Building upon the Quaker experience.


   The ultimate aim set by George Fox, one of the founding fathers of the Quaker movement around 1650, was for each individual to so relate to the indwelling Spirit of God that they would be enabled to live as Jesus lived--in total dedication to the will of God. Fox had a further purpose--to influence the whole of Christendom to do likewise.

   Sincere Quakers were relatively disadvantaged compared with those who have the Urantia Papers. Although the basics of Jesus' life can be discerned from the Gospels (with the guidance of the indwelling Spirit), they nevertheless contain some misleading doctrinal statements. Paramount among these are two verses from John 3:
   "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And, "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him."1

   These verses readily lead to an exclusivity mentality--"I'm right, you are wrong. Believe as I do or be damned." Fox meant for his philosophy to be universal but the minds of men readily adapt, and so adopt the exclusivity concept. It is highly contagious. Not even Urantians are immune.

   The Urantia Papers reiterate that Jesus' gospel was for all men, that he wanted "to make all men God-like" (1581); that he wanted his children on Earth to live as though they were already citizens of the completed heavenly kingdom" (1582); and that "he was concerned only with the principles of man's inner and personal spiritual life," (1580)

   The Papers also stress that our spirituality was the dominant concern of Jesus' life.

   "Jesus concerned himself exclusively with the underlying and permanent spiritual needs of the human race. His life revealed a goodness equal to God. He exalted love--truth, beauty and goodness--as the divine ideal and the eternal reality." (1583)

So what are the principles of an inner and spiritual life?

Origins of morality and spirituality

   "The one characteristic of Jesus' teaching was that the morality of his philosophy originated in the personal relationship of the individual and God--this very child-Father relationship." (1585)

   "Jesus stripped morality of all rules and ceremonies and elevated it to majestic levels of spiritual thinking and truly righteous living." (1585)

   "Jesus taught morality not from the nature of man, but from the relation of man to God." (1585)

   Thus morality and spirituality are tied inextricably together, both having their real origins in divine sources. Even the first moral decision in childhood that initiates our indwelling by the Spirit of God derives not from ourselves but has its source in the Eternal Spirit.

On bearing spiritual fruit

   Bearing fruit can be given a widespread meaning. Jesus reduced the boundaries:

   "Jesus refused to have his attention diverted from his mission…he would not permit himself to be concerned about anything else; in all his public teachings he ignored the civic, social, and economic realms. He told his followers that he was concerned only with the principles of man's inner personal spiritual life." (1580)

   Jesus informed us that bearing spirit fruit is an imperative: "My Father requires of the children of faith that they bear much spirit fruit." And the boundaries spelled out in listing the fruits of the spirit (ibid.;2054) exclude the secular realms, those social areas within which the Quaker's were so active.

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