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"Religious
peace--brotherhood--can never exist unless all religions are willing
to completely divest themselves of all ecclesiastical authority and
fully surrender all concept of spiritual sovereignty. God alone
is spirit sovereign." (1487)
You cannot have
religious liberty unless you transfer ALL religious authority to
some superhuman level, to God himself. Brotherhood, the kingdom of
heaven in the hearts of men and women, will create religious unity
if, and only if, religionists are free from all notions of
ecclesiastical (religious) authority and sovereignty.
The term,
"ecclesiastical authority" derives from the ancient Greek,
"ecclesia," the assembly of the freemen of Athens, and has
evolved to mean religious as opposed to civil authority. The Papers
inform us that religious brotherhood is possible only when its
brothers and sisters reject all religious authority other than God
himself.
This is
emphasized by their assertion that the very moment we lose sight of
the fact of God's sole authority over religious matters our
particular brand of religion will begin to attempt to assert its
superiority. The result, they state, will always be dissension,
recriminations, even "wars" among religionists--which is
hardly "brotherhood." (1487)
As evidenced by
past "wars", splits, and decimation within the movement,
not even believers in the authority of the Urantia Papers are
exempt. Somehow we must absorb into the forefront of our minds that
our religious beliefs are between ourselves, as individuals, and our
God, not to be imposed upon others, or even suggested to be
superior.
The
"universe ruling" appears to be that we can present our
religious views to others, but never are we to seek to impose them,
to suggest their superiority, or denigrate the views of others. To
do so is to usurp authority to which we can have no right or claim.
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