Jesus called every believer to pray for the extension of the kingdom and to help bring the gospel to the world in thought, word, and deed. To develop as a gospel teacher along the lines proposed in The Urantia Book, you need to progress in at least three areas.
This cyberschool supports students of The Urantia Book in reaching these goals. It offers a web resources plus interaction to help you accomplish these goals and to support you, through prayer and conversation. One more essential feature: the program trains you in proclaiming the gospel without mentioning The Urantia Book. This is a program in evangelism for disciples. Most of us have jobs and families and diverse volunteer activities. Therefore, it is understood that people may be too busy to stay active in reading and discussion.
The gospel school begins its fourth year of operation in the Fall of 2004 with a revised approach. The first year was marked by a demanding schedule of readings from The Urantia Book and the Bible. The second year was marked by sustained discussion of themes pertaining to the gospel, to Buddhism, and to papers especially relevant to Christianity. The third year increased discussion of spiritual experience, the philosophy of living in truth, beauty, and goodness.
The expectation is that you have completed at least one reading of The Urantia Book. We are presently accepting applications for the Fall Semester. The school is roughly organized into semesters, a Fall semester beginning early September, focusing on the riches of the many-sided gospel and a Spring semester focusing on Christianity and other religions. Perhaps it goes without saying that discussion is to stay focused on gospel school-related topics, and we expect high standards of loving communication, including expressing criticism in according to the Jesus grievance procedure (the lesson on forgiveness, 159:1, 1762).
If you would like to join the list, write to me, Jeffrey Wattles: jwattles at kent.edu—I write out the @ sign to frustrate the “spiders” that glean e-mail addresses from the web for spam. In any case, I ask that you write a few paragraphs introducing yourself to our group. Please do not send e-mail attachments. Because of the risk of viruses, I do not accept attachments. Instead simply include what you want to send in your e-mail message. I am willing to add fifteen people to the list this Fall (first come, first serve). After these fifteen, applicants will be welcome to receive the posts if they like but not post to the list. This restriction should keep the number of posts per week to a moderate level.
I recommend a video tape, “The Depths of Jesus’ Gospel,” created by Grace Boyett and others on the basis of my April 2001 presentation at the School for Meanings and Values. For $15 you can get a copy. The ideas and text are already on the website, but the seminar was a good event and worth an hour of your time. You can order a copy through The School of Meanings and Values, P.O. Box 3324, Camarillo, CA 933011-3324 http://www.school-meanings-values.org/ A Spanish version is due soon.
I also recommend the rearrangement of stories from the New Testament Gospels according to the sequence in The Urantia Book, which has been done by Preston Thomas. It’s titled, The Life and Teachings of Jesus, available from the Einstein School, 180 Townwood Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22901.
A prime resource is the collection of articles in this and related websites. For example,
Our projects begin with living the gospel in the home. We then reach out to work and then to the religious group and wider community. We may sample a variety of methods that range across the spectrum from low challenge to high challenge. Ideally these are projects you will do with a partner.
Here are just a few examples of things you may do to enhance your capabilities in sharing the gospel.
1. Devoting an hour to socializing with the intention of moving into conversation on spiritual topics.
2. Going regularly to a public place, where, after a while (perhaps a month), you become an accustomed part of the environment and people come up to you and initiate conversation.
3. Visiting the sick.
4. Going door-to-door bringing a gospel message.
Instructions will be provided for such activities, but experience is the real teacher.
A cyber-school is very limited in its ability to prepare you in public speaking and preaching, but we will do what we can, working with public speaking texts, seminary materials on preaching, and showing you how to seek opportunities to preach. We will also discuss problems and opportunities in functioning inside and outside the context of religious institutions. You will find opportunities to develop as a speaker and to preach the gospel. And we will support you in discussion, prayer, and teaching. We will talk about learning to speak at Toastmasters Clubs, college classes, and seminaries. We will discuss street preaching, preaching on a college or university campus, putting on services at homes for retired people, and preaching in religious institutions.
We will ask how Jesus did things, look to him as a pattern, and adapt that pattern to our circumstances today. Stated more broadly, in learning from the achievements of the culture, we will base ourselves primarily on the teachings of The Urantia Book and restructure popular approaches in the light of those teachings. We will not begin by basing ourselves on currently popular models and then embellish them with thoughts from The Urantia Book.
Best wishes to you as you progress toward being like a watered garden in your living of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man and in the blessed labor of sharing saving truth with those you meet! Let us pray for the extension of the realization of the Father’s family.
Jeffrey Wattles, August, 2003
Here, from previous years, are some remarkable student results and some of the instructor's messages.
