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Who will come to "Phoenicia?"
At the time of the "Feeding of the five thousand," Jesus' fame as a healer and miracle worker had caused a major section of the Jewish nation to be ready to rise and follow him to death or glory as their Messiah--the one who would drive out the Romans and restore David's fabled kingdom, centered in Jerusalem.
Jesus himself pulled the plug on that expectation when, after the feeding of the five thousand, he turned down the crowd's attempt to crown him with David's crown. Their bitter disappointment, and the subsequent reaction against him, sparked a crisis in that the representatives of his Jerusalem enemies were able to gain Herod's permission for his arrest and removal for trial in Jerusalem.
However, this plot was foiled by a pre-warning from sympathizers in Herod's court that enabled Jesus and a small band of followers to cross the Sea of Galilee into the territory of the Tetrarch, Philip, from where they proceeded to the safety of Phoenicia.
But the real battle had little to do with David's throne. At its most basic, it was the beginning of an ongoing and mighty struggle on this wayward, backward planet called Urantia. It is the battle for dominance in the hearts of men of the religion of the spirit over all religions of authority--a battle that has ebbed and flowed ever since.
In this first phase of the battle, Jesus appeared to have lost, with final defeat apparently coming at Calvary. But then the resurrection appearances turned the tables, giving the religion of the spirit a modest lead, at least until the times of Augustine of Hippo. After Augustine it was all downhill until scientific materialism entered the fray and gained a Pyrrhic victory over all forms of religion.
When all seemed lost and hopeless on Urantia, a new factor appeared. Into the battle the Urantia Papers were injected. They announced their own task--the eventual but certain victory of the religion of Jesus--the religion of the spirit--over all its foes, be they scientific materialism, authoritarian religion, or any other diversionary philosophy invented by mankind.
Fortuitously, in the latter stages of the twentieth century, basic science itself destroyed the foundations for all forms of materialistic determinism. Which now leaves us in much the same position as Jesus found himself when he was forced to lead his few remaining followers to the safety of Phoenicia in order to regroup.
A good general will always seek to know his enemy. What then are the characteristics of the enemies of Jesus' religion of the spirit?
Primitive religion derives from the fear of the unknown and the mysterious. It evolves as power-seeking witch doctors, medicine men, shamans, and priests invent the gods from whom they claim to derive their authority.
Innate to the God-given mind and the God-given personality of each of us is the God-derived tendency to seek to know God and his goodness. It is the God-within that leads us towards embracing the religion of the spirit.
In contrast, it is our slothful animal laziness and selfishness that opposes that leading. And it is our animal instincts of territorialism and dominance that generate, on the one hand a grateful submission to the comforts of authoritarianism, or on the other, a lust for the power that it enables.
A major weapon of authoritarianism is its actual source of authority. Inevitably this derives from some kind of divine being. The nature of that being determines the nature of the religion.
An all-powerful, infallible god may yet be a god of love, goodness, and mercy. Alternatively it can be a wrathful, jealous, and fickle god--similar to the Yahweh of the Jewish people in Jesus' time.
For the gods of authoritarian religions, the nature of those gods is the invention of the minds of the men or women who create them.
But the nature of the God of the religion of the spirit can be known only through revelation.
Revelation may come via many different pathways. One feature it always must have is that it is recognizable by faith, and by faith alone. Revelation is never authoritarian in its own right. How can it be? For "God has decreed the sovereignty of the material and mortal will and that decree is absolute." (71)
Thus the authority of true revelation, hence the religion of the spirit, derives from the free will choice of the individual--and its acceptance is purely through the faith of that individual.
The Urantia Papers expound the religion of the spirit, but denounce all religion of authority.
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