The Gospel according to the Urantia Book
A large portion of the Urantia book (Part 4) is the Life and Teachings of Jesus but is this the same account as the Biblical story?
Is the Gospel in the Urantia book the same Gospel given to us in the Biblical documents? First let us look at what the gospel is and what it means. The term gospel comes from the Greek word “evangelion” it is used 30+ times in the NASB This term was well known in the time the biblical documents were written, it is where we get the idea of evangelism. The term means basically bringing the good news.
So, what is the good news according to both the Bible and the Urantia book? Are they the same? Looking at the info in the cover of the 1978 revision of the UB it tries to sum it up.
“All Urantia (earth) is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael (Jesus), unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to people of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.” Pg 1041 of UB
It goes on to say…..
The hope of modern Christianity is that it should …humbly bow itself before the cross it so valiantly extols, there to learn anew from Jesus of Nazareth the greatest truths mortal man can ever hear – the living gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
To quote the actual passage in the UB it is listed below.
[195:10.21] The hope of modern Christianity is that it should cease to sponsor the social systems and industrial policies of Western civilization while it humbly bows itself before the cross it so valiantly extols, there to learn anew from Jesus of Nazareth the greatest truths mortal man can ever hear—the living gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
Multiple Authors. The Urantia Book . Uversa Press. Kindle Edition.
So, the gospel of the Urantia papers is summed up in the concept of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man. During the time the UB papers were being compiled, there was a liberal social gospel view of the scriptures that proposed this idea of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man – FOGBOM. It is also a huge concept in Freemasonry.
Let us review what the biblical documents have to say on the Gospel. The central theme in the NT is that God provided a way of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus as an atonement for sin and separation from God. The good news is that it is not something we can achieve but what Jesus did for us, and we need to accept that free gift and follow Him.
John 3:16 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
In 1Corinthians 15 Paul who wrote the majority of the New Testament spells out the basics of what the “Gospel” is.
15:1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, 15:2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 15:3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 15:4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, 15:5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve…4
Pretty clear that the New testament version of the good news is different than the Urantia book. Now, is there a theme of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God in the Bible? Yes of course but that is NOT the good news but a good idea and concept for us to live by. The Urantia book proposes that almost all mankind is “saved” and will go to heaven as long as you believe in the FOGBOM concept. It also stands in opposition to the words of Jesus in that the path to salvation is narrow but the path to Hell is wide. The UB does not deny the fact that Jesus died on the Cross, but that He did not die to atone for sin. They want you to believe that Jesus came to teach us that we are already God’s children.
I can hear the followers of this quite incredible book say but that is not what Jesus taught us but what Peter and Paul taught and that is suspect.
“The whole idea of ransom and atonement is incompatible with the concept of God as it was taught and exemplified by Jesus of Nazareth” Paper 188 (UB, 2017).
What did Jesus say regarding His death?
Matt 20;28 Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
John 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
So even Jesus Himself spoke about eternal life and the need for a ransom.
I have spoken with Urantia followers and many of the concerns they have is they cannot reconcile the thought that God would demand payment from His only Son for the sins of mankind. That is a faulty view of the scriptures. God took the punishment on Himself incarnate in Jesus for the sins of the world. He (the Father) was in Jesus taking the punishment we deserve.
John 8:24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Clearly two different gospels even from Jesus’s own words. I can see why they would steer clear of Paul. He was adamant about the deception to come.
Gal 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
I believe the gospel of Urantia to be a counterfeit gospel. And I think the Apostle was making sure we are prepared to refute these teachings that sound “Christian” but are not. I do not say these things to be argumentative or to ridicule your beliefs. I believe what we believe has eternal consequences. But I say these in love and hope that if you are a follower of this movement you would take another look at the ancient scriptures and place your hope in what He did on the cross for you. We are not automatically ushered into heaven because we believe in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man.
Ultimately it is your choice to which “version” you believe. I want to make sure you realize that the two accounts cannot be reconciled. They cannot both be TRUE, regardless of what you have been told.
Even the famous atheist Christopher Hitchens understood what the basic message of the New Testament was. In an interview with Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell published in the Portland Monthly magazine.
The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?
I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.
She didn’t even respond and changed the subject……
It is sad that an atheist like Hitchens understands Christianity better than a Unitarian minister and the so-called Revelators in the Urantia Book.