Oxford Dictionary wrote:Ignorant: lacking knowledge or awareness; uninformed about or unaware of a specific subject.
Cathar1950 wrote:UB wrote: Jews, as a nation, as a sociopolitical group, paid in full the terrible price of rejecting the Prince of Peace.
They were destroyed because they revolted not because they rejected Jesus.
Cathar,
It is clear you are lacking knowledge or awareness about what the Urantia Book actually says on this topic, but it is no surprise you are so uninformed about and unaware of a specific subject you claim to know about above, as you make clear you make no effort to check your facts or read the book. You certainly have learned (or maybe they come naturally) Gardner’s tactics well.
Your consistent ad hominem diatribes stereotyping of readers of the Urantia Book says a lot about both your character and intelligence.
You are trying to claim above that the Urantia Book teaches the sacred history version of why the Jewish nation was destroyed; in this case the fundamentalist Christian version that their nation was destroyed because they rejected Jesus. While it is a fact the Jews themselves held the belief they were a "chosen people," and hence they believed God would aid them in throwing off the Roman yoke, and many fundamentalist Christians have taken up this misguided and ignorant teaching which has been the cause of great pain, suffering, and bigotry, hatred, pogroms, and even crusades throughout history, the Urantia certainly does not teach or give any credence to this belief, contrary to your uninformed claim above.
I note that in your gift of hubris you overestimate your powers of understanding based upon nothing more than belligerent stereotypes, second hand information, and your own sloppy attention to the actual facts and details, for you have distorted the meaning of the quote above by taking it out of context, and then ignorantly (unaware and uninformed since you obviously of your own admission say you have not read the book) assume that the Urantia Book teaches that the destruction of the Jewish temple and civilization by the Romans was because they rejected Jesus. The Urantia Book categorically teaches no such thing. My friend, you are simply ignorant of the actual facts and what it actually says.
In fact and truth the Urantia Book teaches that the Gospel of Jesus, which was nothing more than the recognition of the Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of mankind and a life of selfless loving service, along with the fact he clearly rejected the then Jewish conception of a militaristic political messiah who would lead the armies of heaven against the Roman political suzerainty, would have avoided a direct political clash with the Romans. And if the Jewish nation had accepted this teaching, which has absolutely nothing to do with political kingdoms, they well may not have suffered as they did. But ever and anon, the Jewish Zealots, a group of intense patriots who advocated “that any and all methods were justified in the struggle to escape the bondage of the Roman yoke,” (1535.1) would rise up and revolt, just as the final group of false prophets did prompting the Romans to finally put an end to the independent Jewish state.
It does not matter one iota whether or not view the following as fact or not, but one thing is clear. It refutes your ignorant misrepresentation of what the Urantia Book actually says, which is that the Jewish nation was destroyed because they insisted on viewing themselves as a chosen people, whom God would aid in fighting off the Roman yoke, and rose up in hopeless dead end revolts one to many times, and not because of the false and misleading characterization you imply above because you are simply to ignorant and lazy to get you facts correct. You fit right in with Gardner my friend.
UB wrote: The secret of the survival of Palestine, the kingdom of the Jews, as a semi-independent state was wrapped up in the foreign policy of the Roman government, which desired to maintain control of the Palestinian highway of travel between Syria and Egypt as well as the western terminals of the caravan routes between the Orient and the Occident. Rome did not wish any power to arise in the Levant which might curb her future expansion in these regions. The policy of intrigue which had for its object the pitting of Seleucid Syria and Ptolemaic Egypt against each other necessitated fostering Palestine as a separate and independent state. Roman policy, the degeneration of Egypt, and the progressive weakening of the Seleucids before the rising power of Parthia, explain why it was that for several generations a small and unpowerful group of Jews was able to maintain its independence against both Seleucidae to the north and Ptolemies to the south. This fortuitous liberty and independence of the political rule of surrounding and more powerful peoples the Jews attributed to the fact that they were the "chosen people," to the direct interposition of Yahweh. Such an attitude of racial superiority made it all the harder for them to endure Roman suzerainty when it finally fell upon their land. But even in that sad hour the Jews refused to learn that their world mission was spiritual, not political. (1334.2)
Here, it is claimed in the UB that the Jewish people were able to maintain an independent state because of political intrigue and because it suited the political ends of the Romans, not because they were God’s chosen people. Whether this accords exactly with current historical views is irrelevant to the fact that it refutes your claim above categorically.
