Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 131
THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS
1. During the Alexandrian sojourn of Jesus, Gonod, and Ganid, the young man spent much of his time and no small sum of his father's money making a collection of the teachings of the world's religions about God and his relations with mortal man.
2. The residual teachings of the disciples of Melchizedek, excepting those which persisted in the Jewish religion, were best preserved in the doctrines of the Cynics… God is the perfected circle of eternity, and he rules the universe of universes...Everything that is high, holy, true, and beautiful is like our God...God is self‑existent, and he is devoid of all anger and enmity.
3. God is full of goodness toward all men; we have no friend like the Most High...We search for the Most High and then find him in our hearts.
4. “The man who knows God looks upon all men as equal...Those who love their follows and who have pure hearts shall see God. God never forgets sincerity. He will guide the honest of heart into the truth, for God is truth .. In all your relations with men do good for evil ... By God's love and through his mercy we shall be saved.
5. When you stand before God with a clean heart, you become fearless of all creation. The Most High is like a loving father and mother; he really love us, his children on earth… “If the faith of the Most High has entered your heart, then shall you abide free from fear throughout all the days of your life...God is just: What fruit we receive not from our plantings in this world we shall receive in the next."
6. The Kenites of Palestine salvaged much of the teaching of Melchizedek...”The Lord. he is God; there is none beside him in heaven above or upon the earth beneath. Therefore shall you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might...God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble...The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his creation; he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
7. “God has made man a little less than divine and has crowned him with love and mercy...Forget not that pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. He who rules his own spirit is mightier than he who takes a city...They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not be faint.”
8. “God is our Father; the Lord is our redeemer...It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to the Most High ... God's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
9, “1 will trust in the Lord with all my heart...In all my ways I will acknowledge him, and he shall direct my paths... If you sin against God, you also wrong your own soul...As a man thinks in his heart, so is he...A merry heart does good like a medicine ... If you seek me, you shall find me if you search for me with all your heart.”
10. “The eternal God is my strength ... he saves all who have a childlike spirit ... Commit your way to the Lord—trust him—and he will bring it to pass ... They who are wise shall shine an the brightness of the firmament and they who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.”
11. “And to all who love the Lord supremely and their neighbors like themselves, the God of heaven says: ‘I will reasons you from the grave; I will redeem you from death ... Have I not called you to become like me and to dwell forever with me in Paradise?'"
12. Ganid was shocked to discover how near Buddhism came to being a great and beautiful religion without God, without a personal and universal Deity ... "Out of a pure heart shall gladness spring forth to the Infinite; all my being shall be at peace with this supermortal rejoicing. My soul is filled with content, and my heart overflows with the bliss of peaceful trust. I have no fear; I am free from anxiety.”
13. “Pain and sorrow follow me in the path of evil as the dust follows the wind. Happiness and peace of mind follow pure thinking and virtuous living as the shadow follows the substance of material things. Evil is the fruit of wrongly directed thinking ... No man can rob you of the liberty of your‑own mind. When the faith of your religion has emancipated your heart, when the mind, like a mountain, is settled and immovable, then shall the peace of the soul flow tranquilly like a river of waters.”
14. “What you do shall be done to you, in the judgment of wisdom. Injustice done to your fellows shall come back upon you. The creature cannot escape the destiny of his deeds... The wise man is a noble soul who is friendly in the midst of his enemies, tranquil among the turbulent, and generous among the grasping... The tamed mind yields happiness. He is the greatest of warriors who overcomes and subdues himself. Restraint in all things is good ... Pay good for evil; overcome evil with the good.”
15. “A righteous soul is more to be desired than the sovereignty of all the earth. Immortality is the goal of sincerity; death, the end of the thoughtless living ... The unselfish go to heaven, where they rejoice in the bliss of infinite liberality and continue to increase in noble generosity.”
