On the Value of Spiritual Value.


   "...much of your past life and its memories, having neither spiritual meaning nor morontia value, will perish with the material brain; much of material experience will pass away as onetime scaffolding which, having bridged you over to the morontia level, no longer serves a purpose in the universe"

   Only that which has spiritual meaning and value survives with our soul. So what has spiritual value? Many hours of searching The Urantia Book may fail to find even a clue. The difficulty is that words like meaning and value have no hard and fast definition and for almost all conceivable occurrences must be considered in relative terms.

   The problem was highlighted by a bishop who, in struggling to define morality, realized that all moral acts are situational--they happen in a some particular situation that will never recur with all details of the situation exactly the same. Hence no precise definition is even possible.

   Like morality, a spiritual value is both situational and relative. So having nailed that down, can we get further? In one occurrence in the Papers, we find, "Spiritual development is determined by the capacity therefore and is directly proportional to elimination of the selfish qualities of love." (1096) That at least has a concrete meaning in that we can guarantee we will make spiritual growth if we reduce our selfishness.

   There are three remarkable conversations recorded in the Papers that occurred during the visit of Jesus to Rome with his student, Ganid. All three were with Greeks intellectuals who had been imbued with the driving principle that marked the uniqueness of Greek philosophy--the belief that pure thought is capable of solving all of our difficulties.

   A key statement for our search on the meaning of spiritual values was made to one of them named Mardus, "Goodness, like truth is always relative and unfailingly evil-contrasted." Since God is the source and measure of all goodness (for "only God is good"), we can set God at one end of the relativity scale for determining all value. In his comment to Mardus, Jesus fixes the other end--evil. How evil? From comments made elsewhere, extreme selfishness may underpin the superlative for evil.

   In the first of these discourses, Jesus to said to Angamon, "The standard of true values must be looked for in the spiritual world and on divine levels of eternal reality. To an ascending mortal all lower and material standards must be recognized as transient, partial, and inferior."

   This confirms that the top end of the scale is divinity itself, and since all divinity is one, no subdivision is necessary. But it also tells us that there are no values that belong directly to the material world itself. Diamonds and dollars, mansions and motor cars have absolutely no value when we pack our belongings and depart for the morontia worlds. And if fame has a value then it is only in proportion to its content of goodness.

   "In every age scientists and religionists must recognize that they are on trial before the bar of human need. They must eschew all warfare between themselves while they strive valiantly to justify their continued survival by enhanced devotion to the service of human progress."

   To Mardus, he also said, "But the soul that survives time and emerges into eternity must make a living and personal choice between good and evil as they are determined by the true values of the spiritual standards established by the divine spirit which the Father in heaven has sent to dwell within the heart of man. This indwelling spirit is the standard of personality survival."

   All that goes with us to the mansion worlds is, in some way, related to our spiritual goodness. Nothing else will qualify. Our indwelling Father-Spirit is both the determiner of value and the custodian of our soul.

   "Goodness, like truth, is always relative and unfailingly evil-contrasted. It is the perception of these qualities of goodness and truth that enables the evolving souls of men to make those personal decisions of choice which are essential to eternal survival….

   "Goodness is always growing toward new levels of the increasing liberty of moral self-realization and spiritual personality attainment--the discovery of, and identification with, the indwelling Adjuster. An experience is good when it heightens the appreciation of beauty, augments the moral will, enhances the discernment of truth, enlarges the capacity to love and serve one's fellows, exalts the spiritual ideals, and unifies the supreme human motives of time with the eternal plans of the indwelling Adjuster, all of which lead directly to an increased desire to do the Father's will, thereby fostering the divine passion to find God and to be more like him."

   Experiences come regardless. Each carries the opportunity for decisions. If there are no decisions, no values can come into being. Our indwelling Father-Spirit is the arbiter and he cannot be fooled, not even by the world's best of con artists. The degree of unselfishness in our decisions is a major factor for determining value.

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