To grasp the gospel, study not merely with the mind alone, but with your life. The truth of the gospel is infinite, divine, and eternal, so our grasp is never static. It is the Spirit of Truth who formulates the gospel afresh to meet a generation’s spiritual difficulties. Therefore, we do well to seek to understand those difficulties. You come to understand people and their spiritual difficulties through personal interaction, study, and prayer. Study includes improving your grasp of the Bible and other religious literature on which your people rely for their grasp of religion.You
learn methods of outreach by observation, instruction, and practice.
Most important is revelatory living.
This means living truth, beauty, and goodness in your own life to such an
extent that you spontaneously express divine love for others.
Easier said than done (especially when things get rough), but sometimes
it does happen, and the more it happens, the more powerful becomes your
integration of the key factors in spiritual teaching.
You move from service-discovery toward ministry-revelation. Note that when Jesus trained the first six apostles, he
insisted that they not do public teaching and preaching until after a season of
personal work. You will design, in
consultation with the instructor, a course of experience in personal work.
Added to the website will be presentations to help you whet appetites,
create parables, teach, answer questions, and preach.
Further aids will be developed as time permits and as others’ interest
requires. Jesus’ illustration of the fatherhood of God and his
demonstration of the brotherhood of man lead all who would follow.
The first course is designed to deepen our grasp of the gospel. We will devote three months to this study, beginning in September. How shall we best spend that time? Our goal is for each of us to gain, after twelve weeks of effort, an enhanced realization of the infinite, divine, and eternal truth that is variously expressed in statements of the gospel. You might have many thoughts about how you might best approach this goal, including the following:
Each of these seems essential to me. Since this is a school for some who have little time as well as for some who have much time, what we do will vary.
If we look to The Urantia Book, we find the core of the gospel presented as the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and there are several themes surrounding that core. What prayer, reading, meditation, projects for living, and intentions will best help you expand your understanding of that many-faceted gospel?
Welcome to our gospel school! I look forward to the power of group cooperation as we, in spiritual unity, grow in the ways of living Jesus’ gospel in thought, word, and deed.
Imagine sitting around Jesus and imagine his leading us. In my best study group experiences, there was not a strongly highlighted leader-figure, but rather a sense of all of us dipping into the smorgasbord of truth.
Over four months with the first six apostles (plus James), Jesus held over “one hundred long and earnest, though cheerful and joyous, sessions.” We can find that attitude again.
Our sessions will be shorter, though, because of our busy schedules. We rely on the Master’s help in balancing and unifying our lives. Health, sanity, and happiness will grow for us if we do not push ourselves excessively in this course--which I think of as “evangelism for disciples.” A spirit of compromise and flexibility and mercy is key, lest the course become a burden, rather than a blessing.
Deepening our reading
As you read paper one, see what special meaning the paragraphs have for you on this reading. Make any decision regarding their implications through your normal prayer process. Then go to the Questions on Part I. and consider the pertinent questions.
A vision of our work
Along with the readings in Papers 1-3, see the web article on the contemporary issue of naming God "Father."
I especially appreciate something Steve Shinall wrote: "In my mind's eye, I see a torch being passed...an outstretched hand reaching out from the past, to now...to us. For me, this torch, this gospel of the kingdom, is the living truth that proclaims the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man."
Responding to the September 11 attacks
Never doubt that the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men. In response to what many have been writing, I created an essay on Jesus' way of relating to politics and one discussing the Urmia lectures (1485-91) for a general audience, "The Role of Religion in World Peace."
One of my favorite observations about Paper 2 is the way the author presents the topics of justice, mercy, and love. In seminary I recall discussions about how to "reconcile" the love of God with the justice of God. The two were set in tension--as though the love of God requires the abandonment of any system to apprehend and restrain serious offenders, and as though the justice of God were merely punitive. There is no tension between love and justice. Mercy mediates, and mercy is justice applied in the light of a full understanding of the creature's circumstances. There is thus not even any tension between justice and mercy. In one phrase, the potential of conceiving a tension is allowed, where it speaks of "the proportions of justice and mercy" that are decided upon in a particular case. The justice of God flows from the Father's eternal perfection. Once the teaching on mercy has sandwiched the section on justice and righteousness, we are ready to hear this revelation of the love of God without any sense of tension within the eternally perfectly unified nature of God at all. We note that the Master Spirits vote, so there is more to say on the matter, but at the Deity level we see the most beautiful and, in a way, simple, unity.