16. The missionaries of Melchizedek carried the teachings of the one God with them wherever they journeyed. Much of this monotheistic doctrine...became embodied in the subsequent teachings of Hinduism...”God is one God; he is alone and by himself; he is the only one. And this one God is our Maker and the last destiny of the soul ... Every heart and every world is illuminated by the divine light...This one God is loving, glorious, and adorable...This true Person is eternal and divine; he is the primal Lord of heaven.”
17. “God is the sure refuge of every good man when in need...The Lord is our ruler, shelter, and supreme controller, and his primeval spirit dwells within the mortal soul...let his spirit fully direct our thoughts. From this unreal world lead us to the real! From darkness lead us to the light! From death guide us to immortality!”
18. “Make prayer your inmost friend and worship your soul's support… God is the illuminator of the gloomy and the power of those who are faint. Since God is our strong friend, we have no more fear...He is the great parent of heaven and earth, possessed of unlimited energy and infinite wisdom… God is our father, brother, and friend. And we long to know this God in our inner being.”
19. “The God of providence is our Father. God is truth. And it is the desire of God that his creatures should understand him—come fully to know the truth. Truth is eternal; it sustains the universe. Our supreme desire shall be union with the Supreme...By meditation on God, by union with him, there comes deliverance from the illusion of evil and ultimate salvation from all material fetters… And they who know that God is enthroned in the human heart are destined to become like him—immortal...Man's friends of the flesh cannot survive death; virtue alone walks by man's side as he journeys ever onward toward the gladsome and sunlit fields of Paradise."
20. Zoroaster was himself directly in contact with the descendants of the earlier Melchizedek missionaries...Aside from Judaism, no religion of that day contained more of those Salem teachings...”As you supremely desire, so shall you be ... God is farthest from us and at the same time nearest to us in that he dwells within our souls ... God is most helpful to us in this greatest of all businesses, the knowing of himself...Lord, teach us how to live this life in the flesh while preparing for the next life of the spirit ... Grant us that we may attain union with you ... Through grace lay hold upon us and minister saving power to our souls. We claim mercy because we aspire to attain perfection; we would be like God."
21. The third group of religious believers who preserved the doctrine of one God in India—the survival of the Melchizedek teaching—were known in those days as the Suduanists. Latterly these believers have become known as followers of Jainism ... “The soul of man may ascend to the highest heaven, there to develop its true spiritual nature, to attain perfection ... Self is man's invincible foe, and self is manifested as man's four greatest passions: anger, pride, deceit, and greed. Man's greatest victory is the conquest of himself...Man should journey through life treating his follow creatures as he would like to be treated."
22. Only recently had the manuscripts of this Far‑Eastern religion (Shinto) been lodged in the Alexandrian library. It was the one world religion of which Ganid had never heard. This belief also contained remnants of the earlier Melchizedek teachings…”In both the beauties of nature and the virtues of men does the Prince of Heaven seek to reveal himself and to show forth his righteous nature. Since the olden people did not know my name, I manifested myself by being born into the world as a visible existence and endured such abasement even that man should not forget my name.”
23. “I Although I am great and supreme, still I have regard, for the prayer of the poorest man. If any creature will worship me, I will hear his prayer and grant the desire of his heart....Pride obscures God. If you would obtain heavenly help, put away your pride... If you are not right on the inside, it is useless to pray for that which is on the outside.”
24. The messengers of Melchizedek penetrated far into China, and the doctrine of one God became a part of the earlier teachings of several Chinese religions; the one persisting the longest and containing most of the monotheistic truth was Taoism ... “How pure and tranquil is the Supreme One and yet how powerful and mighty, how deep and unfathomable! This God of heaven is the honored ancestor of all things.”
