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that God is not remote and "up there somewhere," but is actually resident in the mind of each individual, is our "best friend," and is contactable on a personal basis.
But in many instances, and possibly most, it would be counterproductive to refer Christians to the Urantia Papers. The necessary information is already contained in more than twenty New Testament verses. A selection follows:
John 14:16-17. I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.
John 14: 20 At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
John 14:23. If a man loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
John 15:26--The Helper will come, the Spirit that reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father.
Luke 17:21. For the kingdom of God is within you.
Matthew 10: 20. For it is not you that speaks, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.
1 John 4:12. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Romans 8:14-16. Those who are led by God's spirit are God's sons. For the spirit that God has given you does not make you sinners and cause you to be afraid; instead the spirit makes you God's children and by the spirit's power we cry out to God, Abba, Father.
1 Cor. 3:16. Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
2 Cor. 13: 5. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you,
Galatians 4:6. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
The letters of Paul were the first written material which was widely available to the early Christians. Paul was obviously aware of both the indwelling of the Father-Spirit and of the spirit of Jesus. John's letters were also available before his gospel was written and carried the same strong message about the indwelling spirit of Divinity as did Paul's.
Early Christianity was mainly a minor sub-sect of the Jewish religion. Jewish children in those times were educated in the synagogue schools and illiteracy among practicing Jews was uncommon.
This situation changed as the gospel spread among the gentiles who, initially, were dominantly from the lower and slave classes where illiteracy was endemic. Taken together with the necessary growth of an educated priesthood, it is almost inevitable that a paternalistic priesthood should develop and assume an intercessory role between the individual and God.
Widespread literacy on a national basis is a very recent phenomenon, too recent to have eliminated the role of minister and priest as a surrogate "father of the flock." Perhaps the long delay in the arrival of the Urantia Papers awaited the coming of widespread literacy.
Whatever the correct history may be, the fact is there are now well over a billion Christians waiting to relearn what was known to the early Jewish Christians--that we are indwelt by the spirit of the Father. No intermediaries are necessary. Our relationship with God is individual and personal.
Experience has shown that a class of young children responds well to the question, "Where can you find God?" And also to the concept that the spirit of God dwells in their minds. Showing them evidence from the New Testament may also help.
The Gospel of John has long been widely distributed in pocketbook form, it contains all the necessary evidence of God's indwelling, yet the number of Christians who are aware of this is minuscule.
It has been estimated that much less than one in ten thousand literate people are even capable of reading a two thousand page book like The Urantia Book. If people cannot discover the message of the indwelling of God's spirit from a tiny, easily understood book like the Gospel of John, what chance is there that any significant number will ever learn it from The Urantia Book?
Our task is to spread Jesus' message, not necessarily to spread a book.
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