title

4 Reasons Why Christians Need to Know About The Urantia Book

( Don't know what The Urantia Book is? See: "What is The Urantia Book?" )


1. The Urantia Book will have a significant impact on Christian theology and seminaries.

Early adapters in pulpits and in academic theology already are embracing The Urantia Book and incorporating its perspective on the life and teachings of Jesus into their thought and work. Institutional politics often prevent the book from being openly acknowledged as a source.

The Urantia Book revitalizes and affirms the reality of the archetypal stories of Christian culture which in recent decades have been fading into the background of human mythological constructs – the rebellion of Lucifer, the tragedy of Adam and Eve, the visitation of Melchizedek, the work of the Hebrew prophets, John the Baptist, and the incarnation of Jesus.

The Urantia Book enriches Trinitarian theology by adding new insights to the achievements of the Christian theological enterprise. Its Trinitarian theology is intimately integrated with that of Process theology providing a comprehensive expansion of Christianity's theistic world view. This theological background provides an illuminating contextualization of the life and teachings of Jesus.

2. The Urantia Book contains a detailed Jesus story which is stimulating the beginnings of a significant new movement within Christianity. Christians should be aware of this.

The demographics of Urantia Book readership replicate the demographics in global Christianity—from the spiritualist fringes, through the evangelical Christian and Catholic mainstream, to the borders of philosophical intellectualism. Thousands of websites and social media groups reflect this diversity. The Urantia "movement" is the first religious movement to develop on the Internet. There is no real center other than the publishing enterprise; no religious authority, no spiritual leader, no doctrines, no creeds. It is being spawned in the virtual world of the Internet and social media.

3. The Urantia Book issues a direct challenge to Christianity.

Are Christians willing to consider the possiblity of a major revelation given to our world in this time of great change and challenge to Christianity? Consider this challenge from the super-human authors of The Urantia Book:

"What a transcendent service if, through this revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered from the tomb of traditional theology and be presented as the living Jesus to the church that bears his name, and to all other religions! Surely the Christian fellowship of believers will not hesitate to make such adjustments of faith and of practices of living as will enable it to "follow after" the Master in the demonstration of his real life of religious devotion to the doing of his Father's will and of consecration to the unselfish service of man.

"Do professed Christians fear the exposure of a self-sufficient and unconsecrated fellowship of social respectability and selfish economic maladjustment? Does institutional Christianity fear the possible jeopardy, or even the overthrow, of traditional ecclesiastical authority if the Jesus of Galilee is reinstated in the minds and souls of mortal men as the ideal of personal religious living? Indeed, the social readjustments, the economic transformations, the moral rejuvenations, and the religious revisions of Christian civilization would be drastic and revolutionary if the living religion of Jesus should suddenly supplant the theologic religion about Jesus."

"The call to the adventure of building a new and transformed human society by means of the spiritual rebirth of Jesus' brotherhood of the kingdom should thrill all who believe in him as men have not been stirred since the days when they walked about on earth as his companions in the flesh."

4. Most importantly, The Urantia Book can enrich the reader's personal relationship with Jesus.

If you have a personal relationship with Jesus you will recognize him in the seven hundred page narrative of his life and teachings in The Urantia Book. Getting to know him better will enhance the spiritual life and service potentials of anyone taking the time to do so. Detailed background on the workings of the Spirit of Truth—poured out upon all people at Pentecost—empowers followers of Jesus to take greater advantage of this guiding spiritual force.

Conclusions:

The history of Christianity shows that significant religious transformations start at the grass roots with theses nailed to the doors of churches—not at the top of religious hierarchies, and not in established seminaries or institutions. The grass-roots spread of The Urantia Book is the beginning of what will become the greatest transformation in Christianity since the Reformation—a spiritual renaissance catalyzed by mass access to the unadulterated teachings of Jesus.

Christians weary of critical intellectual assaults on the Biblical world view will welcome The Urantia Book's refreshing authoritative reinforcement and expansion of fundamental truths. The depth and quality of the book are such that it cannot easily be dismissed. Christian leadership needs to be familiar enough with the book to be able to respond to questions from members who discover it and begin reading it.

The Urantia Book transplants timeless Biblical truths from their context in a first century world view and re-contextualizes them relative to the greatly expanded scientific and philosophical conceptual vocabulary of the twenty-first century. It currently is available in 16 languages.