Jesus in Rome: 3. Truth and Faith

The Urantia Book

document 132

3. Truth and Faith

 Nabon was a Greek Jew and the most important leaders of the main mystery cult in Rome, the Mithraic. While this high priest of Mithraism held many conferences with the Damascus scribe, more permanently he influenced the conversation between one night on truth and faith. Nabon had thought to make Jesus and had proposed him to return to Palestine as a Mithraic teacher. I did not know that Jesus was preparing to become among the first to the gospel of the kingdom. Since in modern language, here is the essence of what Jesus taught him:

 Truth can not be defined in words, but only by living it. The truth is always more than knowledge. Knowledge pertains to things observed, but truth transcends such purely material levels because it is associated with wisdom and embraces such imponderables as human experience, even spiritual and living realities. Knowledge originates in science; wisdom, in true philosophy; the truth, in the religious experience of spiritual life. Knowledge has to do with the facts; wisdom, with relationships; truth, with reality values.

Man tends to crystallize science, formulate philosophy, and dogmatize truth because he is mentally lazy in adjusting to the progressive struggles of living, while also terribly afraid of the unknown. Natural man is slow to initiate changes in his habits of thought and his technique of living.

Revealed truth, personally discovered truth, is the supreme delight of the human soul; It is the joint creation of the material mind and the indwelling spirit. Eternal salvation of the soul discerns the truth and a lover of beauty is assured by hunger and thirst for goodness which leads this mortal to develop a singleness of purpose to do the Father's will, to find God and resemble him. There is never conflict between true knowledge and truth. There may be conflict between knowledge and human beliefs, beliefs colored with prejudice, distorted by fear and dominated by fear of facing new facts of material discovery or spiritual progress beliefs.

But truth can never become man's possession without the exercise of faith. This is true because thoughts, wisdom, ethics and ideals of man will never rise beyond his faith, his sublime hope. And all such true faith is predicated on profound reflection, sincere self-criticism, and uncompromising moral consciousness. Faith is the inspiration of creative imagination spiritizing.

Faith acts to release the superhuman activities of the divine spark, the immortal germ, that lives within the mind of man, and that is the potential of eternal survival.Plants and animals survive in time by the technique of passing identical particles themselves from one generation to another. The human soul (personality) survives death by identity association with this indwelling spark of divinity, which is immortal, and which functions to perpetuate the human personality in a continuous and progressive highest level existence in the universe. The concealed seed of the human soul is an immortal spirit.

 Life continues -sobrevive- because it has a universe function, the task of finding God. Man's soul activated by faith can not achieve this goal unless your destination;and once you have achieved this divine goal, it can never end because it has become like God-eternal.

 Spiritual evolution is an experience of the increasing and voluntary choice of goodness attended by an equal and progressive diminution of the possibility of evil.With the achievement of the purpose of electing the goodness and full capacity for appreciation of truth, a perfection of beauty and holiness comes into being whose righteousness eternally inhibits the possibility of the emergence of even the concept of evil potential. A God-knowing soul like this, not bad casts no shadow of doubt when operating in such a high spirit level of divine goodness.

The presence of the Paradise spirit in the mind of man is the promise of revelation and faith assurance of an eternal existence of divine progression for every soul seeking to achieve identity with this immortal spirit fragment of the Universal Father resident.

 Progress in the universe is characterized by increasing personality freedom because it is related to the progressive achievement of ever higher levels of self-understanding and consequent voluntary restraint. Reaching perfection of spiritual moderation equivalent to the consummation of universal freedom and personal liberty. Faith nourishes and maintains the soul of man in the midst of the confusion of his early orientation in such a vast universe, whereas prayer becomes the great unifier of the various inspirations of the creative imagination and the impulses of faith a soul trying to identify with the spiritual ideals of the divine presence and associated resident.

Nabon was greatly impressed by these words, and by each of his talks with Jesus.These truths forever burned into his heart, and he was a great help when, in the future, came the preachers of the gospel of Jesus