It helps me very much during this time to think of love and mercy as the divinely PERSONAL attitudes toward wrongdoers and justice as a collective and impersonal attitude. One of the hijackers attended our local mosque. Of course, there may be like-minded people there, but until I have reason to believe that someone has such views, I am reaching out in openness and trust and friendship.
I feel so blessed to have known so many wonderful Muslims during the past twenty-some years, to have taught the Qur'an and Islam year after year, to have organized conferences of world religions. I can understand why Islamic legal scholars are so upset with the Taliban and why the terrorists are repudiated as failing to represent Islam. The term "holy war" is misleading in many ways, but this is not the place to explicate it. I recommend that you all learn about Islam.
More than ever, the world needs to hear the gospel free of its attachment to any particular holy book or institutional religion.
The most dynamically saintly person I ever met is a leader in Sarajevo who says that in his ministries to all ethnic and religious groups he finds such an interest among Muslims in learning about Jesus that he predicts an amazing turn around religiously (spiritual renaissance?) in a decade or so in that part of the world. How does he do it? Second-miler service whets appetites. More about his group?
Jesus' first major sermon, the sermon on the kingdom, has always enthralled me. I feel the infinity and mystery and wonder of God in this sermon. Each sentence, by itself, is understandable. But as the sequence of major thoughts goes by so graciously, in a way logically, but giving such expansion of truth at every turn, I find myself in awe and beyond the capacity of my mind to grasp the magnitude of the revelatory presentation. I have the kind of mind that can focus in a sustained way upon a single theme--such as the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. But this sermon introduces many themes. Note it's critical edge. Jesus was never shy about making his critique, but he almost always did it very briefly--sometimes in less than a full sentence. He was direct, almost blunt, but the critique is always placed in a context that is briskly and radiantly uplifting. This time I was especially moved by this sentence: "But I say to you in all sincerity, unless you seek entrance into the kingdom with the faith and trusting dependence of a little child, you shall in no wise gain admission." Do you remember how our first reading in this course included a remark about faith as what moves us forward every step of the way? Recall how Jesus' faith is described as retaining the child-like dependence and trust even as he gain the robust and aggressive qualities of maturity.
Not only are we not to develop a religion about Jesus; neither are we to develop a religion about his teachings (1543). We are to re-present those teachings to the world (which is not to say that we can never talk about Jesus, of course).
Studying the gospel with intensity for a long time will make you an expert in gospelology. Last spring I did a presentation at the School of Meanings and Values, and Grace has been of enormous service in transcribing that talk. In due season, the SMV will offer a video tape together with a study guide (the tape is already available), and in due season I'll ask you each to get a copy of that. Gospelology, however, even if done with spiritual enthusiasm, is not the same as the top priority preaching to which Jesus called his hearers. Moreover, as I feel now, I would go so far as to say that a sincere listening to the sermon on the kingdom carries you beyond the realm in which talk of expertise even makes sense.
Healing is part of the apostles' work. "I send you forth to proclaim liberty to the spiritual captives, joy to those in the bondage of fear, and to heal the sick in accordance with the will of my Father in heaven." I have long believed that we should all grow to such levels of high RPM faith, that we too can cooperate in the Father's intention to heal. I am convinced that a key to this is being "a strong, positive, and beneficent personality whose ministry banishes fear and destroys anxiety" (1658). During these challenging times, we have an extra opportunity to grow in this direction and to let our light shine in this way.
Note that Jesus did not employ his powers to effect John's release from prison because of his loyalty to the Father's will. The Father's will is the most mysterious and demanding level of Deity will. So much suffering must be gone through . . . on the way to a truly fulfilling destiny.
Jesus and the 12 were not to be aligned with any one particular religious group, since they were trying to win them all. Jesus' life was supposed to be a gift to all religions, not a new and separate one.
Note the wonderful bond of friendship that the six formed with Jesus during these early months of being together. Did you find yourself wondering whether and how you might yourself develop your friendship with Jesus? Ask and see what happens!
I can't say enough about the lesson on the family--not to launch into another dissertation, but I think that the Master's teaching can spark countless insights into the way the Father relates with us and the way we can relate with others.
I want to emphasize 1670#2 with its crucial implication for how we relate to other religions. If, being in largely Christian environments, we accommodate the freshly restated religion of Jesus to Christianity, then we will repeat the sad error of our predecessors. Muslims, for example, Jews, C h r i s t i a n s, and non-believers today need to understand the real religion of Jesus without its being identified with the tradition of Christianity. My approach to that topic is to celebrate how real religion of Jesus keeps bursting through Christianity, with or without an enlightened theology. The more we understand others' different religions, the more we'll be able to relate the gospel to them, but we should never settle down in easy accommodation to one tradition.
