Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist.
Quote from The URANTIA Book, 1114:06
My son is now married, and my new daughter is striving to embrace our family. Not long ago, to my affirmation that The URANTIA Book is our fifth revelation, she raised the crucial question: How do you know? My response: How do you know anything? We have experience, and we have faith our experience has meaning.
In my last essay, I asserted that Caligastia and Daligastia, the last of the rebels, in fact all of the unrepentant rebels, no longer exist as of the specific date of the 20th of May, in 2012. How do I know this?
I must appeal to my experience, which of course is personal. We are not aware when our Thought Adjuster comes to indwell our mind, but one day, around age five or six, while walking down the middle of a dirt road not far from home, marveling at the everyday glory of the sky, I remember my exhilaration at the infinity of the Universal Father’s universe. Maybe, on that occasion, I was thinking with my Thought Adjuster. And my understanding of who I am has evolved slowly over the years, until at last here I am, ripe with 74 years of age, hunkered down at this keyboard, praying for inspiration to know by what miracle I may impart the truth of my life to you.
I have not had visions; I do not hear voices. Gabriel has not appeared to me. I am not “channeling” any source. I am not Moses bringing the Ten Commandments down from the mountain on tablets. I do not have prophetic dreams. My ordinary consciousness is normal.
But I do normally remain in communion with our Creator Son, Michael of Nebadon, who timelessly knows the Mind of the Universal Father perfectly, while in the imperfection of time he knows me perfectly. Being normally in communion with Michael is a lifetime’s accomplishment of devotion and faith. This is not to claim any particular virtue. His counsel is always available, at no cost. In humility, we need only ask.
I have faith my life has real meaning. By the 20th of May, in 2012, the Ancients of Days, the rulers of our superuniverse, were finally adjudicating the Lucifer rebellion. Michael made this known to me, not in a sudden blaze of glory from the Heavens, but gradually over time, as my understanding deepened, as an aspect of my experience witnessing an extraordinary annular eclipse, seen that day across a wide swath of the western United States. This was not a vision, or anything out of the ordinary, just the inner certainty born of faith.
This knowledge was born of faith, “God-knowing and man-serving” faith. I have faith in this spiritual reality we hold in common: not Adam and Eve themselves, but the children of Adam and Eve are due to return to our world, imminently, as our sixth revelation. Let us ruminate a bit on what this means.
Ernest Clement
A new proclamation from Ernest: “Part 37—The Sixth Revelation.” Click on Block 6 below. Or return to the >> Table of Essays.