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THE NATURE OF GOD JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS |
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CEDOMIL VUGRINCIC, M.D., Ph.D. |
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God is righteous; therefore
He is just. "The Lord is righteous in all His ways." "I have not done without cause all that I have done,'
says the Lord." "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether." The justice of the Universal Father cannot be influenced
by the acts and performances of His creatures, "for there is no iniquity
with the Lord our God, no respect of persons, no taking of gifts." How futile to make puerile appeals to such a God to modify
His changeless decrees so that we can avoid the just consequences of the
operation of His wise natural laws and righteous spiritual mandates! "Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for whatsoever a
man sows that shall he also reap." True, even in the justice of reaping the harvest of
wrongdoing, this divine justice is always tempered with mercy. Infinite
wisdom is the eternal arbiter which determines the proportions of justice and
mercy which shall be meted out in any given circumstance. The greatest punishment
(in reality an inevitable consequence) for wrongdoing and deliberate
rebellion against the government of God is loss of existence as an individual
subject of that government. The final result of wholehearted sin is
annihilation. In the last analysis, such sin-identified individuals have
destroyed themselves by becoming wholly unreal through their embrace of
iniquity. The factual disappearance of such a creature is, however, always
delayed until the ordained order of justice current in that universe has been
fully complied with. Cessation of existence is usually decreed at the
dispensational or epochal adjudication of the realm or realms. On a world
such as Urantia it comes at the end of a planetary dispensation. Cessation of existence can be decreed at such times by
co-ordinate action of all tribunals of jurisdiction, extending from the
planetary council up through the courts of the Creator Son to the judgment
tribunals of the Ancients of Days. The mandate of dissolution originates in
the higher courts of the superuniverse following an unbroken confirmation of
the indictment originating on the sphere of the wrongdoer's residence; and
then, when sentence of extinction has been confirmed on high, the execution
is by the direct act of those judges residential on, and operating from, the
headquarters of the superuniverse. When this sentence is finally confirmed, the
sin-identified being instantly becomes as though he had not been. There is no
resurrection from such a fate; it is everlasting and eternal. The living energy factors of IDENTITY are resolved by the
transformations of time and the metamorphoses of space into the cosmic
potentials whence they once emerged. As for the PERSONALITY of the iniquitous one, it is
deprived of a continuing life vehicle by the creature's failure to make those
choices and final decisions which would have assured eternal life. When the
continued embrace of sin by the associated mind culminates in complete
self-identification with iniquity, then upon the cessation of life, upon
cosmic dissolution, such an isolated personality is absorbed into the
over-soul of creation, becoming a part of the evolving experience of the
Supreme Being. Never again does it appear as a personality; its identity
becomes as though it had never been. In the case of an Adjuster-indwelt
personality, the experiential spirit values survive in the reality of the
continuing Adjuster. In any universe contest between actual levels of reality,
the personality of the higher level will ultimately triumph over the
personality of the lower level. This inevitable outcome of universe
controversy is inherent in the fact that divinity of quality equals the
degree of reality or actuality of any will creature. Undiluted evil, complete
error, willful sin, and unmitigated iniquity are inherently and automatically
suicidal. Such attitudes of cosmic unreality can survive in the universe only
because of transient mercy-tolerance pending the action of the
justice-determining and fairness-finding mechanisms of the universe tribunals
of righteous adjudication. The rule of the Creator Sons in the local universes is one
of creation and spiritualization. These Sons devote themselves to the
effective execution of the Paradise plan of progressive mortal ascension, to
the rehabilitation of rebels and wrong thinkers, but when all such loving
efforts are finally and forever rejected, the final decree of dissolution is
executed by forces acting under the jurisdiction of the Ancients of Days. Reference: The Urantia
Book, Paper 2, Section 3 (edit/modif.)
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