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A Journey to the Stars
The Urantia Book describes, in detail, God's plan for the ascending evolutionary mortals of time to finally make it to Paradise. Here we provide a short summary about that marvelous journey which commences with our birth as beings only marginally more advanced than the animals. But there is a major difference--we are provided with the precious gift of a mind capable of both self-awareness and of making a moral decision.
For most of us that first moral decision occurs at about the age of five. Incredibly, it is the signal for the arrival of a fragment of God himself. Perhaps this is the more remarkable because this fragment of God actually volunteers to become our full partner in the journey to eternity. And that despite having complete prior knowledge of our truly lowly spiritual and intellectual potential for making a journey that requires us to attain perfection.
How high can you jump?
The first part of the journey is crucial in that we are expected to make a free will choice to seek to do the will of God that, ultimately, we may become like God. In his talk series, Bill Sadler once reminded us that we Urantians have a hurdle to jump and that the height of the cross bar depends largely on what we know and understand. If we are in full possession of the facts, the height of the bar goes up and up in order to correspond with our level of understanding. For those who are in possession of The Urantia Book, who have read it, assimilated its content, and understood its message, the bar is set far higher than, for example, an illiterate Palestinian street urchin who has been taught that Allah will reward him with guaranteed bliss if he contrives to kill or injure an Israeli soldier by throwing stones.
About that faint flicker
The book tells us that the faintest flicker of faith assures us of a second chance to make that requisite free will choice when we arrive at the next stage of our journey, the location we know as the Mansion Worlds. The book states:
"Now, mistake not, my Father will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith. He takes note of the physical and superstitious emotions of the primitive man. And with those honest but fearful souls whose faith is so weak that it amounts to little more than an intellectual conformity to a passive attitude of assent to religions of authority, the Father is ever alert to honor and foster even all such feeble attempts to reach out for him. But you who have been called out of darkness into the light are expected to believe with a whole heart; your faith shall dominate the combined attitudes of body, mind, and spirit." (1733)
For those Urantia Book readers who have taken this faintest flicker of faith phrase as a guarantee of survival, it may be advisable to take a close look at the last sentence of the above quote.
Can we be part-time seekers?
A requirement for kingdom-seekers is that they seek to do the will of God. A question having merit is whether it is possible to be part-time doers of the will of God. Can we complacently assess ourselves as qualifying for mansion world admittance because we do the will of God for, say, 90% of our time. A parallel example might be fidelity to one's spouse. Should our spouse be satisfied with the way we honor our marital obligations if we are faithful for 90% of the time--or even 99% of the time? Would a reciprocal performance from our spouses be acceptable? Most law courts of the Western World would score us a zero for even a 99% fidelity performance. So are the heavenly courts more generous?
It is worth noting that some believe that it is not possible to be a part-time doer of the will of God, that any purposeful and continued disregard of what we, in our hearts, really know is God's will for us means that our disobedience is total, that we are simply attempting to fool God by accepting some of his requirements while going our own way when God's will does not suit our intentions or purposes. If this be so, perhaps we might actually be unfortunate in having a Urantia Book to instruct us.
In my Father's house....
But let's take the optimistic view and assume we make it through to the Mansion Worlds, that we have arrived on Mansion World number 1, a satellite of one of the seven spheres that encircle our local system headquarters known as Jerusem. The general layout of Jerusem and functions for the mansion worlds are:
Mansion World 1 - functional as a deficiency ministry for correction of defects and deficiencies in mental experiences on Urantia.
Mansion World 2 - removal of conflict and mental disharmony is a priority concern.
Mansion World 3 - is where we gain better understanding of morontia mota and logic.
Mansion World 4 - here we learn about socialization - working in groups and classes.
Mansion World 5 - center for the linguistic schools. We learn about the constellation study schools and we become more universe minded.
Mansion World 6 - fusion with our Thought Adjuster usually occurs at this level.
Mansion World 7 - the purging of remaining genetic and environmental effects stemming from animal origins is completed here. By this stage all ascenders now have permanent seraphic guardians of destiny.
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