Christianity

In the Urantia Book

Evolution

the church is only the larval stage of the thwarted spiritual kingdom 170:5.21
Many of the great truths taught by Jesus were almost lost in these early compromises, but they yet slumber in this religion of paganized Christianity, which was in turn the Pauline version of the life and teachings of the Son of Man. 149:2.2 195:0.18
The church, being an adjunct to society and the ally of politics, was doomed to share in the intellectual and spiritual decline of the so-called European “dark ages. In a spiritual sense, Christianity was hibernating. 195:4
Protestant reformation disrupted unity of Christianity 92:5.15
It is futile to talk about a revival of primitive Christianity; we must go forward from where we find ourselves. 195:10.1

Problems of Christianity

paganized and socialized Christianity stands in need of new contact with the uncompromised teachings of Jesus; it languishes for lack of a new vision of the Master’s life on earth. 195:9.2
the great tests of twentieth-century Christianity are materialism, mechanism, and secularism 195:9.3
If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of new teachers 195:9.4
Christianity—the best of the religions of the twentieth century—is not only a religion about Jesus, but it is so largely one which men experience secondhand. 195:9.8
Christianity has dared to lower its ideals before the challenge of human greed, war-madness, and the lust for power 195:9.9
Christianity is threatened by slow death from formalism, overorganization, intellectualism, and other nonspiritual trends. The modern Christian church is not the brotherhood of dynamic believers expected by Jesus 195:9.10-11

Influences

Christianity had a lot of influence on Buddhism and Hinduism, but by the time they did it was already too Westernized 94:9.3 94:4.1
new and strange religions are only superficially accepted. This is what happened to a New Zealand tribe that nominally accepted Christianity but then crafted a new version based on their beliefs. 92:2.5

Strengths

* church is inevitable and useful social result of Jesus’ life (170:5.7,10)
* it is founded upon the historic fact of Michael’s bestowal 121:5.16
* sooner or later the gospel will emerge from Christianity to transform the world 194:2.8
* at its inception it was the greatest religion ever known and in the twentieth century it is the best religion (92:6.11,16) 194:4.6 195:9.8
* Jesus did not found the so-called Christian church, but he has, in every manner consistent with his nature, fostered it as the best existent exponent of his lifework on earth. 195:10.9
* Christianity of the twentieth century has truly been one of the greatest powers for good on earth, and therefore no man should lightly regard it, notwithstanding its inherent and acquired defects. 195:10.12
* in recent times has experienced a relative rehabilitation 195:4.3-4
* Paul and his conferees founded a religion of faith, hope, and charity. Jesus revealed and exemplified a religion of love 196:3.19
* Christianity promises salvation from sin, sanctity 5:4.5-8
* there is a river of truth running through the centuries in Christianity 195:9.1
* Christianity even now willingly goes the first mile, but mankind languishes and stumbles along in moral darkness because there are so few genuine second-milers 195:10.5