Further the UB states:
UB wrote:Then Andrew inquired: "But, Master, if the Holy City and the temple are to be destroyed, and if you are not here to direct us, when should we forsake Jerusalem?" Said Jesus: "You may remain in the city after I have gone, even through these times of travail and bitter persecution, but when you finally see Jerusalem being encompassed by the Roman armies after the revolt of the false prophets, then will you know that her desolation is at hand; then must you flee to the mountains. Let none who are in the city and around about tarry to save aught, neither let those who are outside dare to enter therein. There will be great tribulation, for these will be the days of gentile vengeance. And after you have deserted the city, this disobedient people will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all nations; and so shall Jerusalem be trodden down by the gentiles. In the meantime, I warn you, be not deceived. If any man comes to you, saying, `Behold, here is the Deliverer,' or `Behold, there is he,' believe it not, for many false teachers will arise and many will be led astray; but you should not be deceived, for I have told you all this beforehand." (1913.3)
Once again, this purports that Jesus ascribed the reason for the destruction of the Jewish state was because of “the revolt of the false prophets.” Ironic, isn’t it, as that is the reason you say above they were destroyed. Like Gardner, you seem to lazy and arrogant to even get your facts straight.
Further, the UB states:
UB wrote:The custom of looking upon the record of the experiences of the Hebrews as sacred history and upon the transactions of the rest of the world as profane history is responsible for much of the confusion existing in the human mind as to the interpretation of history. And this difficulty arises because there is no secular history of the Jews. After the priests of the Babylonian exile had prepared their new record of God's supposedly miraculous dealings with the Hebrews, the sacred history of Israel as portrayed in the Old Testament, they carefully and completely destroyed the existing records of Hebrew affairs--such books as "The Doings of the Kings of Israel" and "The Doings of the Kings of Judah," together with several other more or less accurate records of Hebrew history. (1070.4)
(….) All modern religions have seriously blundered in the attempt to put a miraculous interpretation on certain epochs of human history. While it is true that God has many times thrust a Father's hand of providential intervention into the stream of human affairs, it is a mistake to regard theologic dogmas and religious superstition as a supernatural sedimentation appearing by miraculous action in this stream of human history. The fact that the "Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men" does not convert secular history into so-called sacred history. (1071.3)
New Testament authors and later Christian writers further complicated the distortion of Hebrew history by their well-meant attempts to transcendentalize the Jewish prophets. Thus has Hebrew history been disastrously exploited by both Jewish and Christian writers. Secular Hebrew history has been thoroughly dogmatized. It has been converted into a fiction of sacred history and has become inextricably bound up with the moral concepts and religious teachings of the so-called Christian nations. (1071.4)
(….) There never were twelve tribes of the Israelites--only three or four tribes settled in Palestine. The Hebrew nation came into being as the result of the union of the so-called Israelites and the Canaanites. "And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites. And they took their daughters to be their wives and gave their daughters to the sons of the Canaanites." The Hebrews never drove the Canaanites out of Palestine, notwithstanding that the priests' record of these things unhesitatingly declared that they did. (1071.6)
(….) The difference between sacred and profane history is well illustrated by the two differing stories concerning making David king as they are found in the Old Testament. A part of the secular story of how his immediate followers (his army) made him king was inadvertently left in the record by the priests who subsequently prepared the lengthy and prosaic account of the sacred history wherein is depicted how the prophet Samuel, by divine direction, selected David from among his brethren and proceeded formally and by elaborate and solemn ceremonies to anoint him king over the Hebrews and then to proclaim him Saul's successor. (1072.6)
(….) And so does the truth about the Jewish people disclose that much which has been regarded as sacred history turns out to be little more than the chronicle of ordinary profane history. Judaism was the soil out of which Christianity grew, but the Jews were not a miraculous people. (1075.5)
It is irrefutably obvious that the UB does not subscribe, teach, or condone in any shape or fashion the “chosen people” doctrine implied in your uninformed, self-chosen state of ignorance regarding what the Urantia Book actually teaches.
That certainly tells us a lot about your credibility, doesn’t it?
For an example Gardner's tactics, see:
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 5686#45686
