faith will certainly make us free, forever.

True religion appeals to the soul not the intellect. A religion about Jesus, such as the various Christian religions, may be proclaimed but the only way to have the religion OF Jesus is to live it.[17] If we value a religion about Jesus, this may indeed inspire us to become better individuals. On the other hand, if we follow the religion OF Jesus, this will transform our lives. The most powerful expression of the religion of Jesus was the matchless way in which he lived. Even though he is the creator of all life in our part of creation, our local universe, he lived as a man among men. The best example of true religion is the life of Jesus and his service on our world; studying The Urantia Book and incorporating these teachings into our lives will help us to have a truly religious life.

Further reading

“Light of Truth: Anticipating the Triumph of Righteousness”

Chapter 2 – Spiritual Reality 

                  Especially the last section

Urantia Book

Paper 100        Religion in Human Experience 

Paper 101        The Real Nature of Religion 

Paper 102        The Foundations of Religious Faith 

Paper 103        The Reality of the Religious Experience 

Paper 196        The Faith of Jesus 

  1. All references are to The Urantia Book unless stated otherwise. The number refers to the single column version in the format page.paragraph; 1616.4

  2. Bible, Proverbs 14: 26, 27, for example

  3. 1728.5-6

  4. 1728.7

  5. 1729.6

  6. 1729.7

  7. 716.1

  8. 1104.1

  9. 1104.4

  10. 1106.1

  11. 1107.5

  12. 1111.6

  13. 1113.6

  14. 1113.7

  15. 1388.5

  16. 1116.5

  17. 2091.10