Weaknesses

* church is institutionalized to spiritual barrenness 195:3.9
* church is unconscious obstacle to real gospel 195:10.8
* Ecclesiasticism is at once and forever incompatible with that living faith 195:10.8
* Jesus never place emphasis upon struggle between soul and body 157:6.4
* Marriage which culminates in the home is indeed man’s most exalted institution, but it is essentially human; it should never have been called a sacrament. 83:8.1-4
* Christianity is an extemporized religion, and therefore must it operate in low gear. 195:10.18
* it is afraid that its unconsecrated, self-sufficient fellowship, its social respectability, and its selfish economic maladjustment will be exposed 196:1.2
* the gospel of Jesus became the gospel of ransom to purchase man back from the clutch of the devil 194:2.8
* those who have come to venerate the divine and risen Christ should have overlooked the man—the valiant and courageous hero—Joshua ben Joseph. 92:7.12
* there is no excuse for the involvement of the church in commerce and politics; such unholy alliances are a flagrant betrayal of the Master. 195:10.13
* Christianity languishes for lack of new vision of Master’s life 195:9.2
* It has long since ceased to be the religion of Jesus, although it still valiantly portrays a beautiful religion about Jesus 98:7.11 149:2.2
* Because of overmuch false sentiment the beneficent minister of the underprivileged has unwisely perpetuated degenerate stocks 99:3.5
* it has seriously blundered in the attempt to put a miraculous interpretation on certain epochs of human history. 97:8.5-6
* Throughout Middle Ages existed, alongside slumbering and secularized Christianity, a continuous stream of mysticism, a fantastic spiritual experience bordering on unreality and philosophically akin to pantheism. 195:4.1
* Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems 195:9.4
* it has become so thoroughly Occidentalized that many non-European peoples very naturally look upon Christianity as a strange revelation of a strange God and for strangers 92:6.18 (94:4.1,10)
* The Pentateuch was incorporated into Christian theology, profoundly influencing it for a long time. 74:8.12
* The Christian teachers perpetuated the belief in the fiat creation of the human race, and all this led directly to the formation of the hypothesis of a onetime golden age of utopian bliss 74:8.13
* some fellow Jews of Jesus rejected him and conspired to bring about his ignominious death; but that in no way justifies the unjust hatred, nor condones the unfair attitude of mind, which so many professed Christians have maintained toward individual Jews for many centuries. 175:2
* Notwithstanding the Master’s effort to free man from pigeonholed rituals, the Remembrance Supper was reduced to a set formula 179:5.5
* Christianity sects are pitiful subdivision of believers, a weakness to Oriental peoples 170:5.20 195:4.3 (195:10.7,15)
* Religion is now confronted by the challenge of a new age of scientific minds and materialistic tendencies. In this gigantic struggle between the secular and the spiritual, the religion of Jesus will eventually triumph. 195:4.4-5 195:8.3 195:9.9-11
* Christians should not require already God-conscious men to reject their historic illuminated leaders 99:5.11
* modern Christianity sponsor in excess the social systems and industrial policies of Western civilization 99:3.1 195:10.20-21
* Christianity, today, has become a religion well adapted to the social, economic, and political mores of the white races. (94:4.1,10) 98:7.11
* it is the one shameful thing about the religion that presumed to take Jesus’ name that it lacked the moral courage to follow this noble example in its subsequent attitude toward women. 149:2.9 167:6.4

The future (195:10)

The living Jesus is the only hope of a possible unification of Christianity. (195:10.11,16)

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.

Spirit gravity 195:10.1 — Jer 31:3; Jn 6:44; Jn 12:32.
More than conquerors 195:10.1 — Ro 8:37.
Expectant faith 195:9.8 — Mt 212:21; Lk 17:6; Acts 14:27; Acts 21:19; Ro 5:1-2.
Father of Lord Jesus Christ 194:4.6 — Ro 15:6; 2 Co 1:3; 2 Co 11:31; Eph 1:3; Eph 3:14; Col 1:3; 1 P 1:3.
God: loving Father of all men 194:4.6 — 1 Ch 22:10; Ps 89:26-27; Jer 3:19; Mt 5:9,16,45,48; Mt 6:1,9,14; Mt 6:26,32; Mt 7:11; Mt 18:14; Mt 23:9; Mk 11:25-26; Lk 6:36; Lk 11:2,13; Jn 20:17b; Ro 1:7; Ro 8:14-15; 1 Co 1:3; 2 Co 1:2; 2 Co 6:18; Ga 1:4; Ga 4:6-7; Eph 1:2; Phil 1:2; Col 1:2; 1 Th 1:1,3; 2 Th 1:1-2; 1 Ti 1:2; Pm 1:2; 2 Sam 7:14.
Faith, hope, and charity 196:3.19 — 1 Co 13:13.
Religion of love 196:3.19 — Mt 22:37-40; Mk 12:28-33; Lk 10:27; Jn 13:34-35; Jn 15:12,17; 2 Co 13:11; 1 Jn 3:1; 1 Jn 4:7-19.
Second mile 195:10.5 — Mt 5:38-41.
Live and love as Jesus taught 195:10.5 — Jn 13:34-35; Jn 15:12,17.
Follow after the Master 196:1.2 — Phil 3:12; 1 Ti 6:11.
Most Highs rule kingdoms 97:8.5 — Dn 4:17,25,32; Dn 5:21.

Where it appears

Christianity is linked in 52 paragraphs of the text; the first 40 are listed.

Type	Religions and movements
Facts indexed	52
Linked in text	52 paragraphs
Bible parallels	11 passages
Linked from	78 articles