Page:The Urantia Book, 1st Edition.djvu/1665

Rh of these Paradise Deities will continue to enlarge and brighten throughout the endless ages of the eternal spiritual progression of the ascending sons of God. At all times and during all ages the true worship of any human being—as concerns individual spiritual progress—is recognized by the indwelling spirit as homage rendered to the Father in heaven.

Never before had the apostles been so shocked as they were upon hearing this recounting of the growth of the concept of God in the Jewish minds of previous generations; they were too bewildered to ask questions. As they sat before Jesus in silence, the Master continued: "And you would have known these truths had you read the Scriptures. Have you not read in Samuel where it says: 'And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so much so that he moved David against them, saying, go number Israel and Judah'? And this was not strange because in the days of Samuel the children of Abraham really believed that Yahweh created both good and evil. But when a later writer narrated these events, subsequent to the enlargement of the Jewish concept of the nature of God, he did not dare attribute evil to Yahweh; therefore he said: 'And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.' Cannot you discern that such records in the Scriptures clearly show how the concept of the nature of God continued to grow from one generation to another?

"Again should you have discerned the growth of the understanding of divine law in perfect keeping with these enlarging concepts of divinity. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt in the days before the enlarged revelation of Yahweh, they had ten commandments which served as their law right up to the times when they were encamped before Sinai. And these ten commandments were:


 * "1. You shall worship no other god, for the Lord is a jealous God.


 * "2. You shall not make molten gods.


 * "3. You shall not neglect to keep the feast of unleavened bread.


 * "4. Of all the males of men or cattle, the first-born are mine, says the Lord.


 * "5. Six days you may work, but on the seventh day you shall rest.


 * "6. You shall not fail to observe the feast of the first fruits and the feast of the ingathering at the end of the year.


 * "7. You shall not offer the blood of any sacrifice with leavened bread.


 * "8. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left until morning.


 * "9. The first of the first fruits of the ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.


 * "10. You shall not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.

"And then, amidst the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, Moses gave them the new ten commandments, which you will all allow are more worthy utterances to accompany the enlarging Yahweh concepts of Deity. And did you never take notice of these commandments as twice recorded in the Scriptures, that in the first case deliverance from Egypt is assigned as the reason for Sabbath keeping, while in a later record the advancing religious beliefs of our forefathers demanded that this be changed to the recognition of the fact of creation as the reason for Sabbath observance?

"And then will you remember that once again—in the greater spiritual enlightenment of Isaiah's day—these ten negative commandments were changed