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2:6.1 In the [[physical]] [[universe]] we may see the [[divine]] [[beauty]], in the [[intellectual]] world we may [[discern]] [[eternal]] [[truth]], but the [[goodness]] of [[God]] is found only in the spiritual world of [[personal]] religious [[experience]]. In its true [[essence]], [[religion]] is a [[faith]]-[[trust]] in the goodness of God. God could be great and [[absolute]], somehow even [[intelligent]] and personal, in [[philosophy]], but in [[religion]] God must also be [[moral]]; he must be [[good]]. Man might [[fear]] a great God, but he [[trusts]] and [[loves]] only a good God. This goodness of God is a part of the [[personality]] of God, and its full [[revelation]] appears only in the personal religious experience of the believing sons of God.
2:6.2 Religion implies that the superworld of [[spirit]] [[nature]] is cognizant of, and [[responsive]] to, the [[foundation|fundamental]] needs of the human world. [[Evolutionary]] religion may become [[ethical]], but only revealed religion becomes truly and spiritually moral. The olden [[concept]] that God is a [[Deity]] dominated by kingly morality was upstepped by [[Jesus]] to that [[affection]]ately [[touching]] level of [[intimate]] [[family]] morality of the [[parent]]-[[child]] [[relationship]], than which there is none more tender and beautiful in [[mortal]] experience.
2:6.3 The "richness of the goodness of God leads erring man to repentance."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Letter_of_Paul_to_the_Romans#The_Letter_of_Paul_to_the_Romans.2C_II] "Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Letter_of_James#James_I] "God is good;[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_73] he is the eternal [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Home_as_Harbor-2009-10-04 refuge] of the souls of men." "The Lord God is merciful and [[gracious]]. He is long-suffering and [[abundant]] in goodness and truth."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Exodus#Chapter_.34] "Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who trusts him."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_34] "The Lord is gracious and full of [[compassion]]. He is the God of [[salvation]]."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_68] "He [[heals]] the brokenhearted and binds up the wounds of the soul.[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_147] He is man's all-powerful benefactor."
2:6.4 The concept of God as a king-[[judge]], although it fostered a high moral [[standard]] and created a [[law]]-[[respecting]] people as a [[group]], left the individual believer in a sad position of insecurity respecting his [[status]] in time and in eternity. The later [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Hebrew_Prophets Hebrew prophets] proclaimed God to be a Father to [[Israel]]; [[Jesus]] revealed God as the Father of each [[human being]]. The entire mortal concept of God is [[transcendently]] [[illuminated]] by the life of Jesus. Selflessness is inherent in [[parental]] [[love]]. God loves not like a father, but as a father. He is the [[Paradise]] Father of every universe [[personality]].
2:6.5 [[Goodness|Righteousness]] implies that God is the [[source]] of the [[moral]] law of the universe. [[Truth]] exhibits God as a revealer, as a [[teacher]]. But [[love]] gives and craves [[affection]], seeks [[understanding]] fellowship such as exists between parent and child. Righteousness may be the divine [[thought]], but love is a father's [[attitude]]. The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, [[presupposed]] [[absence]] of [[unity]] in the [[nature]] of [[Deity]] and led directly to the elaboration of the [[atonement]] [[doctrine]], which is a philosophic [[Violence|assault]] upon both the unity and the [[Free will|free-willness]] of God.
2:6.6 The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on [[earth]], is not a divided [[personality]]—one of [[justice]] and one of [[mercy]]—neither does it require a mediator to secure the Father's favor or [[forgiveness]]. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive [[justice]]; God as a [[father]] [[transcends]] God as a [[judge]].
2:6.7 God is never wrathful, vengeful, or [[angry]]. It is true that [[wisdom]] does often restrain his love, while justice conditions his rejected mercy. His love of righteousness cannot help being exhibited as equal hatred for [[sin]]. The Father is not an inconsistent [[personality]]; the divine unity is perfect. In the [[Paradise Trinity]] there is [[absolute]] unity despite the eternal identities of the co-ordinates of God.
2:6.8 God loves the sinner and hates the sin: such a [[statement]] is true philosophically, but God is a [[transcendent]] [[personality]], and persons can only love and hate other persons. Sin is not a person. God loves the sinner because he is a personality [[reality]] ([[potentially]] eternal), while towards sin God strikes no personal [[attitude]], for sin is not a spiritual reality; it is not personal; therefore does only the [[justice]] of God take cognizance of its [[existence]]. The love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin. This attitude of the divine nature would apparently [[change]] if the sinner finally identified himself wholly with sin just as the same [[mortal]] [[mind]] may also fully identify itself with the [[Thought Adjuster|indwelling spirit Adjuster]]. Such a sin-identified mortal would then become wholly unspiritual in nature (and therefore personally unreal) and would experience eventual [[Death|extinction]] of [[being]]. Unreality, even incompleteness of [[creature]] nature, cannot exist forever in a [[progressively]] real and increasingly spiritual universe.
2:6.9 Facing the world of personality, God is [[discovered]] to be a loving person; facing the spiritual world, he is a personal love; in religious experience he is both. [[Love]] identifies the volitional will of God. The goodness of God rests at the bottom of the divine [[free-will]]ness—the [[universal]] tendency to [[love]], show [[mercy]], [[manifest]] [[patience]], and [[Gift|minister]] [[forgiveness]].