I asked you to read the sections on suffering and evil since these topics arise so frequently in conversation, both with believers and with unbelievers. These teachings of Jesus are priceless. Note that in his retelling the story of Job he reverses the sequence, giving the far more beautiful story that Job first repents and then gets the vision! The Urantia Book speaks to this issue from more angles than I've ever seen elsewhere.
On "Why Do the Heathen Rage?" (1725)
Here are a few reflections on Jesus' remarkable talk, "Why Do the Heathen Rage?" First of all, whatever similarities there may be between then and now, Jesus clearly identifies those times as the ones of which the Psalmist was speaking. How remarkable it is for a Psalmist to be able to look ahead to such times. Now t h a t 's a farseeing and forward-looking Psalmist.
Next, I'm struck by the Father's merciful attitude toward these raging heathen: they are ignorant and untaught. Moreover, they have reason for their rage: You apostles are altogether too vaccillating and indefinite in your teaching conduct . . guilty of too much chronic yearning . . . regretting the past, whining over the present, and vainly hoping for the future, lacking in the courage to obey the truth. In other words, if the apostles had genuinely caught the spirit of the new religion, then they could have won sufficient support that the present opposition would not have materialized. The resistance of tradition was not to the Master but to the inadequate following by his apostles.
The stunning conclusion of this discourse is the exhortation to balance--science and religion. This seems discontinuous indeed with the preceding train of thoughts. What can be the connection? Is there a way of
scientific thinking and acting that could really have helped these apostles? What facts did they need to discern clearly? What causes did they need to explore? What process of evolution did they need to recognize? And how could their religion have been enhanced thereby? Or was their inadequate response due to their being oppressed by how they took the facts, causes, and developments around them? Did they in some ways have an adequate grasp of fact but an inadequately dynamic religious response? Jesus' conclusion provides one of the great reasons for developing the philosophy of living as called for by the Divine Counselor on p. 43.
Here is another nest of problems for reflection. I have had more than one person challenge the very project of evangelism by throwing at me the line: "The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people, is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth-co-ordinated life." Jesus rarely said anything with qualification, but he did here. Moreover, he is taking them around to go to the people at the same time that he makes this remark. So there is a double-sidedness to the remark and the living situation here.
Contemplating these interactions, I make the following conclusion. Look at Donna's magnificent experience with the women in prison (see below). Would that ever have happened if she didn't go forth? Is not the very mobilization of her
entire personality in that service a factor in the very growth that will increasingly lead people to seek her out? Look how God was able to make use of the combined personality resources of the women involved. At the same time, we must never be complacent in our growth, since the path from spirit birth through being spirit-taught, spirit-led, and spirit-filled is one that we each desire to complete in this life. Growth is (for the most part) a gradual affair.
You will attract people, more and more. You are the light of the world.
The readings beginning with the epochal sermon show Jesus responding to the heightening attacks of his religious enemies. He did not take the militant initiative of the epochal sermon before his enemies were gathered and poised for a coordinated strike. He responded by engaging the open warfare, in the main, an enhanced revelation of the truth of who he was and a clarification of the choice before those Jews. These selections nourish us on the truths of our Creator Son's relation with us; but they also manifest some of the very extensive overlap between what The Urantia Book presents and what conservative Christianity cherishes. While we must take care not to distort our primary public message to accomodate the demands of any one religion or group, we must also attain and maintain spiritual unity by seeing, in the many-sidedness of Jesus' teaching, the oneness of Jesus' life (1866!).
Recall the essay "Conflict and Spiritual Brotherhood."
The power of God's forgiveness. I was touched by our page 1861 reading about "receiving God’s forgiveness." At my work I decided to try this with a person who came in to begin long-term psychotherapy. There was an episode in this person’s past involving a number of people whom he couldn’t forgive; in addition, he was afraid of God’s anger. I said to him that the model that Christ brought to our world about the Father was something different, and silently in my mind I asked Jesus to talk through me to this person and said the next words aloud: "God is your loving father, and he has already forgiven to you. Now you can forgive everyone involved and yourself. Receive this forgiveness now." And I have never seen something like that before! This person said to me, "I am so relieved now. This was all I wanted to hear. I need no psychotherapy any more." So the healing power of God’s forgiveness is enormous when it is received openly. And, of course, no Urantia Book was mentioned. (From a participant who wishes to remain anonymous.)
A three-day prison ministry retreat.
