OBSTACLES TO A LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE, ACCORDING TO THE URANTIA BOOK. We all face the problem of trying to interpret the Bible literally, as if each word has been directly dictated by God and is therefore "written in stone" on a page in the Bible. The biggest problem is that the Bible has been changed so many times that its meaning lies hidden somewhere between the truth and the multitudinous changes that human beings have made to the original writings. Even those original writing were not made by God, but by human beings struggling to find God and describe their search as best they could. So the passages in the Bible cannot be interpreted word for word as the undisputed Word of God. Even reading the "acts" of Jesus' apostles as if they perfectly represent what Jesus taught leads to many distortions. Paul of Tarsus was the biggest offender of all in this regard, even though he was also the outstanding evangelist who spread the teachings of Christianity all over the known world, even out-distancing Peter. So there is no simple solution to the problem of how to interpret passages from "the Bible"; however, this book is an attempt to use information given to us by "higher beings" to help us decide which interpretation is the best one to use. In our attempt to approach this complicated problem, we will draw on four spiritual texts that were all "revealed" to us during the 20th century by Jesus and other "high beings" as follows: THE URANTIA BOOK (published in 1955) A COURSE IN MIRACLES (published in 1976) THE REVEALED TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION GIVEN BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST (published in 1908) THE HISTORICAL FULFILLMENT OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION AS REVEALED BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST (transmitted in 1908) All four of these texts are either BY Jesus or ABOUT Jesus, the authenticity of which each reader is responsible for deciding about on their own.
100 UPDATES OF THE BIBLE, ACCORDING TO THE URANTIA BOOK. The format of this book starts with 100 direct quotes from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE, then follows them directly with passages from THE BOOK OF URANTIA that lend depth and understanding to those original quotes. A more detailed level of explanation can be provided either by a fuller reading of URANTIA, itself, or by reading the attached series of eight teaching manuals that is designed to simplify the complicated text of URANTIA so as to reduce the time and effort it takes to uncover the world of meaning to be found within this modern religious text--a 20th-century revelation, no less. The passages selected from the Bible to be updated by revelation from URANTIA were chosen to be included in this manual in order to answer such basic questions as: - "Did Moses really part the Red Sea?" No. - "Did God really destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?" No. These were convenient alterations of secular history by Jewish scribes in order to conform the events of real secular history with Jewish religious history; but no one can deny that they were eminently successful in their efforts. Witness the fact that the Old Testament has become the "more or less" accepted explanation of religious history for about a third of humanity. Other passages have been included because they answer questions like: - Was there an actual "Garden of Eden? and if so, where was it? - Was there a "Tree of Life" in the Garden of Eden? and if so, how did eating the fruit from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" by Adam and Eve lead to the default of their mission? Other passages have been included because they answer some of the long-held mysteries about John's BOOK OF REVELATION like: - What is "the mark of the Beast"? - What is the "New Jerusalem" that is prophesied to "come down out of Heaven from God" in "the latter days"? Bible readers range from those who believe every word the Bible says, to those who don't believe a word it says, to those in between who allow for certain "exaggerations" that are thought to distort, but not destroy, underlying religious truths. THE URANTIA BOOK is a treasure trove for all of these Bible readers.
