The Urantia Book.... what the?

[Zane]

(Mods & Adims, being that not everyone checks the Book corner and that this issue is more about what people can tell me about the smell of random cultness this book gives off, rather than the book itself I have started this thread here. Feel free to lock it when you see fit. I just wanted to see if anyone else has come across it and can warn me about its content. Thank you.)

Hey I was feeling down today and went looking for some biblical books in german in the university library today, (didn't really find any) and while in the Philosophy of God/ Christanity section, I saw this really fat book (like 1000 plus pages) called The Urantia Book from memory.
It didn't really have a blurb or anything, while flicking through it I got the vibe of; Philosophy, Cosmology, Christanity, Evolution and total Cult/Sect feel to it not to mention REALLY DODGY Sci/fi. Something about Earth being the planet Uranian in a whole chain of inhabited planets made by God etc. (I won't go into it) but it had like 200 pages of year-by-year of Jesus Christs "life". And claimed to be the entire history of Gods actions or something. The authors were like 'The Life Administrator' 'Archangel' and I couldn't find any 'real' people authors. Also it claimed the fact that Christianity has turned the religion of Jesus into a religion about him, or some rubbish like that.

What the weirdest thing was, was that its symbol of some blue circle was registered... what the? Its like the Holy Bible having a Cross on the cover and a little r on the side.

The reason why Im posting this is to find out if anyone else has come across it, or can tell me that its the biggest bunch of bolony EVER to ease my mind. It riechs like a cult thing doesn't it.
And if this thread gets locked then please pm me. I consider this more of a Post-it than discussion anyway. Thanks

You can lock up now mods Thank you, and sorry for the inconvience.

[Technomancer]

I have, but only through the documentary film 'In Advance of the Landing' (which I highly recommend BTW). Basically, the film looked at some of the general zaniness of the hardcore UFO enthusiasts, including the Urantia group. They stuck in my mind largely because of the film clips from their own material were so...unusual. Anyways, I don't know much about the particulars of their beliefs and have never really bothered to look into it since I was under the impression that it was pretty small, and generall restricted to California.

[cbwing0]

Looking online, I was able to find a site with most of their material, including material form the "Urantia Papers." The first section was 21 parables of Jesus (not found in the Bible). I don't know for sure, but I would be willing to bet that these documents are modern-day creations. They are reminiscient of gnostic works, sprinkled with popular Biblical phrases, Eastern mysticism, and supported by a lot of modern Sci-Fi nonsense. Needless to say, it is a non-Christian cult. The most obvious thing was their belief in "seven spirits." Rather than a trinity, they believe that God is a divine truth table, with seven different separate beings based on the mathematical combinations of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (the classical conception of the Trinity is only one of these seven, according to them).

Most cults that have their origin in the United States are based on a group of people gathered around a specific person or organization's interpretation of the Bible, usually with some other texts thrown in to legitimate their more outlandish doctrines. By using out-of-context Bible quotes and pseudo-Christian terminology, these groups hope to give their cult the apperance of being merely another Christian denomination, which helps them to gain more converts.

The existence of these groups is one of the reasons that doctrine is so important. All Christians should study their Bibles and know how to defend their beliefs against such groups; otherwise, you will be helpless if they ever come to your town.

[Heart of Sword]

Uh...oro?

[Ashley]

Mods & Adims, being that not everyone checks the Book corner and that this issue is more about what people can tell me about the smell of random cultness this book gives off, rather than the book itself I have started this thread here. Feel free to lock it when you see fit. I just wanted to see if anyone else has come across it and can warn me about its content. Thank you

Please don't do this again. This is the third thread this week that's been posted in General to get more attention. If you haven't noticed, all those "database errors" everyone is getting recently has a lot to do with our bandwidth, and doing this just sucks it up faster. So please, in the future stick to posting in the right threads--here soon we will not be so leaninent and we will just start deleting threads in the wrong place. I know that some sections don't get as much attention, but trust me, the knowledgeable people in that field will be there, and I'm sure God will provide the right answers you need.

Now I'm redirecting it to the book forum.