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Jesus – the Missing Years, New Teachings & the Afterlife: Based on the Urantia Book
Jesus – the Missing Years, New Teachings & the Afterlife: Based on the Urantia Book
Jesus – the Missing Years, New Teachings & the Afterlife: Based on the Urantia Book
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Jesus – the Missing Years, New Teachings & the Afterlife: Based on the Urantia Book

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The afterlife is open to all persons, religious or non-religious, from all over the world. Our destiny, after this short life is over, is conditioned only by our spiritual longings and purposes. It is not determined by believing in a correct creed or dogma or by saying the correct words. Rather, we will pass on to the afterlife if we have the faintest desire to know more of God, more of truth, beauty, and goodness. This is a teaching found in The Urantia Book that purports to be a revelation to Earth, which the authors call Urantia. The present book is a brief introduction to The Urantia Book, a complex tome of over 2,000 pages.

The Urantia Book claims to have answers to such timeless questions as: What happens to us when we die? Is there a heaven; if so, what is it like? Is God really love? Has God really set aside a hell in which people who reject him are punished? How do we get to heaven? How did Earth become such a confused and troubled planet? How do we move forward? What is the origin of human life? Many, many more teachings are found in The Urantia Book, including teachings by Jesus that weve never heard before.

In this book, you will find explanations from The Urantia Book that clear up misconceptions of God, some of Jesus teachings, the nature of the universe and the afterlife; misconceptions which have often caused confusion, heartache, and irrational fear in people all over the world.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherBalboa Press
Release dateDec 11, 2012
ISBN9781452562452
Jesus – the Missing Years, New Teachings & the Afterlife: Based on the Urantia Book
Author

Paul D. Knott Ph.D.

Paul D. Knott received his BA from Southern Methodist University in 1963 and his PhD from Vanderbilt University in 1967. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals and two books, Student Activism (1971) and Remaking America (1993). He has worked as a research scientist, a university-level teacher, a clinical psychologist, and an administrator in various fields of psychology. He has been studying The Urantia Book since 1974. He and his wife, Roberta, and their extended family live in Colorado.

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    Jesus – the Missing Years, New Teachings & the Afterlife - Paul D. Knott Ph.D.

    Copyright © 2012 Paul D. Knott, Ph.D.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

    ISBN: 978-1-4525-6246-9 (sc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4525-6247-6 (hc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4525-6245-2 (e)

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2012920723

    Balboa Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

    Balboa Press

    A Division of Hay House

    1663 Liberty Drive

    Bloomington, IN 47403

    www.balboapress.com

    1-(877) 407-4847

    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

    Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

    Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

    Balboa Press rev. date: 11/30/2012

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    How To Find References Noted In This Book

    Acknowledgements

    How To Learn More About The Urantia Book

    Chapter One - Introduction

    Chapter Two - The Missing Years

    Gonod And Ganid

    Alexandria

    Travels In Crete And Carthage

    Rome

    On The Way To Greece

    The Two Prostitutes

    More Meetings In Corinth

    The Great Trip Ends

    Chapter Three - Personality Survival Into The Afterlife

    The Light And The Way

    Personality Survival

    Chapter Four - Who Is Jesus?

    Chapter Five - On Evil, –Why Is It Permitted By A Loving God?

    Acts Of Providence And Natural Disasters

    An Eye For An Eye

    Evil And The Devil

    Judas

    The Meaning Of Evil In God’s Universe

    Chapter Six: - Woman

    Male And Female

    Chapter Seven - The Unique History Of Urantia And The Lucifer Rebellion

    Chapter Eight - Adam And Eve

    Chapter Nine - The Afterlife

    Chapter Ten - A Few Of Jesus’ Teachings

    Teachings – Jesus’ Response To James On Unity

    Teachings – Jesus’ Response To Jacob On God’s Anger

    Teachings – Flavius With The Beautiful House

    Teachings – Response To Philip On Weakness

    Teachings—Jesus’ Response To Andrew On Self-Control

    Jesus’ Talk With Nathaniel On Validity Of Scripture

    Teachings On Angels

    Teachings On Family – A Day With John Mark

    Some Additional Teachings

    Epilogue

    HOW TO FIND REFERENCES NOTED IN THIS BOOK

    Virtually all references in this book are quotations from The Urantia Book. The quotes are taken from the author’s first copy of The Urantia Book, copyright 1955, 4th printing, 1973, as published by The Urantia Foundation, 533 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, IL 60614. There are many printings of the Urantia Book so page numbers may differ. In order to aid readers who may be reading another printing, quotes are also referenced by the Paper (Chapter) number and subsection number. For example, a quote from page 890 of The Urantia Book will also reference the Paper and subsection numbers so that the reference would read p.890, 80-2. The reader can thus find the reference in subsection 2 of Paper 80, regardless of the page number.

    PLEASE NOTE that often in this book, especially in chapter two, I have taken the liberty of paraphrasing the ideas of the Urantia Book. All direct quotations are noted as such. I have tried to make clear the quotes from Jesus versus quotes from the Urantia Book authors versus my own commentary, for which I take full responsibility.