This weekend (Fri-Sun) a group of ~40 people will be going into Lincoln Women's Correctional Facility (prison). We will be doing what is called a 'Walk to Emmaus' weekend. This consists of 15 talks, interaction, singing and other events. The hope of this weekend is to provide an environment in which Jesus can be encountered. The theme of the weekend is a life of piety, study and action. The atmosphere of the weekend is intended to model the love of God and Jesus for us. The power fueling this is prayer and the grace of God. There will be about sixty women from the prison attending the weekend. They need to sign up to come and are screened in advance by the chaplain of the prison. Remember us in your prayers. I will be there as a table co-leader. There will be seven at the table. We will discuss the talks and share ideas. I'll let you know how the weekend goes. This will be a new experience for me and I am excited about it. I'll let you know how it turns out next week.
[The following is her report.]
The weekend is designed to 1. present information in talks. 2. Discuss and
share the information presented in small groups that can bond together. 3.
(listed last but certainly not least) demonstrate unconditional love.
Regarding the talks, I observed that many individuals heard different things
from listening to the same words. As they shared what spoke to them after
the talks I found that what they agreed upon often were the personal stories,
'this is what I experienced'.... There is great power to reach people when
we share our own spiritual experience honestly, especially the 'warts' and all.
At the end of the weekend the
participants were given a chance to share what they learned and what they were
going to do with that. Some of the most moving thoughts shared were about
the demonstrations of unconditional love. One woman (woman by experience
but barely by age) had never heard of the concept. She may never have
experienced even parental love in her life. She shared that she was beaten
- with a baseball bat, by her mother - and had run away. When she
contacted her mother to return home she was not allowed to return. Her
understanding of God as a loving God was grounded in the definition of 'Love'
that she received by our actions just that weekend.
As we plan for our ministry - don't
forget the basics. If you have not love, you have nothing. I know in
my sheltered world that many basics can be assumed by me to be present in the
minds of others. Theological accuracy is important. However,
what is a discussion about the religion of Jesus vs the religion about Jesus
going to mean to a person who has never experienced love. It may have as
much lasting meaning as who won the Packers/Bears game has to a non-football
fan. This weekend was a great illustration of how the disciples could not
understand the Master but they could love him. I guess what I am trying to
say is: know your audience. Jesus knew the need of the person and
ministered to that need. When we find a true spiritual need and allow God
to minister to that need through us, little explosions of truth, power, light,
life, love - whatever term fits - happen right then.
At one point in the weekend the room
was filled with love and peace. What joy will be present when the world is
settled in light and life.
At one point in the weekend the group is met by people from the Emmaus community who come just for this event, stay 15 minutes and then leave - singing but saying nothing. They are just a loving group of strangers to the people on the weekend. After this event which is quite moving the women return to their table groups and pray together. Some women can choose to talk to a minister at this time also. As this time was ending one of the women at my table noted the tremendous feeling of peace that permeated the room. She was right. I have been wondering and working on the idea of 'practicing the presence of God'. I now have an experience of how that feels. I have carried that feeling of peace since the weekend. It is dimming a little now but isn't gone. It has truly sparked a strong desire to live in the light in my heart. (From Donna Simms)
I am starting to see that the Spirit of Truth will lead us to where we can share the gospel with the "spirit of positive aggression", without being fanatical or offending anyone. I am feeling a hint of relief that I might not have to be walking on egg shells around anyone else's beliefs anymore. I am still not quite sure how, but there is one thought that helps me feel more free to say what I really want to: Lots of people say lots of insensitive and intolerant stupid stuff that goes against other people's beliefs so why shouldn't I/we say something that is good and true?
I know there's quite a few people who have a bad impression of the Urantia book because I've been timid or caved-in when the moment came to "stand in vigorous defense of the truth which has saved and sanctified" me. (I say Urantia book because that was what I thought sharing the gospel was. I am very surprised and thankful to be learning the importance of sharing the gospel aside from anything written; and to be learning what the LIVING GOSPEL that saves people's souls really is.)
It is starting to make sense that I can be "surcharged with divine enthusiasm" to tell people about the joy of life with God now and forever, and it has a high level of potency for ringing deep in them. I don't need to fear that that I am being fanatical or conversion oriented. But to be really excited about a book to someone I don't know has all sorts of cultish connotations.
Wow, I just got the thought that there could be a deeper reason the Urantia book hasn't been better received at large. It is mostly instruction in the advanced ways of the spirit. The people I have seen that take to the UB have obviously been born of the spirit already. But how many people actually are born of the spirit? No wonder this work of preaching and sharing the gospel is so important. Lots more people would gladly join the family if they knew it was so simple and wonderful. (From Shane)