<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_2 Go to Paper 2]</center>
<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents Go to Table of Contents]</center>
[[Category:Paper 2 - The Nature of God]]
2:6.1 In the [[physical]] [[universe]] we may see the [[divine]] [[beauty]], in the [[intellectual]] world we may [[discern]] [[eternal]] [[truth]], but the [[goodness]] of [[God]] is found only in the spiritual world of [[personal]] religious [[experience]]. In its true [[essence]], [[religion]] is a [[faith]]-[[trust]] in the goodness of God. God could be great and [[absolute]], somehow even [[intelligent]] and personal, in [[philosophy]], but in [[religion]] God must also be [[moral]]; he must be [[good]]. Man might [[fear]] a great God, but he [[trusts]] and [[loves]] only a good God. This goodness of God is a part of the [[personality]] of God, and its full [[revelation]] appears only in the personal religious experience of the believing sons of God.
2:6.2 Religion implies that the superworld of [[spirit]] [[nature]] is cognizant of, and [[responsive]] to, the [[foundation|fundamental]] needs of the human world. [[Evolutionary]] religion may become [[ethical]], but only revealed religion becomes truly and spiritually moral. The olden [[concept]] that God is a [[Deity]] dominated by kingly morality was upstepped by [[Jesus]] to that [[affection]]ately [[touching]] level of [[intimate]] [[family]] morality of the [[parent]]-[[child]] [[relationship]], than which there is none more tender and beautiful in [[mortal]] experience.
2:6.3 The "richness of the goodness of God leads erring man to repentance."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Letter_of_Paul_to_the_Romans#The_Letter_of_Paul_to_the_Romans.2C_II] "Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Letter_of_James#James_I] "God is good;[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_73] he is the eternal [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Home_as_Harbor-2009-10-04 refuge] of the souls of men." "The Lord God is merciful and [[gracious]]. He is long-suffering and [[abundant]] in goodness and truth."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Exodus#Chapter_.34] "Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who trusts him."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_34] "The Lord is gracious and full of [[compassion]]. He is the God of [[salvation]]."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_68] "He [[heals]] the brokenhearted and binds up the wounds of the soul.[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Psalms#Psalm_147] He is man's all-powerful benefactor."
2:6.4 The concept of God as a king-[[judge]], although it fostered a high moral [[standard]] and created a [[law]]-[[respecting]] people as a [[group]], left the individual believer in a sad position of insecurity respecting his [[status]] in time and in eternity. The later [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Hebrew_Prophets Hebrew prophets] proclaimed God to be a Father to [[Israel]]; [[Jesus]] revealed God as the Father of each [[human being]]. The entire mortal concept of God is [[transcendently]] [[illuminated]] by the life of Jesus. Selflessness is inherent in [[parental]] [[love]]. God loves not like a father, but as a father. He is the [[Paradise]] Father of every universe [[personality]].
2:6.5 [[Goodness|Righteousness]] implies that God is the [[source]] of the [[moral]] law of the universe. [[Truth]] exhibits God as a revealer, as a [[teacher]]. But [[love]] gives and craves [[affection]], seeks [[understanding]] fellowship such as exists between parent and child. Righteousness may be the divine [[thought]], but love is a father's [[attitude]]. The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, [[presupposed]] [[absence]] of [[unity]] in the [[nature]] of [[Deity]] and led directly to the elaboration of the [[atonement]] [[doctrine]], which is a philosophic [[Violence|assault]] upon both the unity and the [[Free will|free-willness]] of God.
2:6.6 The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on [[earth]], is not a divided [[personality]]—one of [[justice]] and one of [[mercy]]—neither does it require a mediator to secure the Father's favor or [[forgiveness]]. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive [[justice]]; God as a [[father]] [[transcends]] God as a [[judge]].
2:6.7 God is never wrathful, vengeful, or [[angry]]. It is true that [[wisdom]] does often restrain his love, while justice conditions his rejected mercy. His love of righteousness cannot help being exhibited as equal hatred for [[sin]]. The Father is not an inconsistent [[personality]]; the divine unity is perfect. In the [[Paradise Trinity]] there is [[absolute]] unity despite the eternal identities of the co-ordinates of God.
2:6.8 God loves the sinner and hates the sin: such a [[statement]] is true philosophically, but God is a [[transcendent]] [[personality]], and persons can only love and hate other persons. Sin is not a person. God loves the sinner because he is a personality [[reality]] ([[potentially]] eternal), while towards sin God strikes no personal [[attitude]], for sin is not a spiritual reality; it is not personal; therefore does only the [[justice]] of God take cognizance of its [[existence]]. The love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin. This attitude of the divine nature would apparently [[change]] if the sinner finally identified himself wholly with sin just as the same [[mortal]] [[mind]] may also fully identify itself with the [[Thought Adjuster|indwelling spirit Adjuster]]. Such a sin-identified mortal would then become wholly unspiritual in nature (and therefore personally unreal) and would experience eventual [[Death|extinction]] of [[being]]. Unreality, even incompleteness of [[creature]] nature, cannot exist forever in a [[progressively]] real and increasingly spiritual universe.
2:6.9 Facing the world of personality, God is [[discovered]] to be a loving person; facing the spiritual world, he is a personal love; in religious experience he is both. [[Love]] identifies the volitional will of God. The goodness of God rests at the bottom of the divine [[free-will]]ness—the [[universal]] tendency to [[love]], show [[mercy]], [[manifest]] [[patience]], and [[Gift|minister]] [[forgiveness]].
<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_2 Go to Paper 2]</center>
<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents Go to Table of Contents]</center>
[[Category:Paper 2 - The Nature of God]]