Ceremonies

The evolution of religious observances progressed from placation, avoidance, exorcism, coercion, conciliation, and propitiation to sacrifice, atonement, and redemption. 90:0.1

Prayer is the technique whereby, sooner or later, every religion becomes institutionalized. And in time prayer becomes associated with deleterious agencies as ceremonials 91:5.6

In the Urantia Book

Ancient is sacred

• Religion clings to the mores; that which was is ancient and supposedly sacred. 92:2.2
• The priests have always sought to impress and awe the common people by conducting the religious ritual in an ancient tongue and by sundry magical passes 90:5.6
• Gesture, being older than speech, was the more holy and magical, and mimicry was believed to have strong magical power. 88:6.4
• vanity associated with itself other emotions which required a social arena wherein they might exhibit themselves and they gave birth to ceremonials. 68:2.10
• Magic was practiced through the use of wands, “medicine” ritual, and incantations, and it was customary for the practitioner to work unclothed. 88:6.1
• Magic, ritual, and ceremony surrounded the entire life of the ancients. 83:4.2
• The ceremonies of the cult were primitive man’s attempt to control the material world in which he found himself. 90:3.1-2
• Present-day forms of worship are simply the ritualization of these ancient sacrificial techniques of positive propitiation. 89:4.7

Rome

• The Romans had twelve ghost feasts and accompanying ceremonies each year. Half the days of the year were dedicated to some sort of ceremony. That was half the year wasted on ceremonies 87:3.4

Purification ceremonies

• Childbearing was once looked upon as rendering a woman unclean. Mothers must undergo extensive purification ceremonies subsequent to the birth of a child. 84:4.6 122:9.1 122:10.2
• all peoples have employed elaborate purification ceremonies designed to cleanse an individual after contact with the dead. 87:1.4
• the law of Moses required that after being healed of leprosy those cured should go to the priests to confirm their cure 166:2.4
• at weddings abundant water was used in the final purification ceremonies of the wedding celebration. 137:4.11
• Words become a part of ritual. The ritual next grew into elaborate ceremonies of purification, cleansing, and sanctification. Ritual finally developed into the modern types of social ceremonials and religious worship. 90:5.3 92:3.2
• if a Jew entered a gentile building before Passover that would render him ceremonially unclean, debarring from partaking of the feast and requiring a purification ceremony 185:0.3-4
• Pharisees scrupulously observed the laws of purification 166:1.7-10
• Prince’s staff included water cleansing as part of purification ceremonies 66:5.21
• rites for remission of sin were originally purification rituals 89:2.5

Jesus

• baptism was public profession for entering kingdom 144:6.7-9 144:8.5
• Jesus had to introduce into his miracle a certain ceremony to induce blind Josiah to act, because his faith was slight. 164:3.14
• the Pharisees were occupied with the false progress of the illusion of traversing deceptive circles of meaningless ceremonial services 147:5.8
• Jesus swept away all of the ceremonials of sacrifice and atonement. He abrogated all ceremonies not reflective of intimate family relationship between God and his sons 103:4.4 166:1.2 190:2.4
• Jesus’ antagonism to the Jewish traditions and slavish ceremonials was always positive. 147:6.6
• Jesus’ baptism was the ceremony of the final act of his purely human life 136:2.3
• The apostles knew that Jesus had celebrated other Passovers without the lamb; they knew that he did not personally participate in any sacrificial service of the Jewish system. 179:0.3
• the ordination ceremony, which Jesus performed twice, with the apostles and the seventy, consisted of laying hands on the head while those ordained kneeled in a circle around him 140:9 163
• The remembrance supper was the only ceremony or sacrament that Jesus established and instituted, but without claiming to establish a precise form but rather to suggest meanings. 179:5.4-5
• Jesus sometimes rebelled against tradition, resented for those ceremonial practices which he deemed misrepresentative of his Father in heaven 127:6.6
• usually gave thanks before eating but without obsession, he could forget about it 143:3.4
• Jesus’ washed his hands only for purposes of cleanliness, he abhorred the purely ceremonial performances 166:1.2 167:1.3 179:3.1
• Jesus proclaimed that to enter the kingdom of heaven there is no obligation to outrage our sense of justice by accepting an outworn system of ceremonies 155:6.5-7

Bible parallels

Passages that the paragraphs cited above parallel, quote or reinterpret, from Duane Faw’s Paramony cross-references. Hover a reference to read it.

• Altar of un-hewn stone 92:2.2 — Ex 20:25; Dt 27:5-6.
• Roasted meat & bread 92:2.2 — Ex 12:8.
• Childbirth “unclean” 84:4.6 — Lv 12:2-8; Lk 2:22-24.
• Firstborn to God 122:9.1 — Ex 13:1-2; Ex 22:29-30; Nm 3:13; Nm 8:16-17.
• Redemption 122:9.1 — Ex 13:15; Ex 34:20; Nm 18:15-16; Lk 2:22-24.
• Purification of puerperal women 122:9.1 — Lv 2:2-3,6,8; Lk 2:22-24.
• Two Rites 122:9.1 — Lk 2:21-24.
• Joseph “poor” 122:10.2 — Lv 12:2,6-8; Lk 2:22-24.
• Samaritan gives thanks 166:2.4 — Lk 17:14-16.
• Turning water into wine 137:4.11 — Jn 2:6-8.
• “Amen” as ritual 90:5.3 — Nm 5:22.
• “Selah” as ritual 90:5.3 — Ps 3:2.
• Purify: (Red Heifer ritual) 90:5.3 — Nm 19:1-22. *of altar*: Lv 8:15. *of booty taken in war*: Nm 31:12-24. *of priests' garments*: Ex 29:4. *of tabernacle*: Ex 29:41-44. *of woman after childbirth*: Lv 12:1-7.
• Cleanse: of congregation's sins 90:5.3 — Lv 4:13-21. *of individual sins*: Lv 5:1-13. *of leprosy*: Lv 14:2-11. *of trespasses*: Lv 6:8-18.
• Sanctify by anointing 90:5.3 — Ex 40:9-11. *by the Lord*: Lv 22:9,16. *of first born males*: Ex 13:2. *of people*: Ex 19:10,14. *of tabernacle & area*: Ex 29:41-44.
• Trial outside buildings 185:0.3 — Jn 18:28b.
• Ritual of confession as purification 89:2.5 — Lv 13:45.
• Dispute over baptism 144:6.7 — Jn 3:22-26.
• The agreement about baptism 144:6.7 — Jn 4:2.
• Many believed 144:8.5 — Lk 7:29.
• Jesus, the living way 147:5.8 — Jn 14:6; Heb 10:20.
• Jesus not wash hands 166:1.2 — Lk 11:38.
• Personalized Adjuster 136:2.3 — Mt 3:16-17; Mk 1:10-11; Lk 3:22; Jn 1:32-33.
• This is my beloved son 136:2.3 — Mt 3:17; Mk 1:11; Lk 3:22.
• Pharisees watched 167:1.3 — Lk 14:1b.
• Jesus prepares to wash feet 179:3.1 — Jn 13:4-5a.

Where it appears

Ceremonies is linked in 126 paragraphs of the text; the first 40 are listed.

See also

• cults
• religion
• traditions

What links here