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    I wish to acknowledge the many contributions of longtime Urantia Book reader and longtime friend, Dr. Brian Cox, and to acknowledge the contributions of my wife, Roberta, family members and many other friends, especially Kathleen Burke, who have provided me with much needed support and input in this endeavor.

    HOW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE URANTIA BOOK

    To find out more about The Urantia Book and also to find readers and study groups close to you, please contact The Urantia Foundation at 773-525-3319 or The Urantia Fellowship. You can find both of these organizations on the internet and each has its own website. These websites can also lead you to other sites started by Urantia Book readers. You can purchase the Urantia Book from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and all the usual sources. You may read the Urantia Book online via The Urantia Fellowship website.

    CHAPTER ONE

    INTRODUCTION

    This book may not appeal to those who are happy in their current religious beliefs. It may be offensive to those who are dedicated to fundamentalist Christian beliefs—although I hope not. This book, however, may be very appealing to those who find it difficult to accept some of the key points of Christian dogma and who are open to a different perspective on some of Jesus’ teachings. This different perspective is an encouraging and comforting view on Jesus’ teachings and the afterlife. This perspective is based on the Urantia Book, which was published in 1955, but whose origins go back as far as 1911. The Urantia Book claims to be a revelation to the people of this world. It is not a formal religion. It has made its way around the world since 1955 almost exclusively as a word-of-mouth phenomenon. To date, well over half a million copies of it have been published and it has been translated into several languages. The word Urantia is the name for Earth used by the authors of the Urantia Book.

    When I first came across the Urantia Book in 1974, I had received my Ph.D. in psychology in 1967 and had published many articles in scientific journals. I was committed to the scientific method in the search for truth and had become agnostic in my religious beliefs. I had grown up in the Southern Baptist Church, but by the time I went to college I had become disenchanted with the fundamentalist approach to Christianity. In particular, I could no longer accept the idea that the Bible was the literal word of God. There were far too many inconsistencies within the Bible itself coupled with too many disconnects with modern science.

    After college there followed ten years of inquiry and questioning that led me to an agnostic view toward all religion. Fortunately for me, I never lost my love for the goodhearted people who flourished within the traditional, fundamentalist approach, including my mother, my sister, and many friends. But by 1974 most of my professional associates were also agnostics who took a dim view of all religious fundamentalists—often regarding them (often unfairly) as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals for holding onto their supposed childish, non-scientific beliefs. Then, in 1974, I came across the Urantia Book. This book stunned me for many reasons. I had never read anything as fair and balanced as this book. The information contained in it addressed and seemed to answer the questions I could not find answers for in mainstream Christianity. Nor could I find the answers in Buddhism or many other religions I had looked into. The Urantia Book provided both answers and comfort, intellectual as well as emotional comfort, but at the same time I was vexed by it. Why was this book not discussed in religious and academic circles? It was dealing with profound topics in a profound way, but no one was talking about it. Even though the book had magnificent internal credibility, its authors were supposedly heavenly in origin. This was hard for me to swallow. I spent parts of the next four years trying to prove that the book was a fraud, a scam, using all the skills I had acquired as a scientist. The more I investigated the book, the more impressed by it I became. By the fall of 1978, I began to believe that the book was what it claimed to be.

    For example, a question I had never been able to find a satisfactory answer for had to do with the belief of many Christians that only by professing that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and that he had died to wash away your sins could you expect to receive eternal life after your physical death. Did this mean that Jews, Buddhists, and people of other religions would be prohibited from heaven and eternal life unless they converted to Christianity before they died? Did this mean that people all over the world who had never been exposed to Jesus’ life and teachings during their lifetimes on earth (a clear majority of people) would be forever denied access to heaven and eternal life?

    Many of my Christian friends confirmed to me, somewhat sadly, that this was the way life on Earth had been set up by God, that’s the way the rules were written, and it is up to us to accept on faith the idea that God is a loving Father whom we can always trust. But I had too many doubts about trusting a God, and a Son of God, who acted so arbitrarily, so carelessly, toward the fate of the vast majority of people on Earth that I felt driven away from the Christianity of my youth. I was often intrigued in later years by Christian writers who grappled with these same issues and who came up with different views on what it takes to get into the afterlife (given that there is such a thing as an afterlife), but never did I come across a view I could really trust and believe in.

    That is, until I came across the Urantia Book. Therein I found a description of the afterlife that made sense, that spoke to the longings of people for goodness, spiritual warmth, love, and high adventure. Here I found a loving God who is merciful toward all his children from all over the world, and for that matter, from all over the universe. Here is a God who has created a vast universe for us to explore and who expects us to learn the nature of and even the secrets of his universe. Here is a God whose love for us, each of us, is so deep and abiding we can barely begin to comprehend it, but we will have eternity in which to grow in our understanding of this profound love that truly governs the universe. Here is a God who fully knows the unique history of our planet Earth—a history that produced conditions on Earth that greatly limit our ability to understand and know God. But these conditions are fully taken into account by God in his treatment of us.

    As I was beginning to understand a little more of the

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