25. “The Great Supreme seeks no credit for his bestowals...He unceasingly transmutes his attributes while perfecting his creatures. The heavenly Reason is slow and patient in his designs but sure of his accomplishments...True goodness is like water in that it blesses everything and harms nothing. And like water, true goodness seeks the lowest places, even those levels which others avoid, and that is because it is akin to the Supreme ... And it is a mystery how the Supreme fosters, protects, and perfects the creature without compelling him ... He ministers progression. but without domination.”
26. “The wise man universalizes his heart. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Those who aspire to greatness must learn to humble themselves ... He is a wise man who regards all parts from the point of view of the whole. Relate yourself to every man as if you were in his place. Recompense injury with kindness.”
27. “The Supreme is the secure refuge for all creation; he is the guardian and savior of mankind. If you seek for him daily, you shall find him...Always remember that God does not reward man for what he does but for what he is; therefore should you extend help to your follows without the thought of rewards.
28. “They who know the laws of the Eternal are wise. Ignorance of the divine law is misery and disaster...If you know the Eternal, even though your body parish, your soul shall survive in spirit service ... Those who dedicate their persons to the service of the Supreme are joyous in this pursuit of the Eternal. When man dies, the spirit begins to wing its long flight on the great home journey.”
29. Even the least God‑recognizing of the world's great religions (Confucianism) acknowledged the monotheism of the Melchizedek missionaries ...”Heaven has appointed many subordinates to assist in the instruction and uplifting of the inferior creatures ... And we do well when we call the Great Heaven our Father and our Mother ... God is with us; therefore we have no fear in our hearts. If there be found any virtue in me, it is the manifestation of Heaven who abides with me.”
30. “A wine man is occupied with the search for truth ... To attain the perfection of Heaven is the goal of man. The superior man is given to self‑adjustment. and he is free from anxiety and fear ... While all creatures must die and return to the earth, the spirit of the noble man goes forth to be displayed on high and to ascend to the glorious light of final brightness.”
31. Ganid set himself to the task of formulating what he deemed to be a summary of the belief he had arrived at regarding God as a result of Jesus' teaching ...”The Lord our God is one Lord, and you should love him with all your mind and heart while you do your very best to love all his children as you love yourself. This one God is our heavenly Father, in whom all things consist, and who dwells. by his spirit. in every sincere human soul.”
32. “The Father in heaven will not suffer a single child on earth to perish if that child has a desire to find the Father and truly longs to be like him…All good things come down from the Father of light, in whom there is no variableness neither shadow of changing… He intends that all men should be brothers.”
33. “I am going to do my best to treat each of my fellow mortals just as I think God would like to have him treated And all of this loving service of the children of God enlarges our capacity to receive and experience the joys of heaven.”
34. “I will every day thank God for his unspeakable gifts ... And my tutor has said that by searching for him I shall become like him. By faith in God I have attained peace with him. This new religion of ours is very full of joy, and it generates an enduring happiness. I am confident that I shall be faithful even to death, and that I will surely receive the crown of eternal life.”
35. “1 am learning to prove all things and adhere to that which is good...By this new faith I know that man may become the son of God, but it sometimes terrifies me when I stop to think that all men are my brothers, but it must be true... Henceforth will I do my good deeds in secret... I am going to learn to love my enemies; I have not truly mastered this practice of being Godlike.”
36. “Though I see God in these other religions, I find him in 'our religion' as being more beautiful, loving, merciful, personal, and positive. But most of all, this great and glorious Being is my spiritual Father; I am his child. And by no other means than my honest desire to be like him, I am eventually to find him and eternally to serve him.
Discussion Questions1. What was the purpose of the Midwayer Commission in including this Synopsis of Paper on the world’s religions?
2. Do you think that anger, pride, deceit, and greed are the four greatest passions?
3. How do we balance humility and self-confidence?
4. Is there a universal ethic?
5. If the religions of the world identified with these excerpts, would we have the basis for a unified world religion?
6. How should we regard the religious scriptures of the world?
7. Which nourishes spiritual growth more, the family relationships of religious fellowship or the theological teachings of religion?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship