Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 161
FURTHER DISCUSSIONS WITH RODAN
1. Rodan readily accepted all that was presented to him regarding the attributes of God, but he contended that the Father in heaven is not, cannot be, a person as man conceives personality... Rodan contended that the fact of personality consists in the coexistent fact of full and mutual communication between beings of equality.
2. This contention greatly troubled Thomas and Nathaniel, and they had asked Jesus to come to their rescue, but the Master refused to enter into their discussions. He did say to Thomas: "It matters little what idea of the Father you may entertain as long as you are spiritually acquainted with the ideal of his infinite and eternal nature."
3. By Monday night Thomas gave up. But by Tuesday night Nathaniel had won Rodan to believe in the personality of the Father, and he effected this change in the Greek's views by the following steps of reasoning: The Father in Paradise does enjoy equality of communication with at least two other beings who are fully equal to himself and wholly like himself‑ the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit... That personality represents man's highest concept of human reality and divine values; that God also, represents man's highest concept of divine reality and infinite values; therefore, that God must be a divine and infinite personality, a personality in reality although infinitely and eternally transcending man's concept and definition of personality, but nevertheless always and universally a personality ...while God must be infinitely more than a personality, he cannot be anything less.
4. Nathaniel and Thomas jointly presented their views of the divine nature of the Master...
1. Jesus has admitted his divinity, and we believe him.
2. His life association with us exemplifies the ideal of human friendship... He is the most truly unselfish person we have ever known... The better you know him, the more you will love him... He has shared his life and everything else with us. We are a happy community... We do not believe that a mere human could live such a blameless life under such trying circumstances.
3. We think Jesus is divine because he never does wrong... His wisdom is extraordinary ...He lives day by day in perfect accord with the Father's will... He prays for us and with us, but he never asks us to pray for him... All men, good and evil, recognize these elements of goodness in Jesus. And yet never is his piety obtrusive or ostentatious. He is both meek and fearless. He seems to approve of our belief in his divinity. He is either what he professes to be, or else he is the greatest hypocrite and fraud the world has ever known. We are persuaded that he is just what he claims to be.
4. The uniqueness of his character and the perfection of his emotional control convince us that he is a combination of humanity and divinity...He is quick to recognize and generous to acknowledge the presence of faith or any other grace in his fellow men. He is so just and fair and at the same time so merciful and considerate...
5. He seems to know the thoughts of men's minds and to understand the longings of their hearts... He prays like a man but performs like a God.. He seems to foreknow things; he even now dares to speak about his death, some mystic reference to his future glorification...
6. We are constantly impressed by the phenomenon of his superhuman knowledge. Hardly does a day pass but something, transpires to disclose that the Master knows what is going on away from his immediate presence...He undoubtedly has communion with celestial personalities; he unquestionably lives on a spiritual plane far above the rest of us...He asks us questions to draw us out, not to gain information.
7. Recently the Master does not hesitate to assert his superhumanity... He speaks with the authority of a divine teacher...He seems to be so sufficient within himself. He craves not the support of the multitude; he is indifferent to the opinions of men. He is brave and yet so free from pride.
8. He constantly talks about God as an ever‑present associate in all that he does... He has definitely claimed divinity; he professes to be in partnership with God... He even dares to assert that he and the Father are one. He says that any one who has seen him has seen the Father. And he says and does all these tremendous things with such childlike naturalness...
9. In his prayer life he appears to communicate directly with his Father... He seems to know the future as well as the past. He simply could not be all of this and do all of these extraordinary things unless he were something more than human…We are convinced that he is the Son of Man and the Son of God.
5. Rodan made his way back to Alexandria, where he long taught his philosophy in the school of Meganta. He became a mighty man in the later affairs of the kingdom of heaven; he was a faithful believer to the end of his earth days, yielding up his life in Greece with others when the persecutions were at their height.
6. Consciousness of divinity was a gradual growth in the mind of Jesus up to the occasion of his baptism... It appears to us that from his baptism until the crucifixion it was entirely optional with Jesus whether to depend only on the human mind or to utilize the knowledge of both the human and the divine minds... We can understand his unique performances only by accepting the theory that he could, at will, self‑limit his divinity consciousness...W e understand that he did not wish his followers to know too fully that he was able to discern their thoughts and to penetrate their plans.
7. We are utterly at a loss to differentiate between his practice of self-limiting his divine consciousness and his technique of concealing his preknowledge and thought discernment from his human associates. We are convinced that he used both of these techniques, but we are not always able, in a given instance, to specify which method he may have employed. We frequently observed him acting with only the human content of consciousness; then would we behold him in conference with the directors of the celestial hosts of the universe and discern the undoubted functioning of the divine mind. And then on almost numberless occasions did we witness the working of this combined personality of man and God as it was activated by the apparent perfect union of the human and the divine minds. This is the limit of our knowledge of such phenomena; we really do not actually know the full truth about this mystery.
Discussion Questions
1. What aspect of personality do we share with God?
2. How are personality and individuality related?
3. What is the difference between the “idea of God” and the “ideal of his nature?”
4. Is the empirical evidence for the divinity of Jesus strong enough to convince people of other religions?
5. Do any of the founders of other world religions have evidence of divine qualities?
6. Why do you think that Thomas and Nathaniel did not mention the miracles of Jesus to support his divinity?
7. Is the union of the human and divine minds of Michael a comforting or disturbing mystery?
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