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GOD’S RELATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL GOD IN RELIGION |
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CEDOMIL VUGRINCIC, M.D.,
Ph.D. |
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is SonIn the previous Interim-Papers we have reviewed the meanings of
the TRUE WORSHIP of the Paradise Universal Father, the PRAYER SUPPLICATIONS to
the realms of the Paradise Eternal Son and His Spirit of Truth, and qualified
PRAYER REALIZATIONS by the spirit agencies of the Holy Spirit, the Mind of
the Paradise Conjoint Actor. The
following Interim-Paper is devoted to further enlightenment about the true
nature of God.
*** The
morality of the religions of evolution drives men forward in the God quest by
the motive power of fear. The religions of revelation allure men to seek for
a God of love because they crave to become like him. But religion is not
merely a passive feeling of "absolute dependence" and "surety
of survival"; it is a living and dynamic experience of divinity
attainment predicated on humanity service. The
great and immediate service of true religion is the establishment of an enduring unity in human experience, a lasting peace and a profound assurance. With
primitive man, even polytheism is a relative unification of the evolving
concept of Deity; polytheism is monotheism in the making. Sooner or later,
God is destined to be comprehended as the reality of values, the substance of
meanings, and the life of truth. God is
not only the determiner of destiny; he is man's eternal destination. All
nonreligious human activities seek to bend the universe to the distorting
service of self; the truly religious individual seeks to identify the self
with the universe and then to dedicate the activities of this unified self to
the service of the universe family of fellow beings, human and superhuman. The
domains of philosophy and art intervene between the nonreligious and the
religious activities of the human self. Through art and philosophy the
material-minded man is inveigled into the contemplation of the spiritual
realities and universe values of eternal meanings. All
religions teach the worship of Deity and some doctrine of human salvation. The
Buddhist religion promises salvation from suffering, unending peace; the Jewish
religion promises salvation from difficulties, prosperity predicated on
righteousness; the Greek religion promised salvation from disharmony,
ugliness, by the realization of beauty; Christianity promises salvation from
sin, sanctity; Mohammedanism provides deliverance from the rigorous moral
standards of Judaism and Christianity. The religion of Jesus is salvation
from self, deliverance from the evils of creature isolation in time and in
eternity. The
Hebrews based their religion on goodness; the Greeks on beauty; both
religions sought truth. Jesus revealed a God of love,
and love is all-embracing of truth, beauty, and goodness. The
Zoroastrians had a religion of morals; the Hindus a religion of metaphysics;
the Confucianists a religion of ethics. Jesus lived
a religion of service. All these religions are of value in that they are
valid approaches to the religion of Jesus. Religion
is destined to become the reality of the spiritual unification of all that is
good, beautiful, and true in human experience. The
Greek religion had a watchword "Know yourself"; the Hebrews
centered their teaching on "Know your God"; the Christians preach a
gospel aimed at a "knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ"; Jesus
proclaimed the good news of "knowing God, and yourself as a son of
God." These
differing concepts of the purpose of religion determine the individual's
attitude in various life situations and foreshadow the depth of worship and
the nature of his personal habits of prayer. The
spiritual status of any religion may be determined by the nature of its
prayers. The
concept of a semi-human and jealous God is an inevitable transition between
polytheism and sublime monotheism. An exalted anthropomorphism is the highest
attainment level of purely evolutionary religion. Christianity has elevated
the concept of anthropomorphism from the ideal of the human to the
transcendent and divine concept of the person of the glorified Christ. And
this is the highest anthropomorphism that man can ever conceive. The
Christian concept of God is an attempt to combine three separate teachings: 1. The
Hebrew concept -- God as a vindicator of moral values, a righteous God. 2. The
Greek concept -- God as a unifier, a God of wisdom. 3.
Jesus' concept -- God as a living friend, a loving Father, the divine
presence. It
must therefore be evident that composite Christian theology encounters great
difficulty in attaining consistency. This difficulty is further aggravated by
the fact that the doctrines of early Christianity were generally based on the
personal religious experience of three different persons: Philo of In the
study of the religious life of Jesus, view him positively. Think not so much
of his sinlessness as of his righteousness, his
loving service. Jesus upstepped the passive love
disclosed in the Hebrew concept of the heavenly Father to the higher active
and creature-loving affection of a God who is the Father of every individual,
even of the wrongdoer.
Reference: The Urantia Book, Paper 5, Section 4 |
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