SpiritualFamily.Net

A Do we still need faith if we have the Urantia Book?

Most certainly YES! We need Faith. Living Faith

Living faith is central to the spiritual growth of the human soul because it is the primary—indeed, the only—active contribution the mortal personality makes to that growth. The soul (the evolving morontia self) arises as a joint creation of the human mind/will and the indwelling Thought Adjuster (the divine fragment of God). Its development is not automatic or passive; it depends on conscious, faith-driven cooperation between the human and the divine. Living faith is the dynamic, personal, experiential trust in God that mobilizes the whole personality, releases superhuman spiritual influences, and enables the soul to progress toward Godlikeness, fusion with the Adjuster, and eternal survival.

Paper 100 ("Religion in Human Experience") states this most directly in its section on spiritual growth:

"Man cannot cause growth, but he can supply favorable conditions. Growth is always unconscious, be it physical, intellectual, or spiritual. [...] Man’s sole contribution to growth is the mobilization of the total powers of his personality—living faith." (100:3.7)

Spiritual growth unfolds unconsciously as the soul integrates truth, beauty, and goodness through moral decisions and value-realization. Living faith supplies the "favorable conditions" by aligning the human will with the Adjuster's leading. It is not mere intellectual belief, creedal assent, or passive hope, but an active, wholehearted attitude that dominates one's mode of living and opens the channel for divine ministry.

The soul itself is described in Paper 111 ("The Adjuster and the Soul") as the evolving morontia (supermaterial) vehicle of personality identity—the "mid-mind" born from the human mind's craving to know God in liaison with the Adjuster.

Moral decisions in the mind arena of choice create and nurture it:

"It is within this mind and with this mind that you make those moral decisions which enable you to achieve

Adjuster likeness, and that is Godlikeness." (111:1.4)

"The mortal career, the soul’s evolution, is not so much a probation as an education. Faith in the survival of supreme values is the core of religion..." (111:3.5)

Living faith provides the trust and courage to make those decisions, even amid uncertainty or material contradictions. It is the "religious confidence" that sustains the personality and allows the Adjuster to guide the ascending soul safely:

"Mind is your ship, the Adjuster is your pilot, the human will is captain. [...] Only religious confidence—living faith—can sustain man amid such difficult and perplexing problems." (111:1.9 and 111:6.8)

Without living faith, the soul's qualitative development stalls; with it, the divine spark is released to foster eternal values. Paper 102 ("The Foundations of Religious Faith") adds that living faith triumphs over fear, doubt, and materialism, bridging the gap between intellectual probability and spiritual certainty so the God-knowing soul can declare "I know."

Jesus' own life, detailed in Paper 196 ("The Faith of Jesus"), provides the supreme example of what living faith accomplishes. His faith was not a crutch for difficulties or an intellectual exercise, but a "triumphant faith" and "living experience of actual spirit attainment" that made God a living reality in human experience. It produced a higher type of personal religion based on sonship with the Father, validated by genuine spiritual experience rather than tradition or dogma. This faith dominated his entire being and demonstrated how mortals can achieve profound spiritual reality here and now.

Jesus himself taught (as recorded in the Papers) that even a small but living and growing faith puts the soul "in progressive motion" toward God, far surpassing intellectual achievements without it. It opens "the living way" to eternal goals and releases tremendous spiritual possibilities.

In summary, living faith is indispensable because:

• It is the human personality's unique contribution to unconscious soul growth.
• It activates cooperation with the Thought Adjuster, enabling the soul's birth, evolution, and permeation by divine values.
• It sustains the soul amid mortal limitations and transforms potential into actual spirit progress.
• It is the key to personal spiritual progress and eternal survival, as the Urantia Book repeatedly affirms.

As the revelation itself states on its foundational pages, the Urantia Book teaches "that living faith is the key to personal spiritual progress and eternal survival." Without it, the soul may exist but does not thrive toward divine perfection; with it, even modest faith propels the human soul on an endless ascent.