Episode:Jesus—His Living Faith (Part 3)
The full summation of human life is the knowledge that man is educated by fact, ennobled by wisdom, and saved—justified—by religious faith. Physical certainty consists in the logic of science; moral certainty, in the wisdom of philosophy; spiritual certainty, in the truth of genuine religious experience.
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Supremacy, Morality, Spiritual Certainty
Summary by Kermit
We began with a discussion of the nature and purposes of the 4thER contrasted with the 5th ER. The 4thER consisting of a spiritual uplift to mankind culminating in the bestowal of the Creator Son’s Spirit of Truth and the Father’s universal bestowal of His indwelling spirit fragments to all normal minded mortals of the realm. The 5th ER consisting of philosophical uplift designed to meet the emergency facing the civilizing world of today. A key point highlighted in the discussion was the absence of social pronouncements contained in Jesus’ gospel and the emphasis in the Urantia Book on the need for the complete reorganization of the world.
I would direct interested students to consult the archive of the broadcast for some stimulating reflections on the implications for personal ministry contained therein.
196:3.1
The authors present us with a masterful delineation of the three elements in universal reality (fact, idea, relation) as viewed from the vantage points of religion and philosophy. The SoS co-hosts provided enlightening commentary on the derivation of these associations from the threefold universe realities of thing, meaning, and value.
Philosophy becomes the door through which we begin to see universe reality objectively. Starting with things, meanings and values as our objective foundation of universe reality, the very first thing revealed in the 5th ER, we can begin to understand cosmic reality. Here the authors are moving us forward from the purely religious consciousness of the 4thER to the cosmic consciousness of the 5th ER.
The ambitious purpose of the 5th ER we now see as fostering the establishment of a true religion of the inner life, a true science of the outer life, and bringing them together in a superadditive consequence of a true philosophy, founded on the fundamental recognition of the threefold actuality of things, meanings and values, and bringing that into relationship with Deity.
Thus a philosophic perspective provides a more harmonious picture of objective reality than the religious perspective.
The mind of man can attain high levels of spiritual insight and corresponding spheres of divinity of values because of the spirit nucleus in that mind, the Adjuster.
Upon this objective foundation of the cosmic fact of the threefold actuality, comes the Adjuster to harmonize these facets of reality. The evidences of this indwelling spirit, being love, wisdom, and worship. In our discussion, these three consequences of the indwelling spirit were examined in the context of the six levels of meaning and the three cosmic domains.
The authors tell us that, while we as creatures are unable to create real values, the human mind can discover, recognize, interpret, and CHOOSE. And the three basic choices of the mortal mind (moral, ethical, and religious) are again, seen in the context of the three cosmic domains, with the point of symmetry being the moral domain or the intuition of duty. From moral choice, the moral consciousness, the 2nd cosmic intuition reaches down and out to the 1st cosmic intuition (causation and brotherly love) in ethical choice. Again, from the moral center, reaching up to the 3rd cosmic intuition (worship) we arrive at religious choice.
Note that these activities represent high levels of spiritual insight, and as such are occurring on levels above basic adjutant mind.
We are thus, in the 5th ER given a picture of religion as an integral part of supreme reality, as opposed to the view of religion as the central focus of our lives (4thER).
Therefore, we see human progress is accomplished through the intriguing technique of revelational evolution.
