Latest / Urantia Radio / Belitsos Part 2
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome back to the ranch Radio podcast, glad you could be here
- 0:03Byron boletos part two of our interview, delving into the
- 0:06significant difference in the way eastern and western
- 0:09Christianity, has evolved as the outlines in his new book.
- 0:12Plus Byron is quite candid about why the Rancho book plays.
- 0:15Such an important role in ensuring that evil does not
- 0:18Prevail. The book is the truth about evil
- 0:20sin and the Demonic and intrical theodicy on the ranch Radio
- 0:24podcast. Welcome to your auntie radio
- 0:37again. Our guest part two of our
- 0:39two-part series with Byron boletos, who has written a book
- 0:41called The truths about evil sin and the Demonic.
- 0:44We've been talking a lot about how theologians of the past have
- 0:48contemplated, the theory of Free Will versus predetermination and
- 0:53we've delved into the reasons of debt theodicy and why that
- 0:57conversation is so compelling now.
- 1:00Last time we spoke to Byron on part one of our two part
- 1:03interview. We covered the overall points of
- 1:04his latest book about truths and, and the Demonic.
- 1:07Now let's continue with our time with Byron boletos on the ranch,
- 1:11Radio podcast, the more I read, the more, I see your, what your
- 1:16points are being made. I think you've connected dots
- 1:18unintentionally. I don't think you meant to
- 1:20connect them, but you've connected them.
- 1:22The Urantia book, anybody who is interested in theodicy of these
- 1:27great thinkers, for the past 2000 years, would be Be very
- 1:30appreciative of the theodicy of the Urantia book.
- 1:34And so tell us what the theodicy of the Urantia book is you will
- 1:37see all the see the UB is is a is a synthesis and I will call
- 1:43it a creative synthesis of the best ideas of the past that I
- 1:49feel of, I've identified many of them and it adds the
- 1:56cosmological Revelation that none of them could envision.
- 2:00Although Whitehead, for example, envisions a very big part of it.
- 2:03But the the theodicy, the ranch book not only in dialogue with
- 2:08theologians, but also dialogue, really with cosmology of the
- 2:12past. And but then upgrading it and
- 2:14updating it greatly with the notion of the central universe
- 2:19and the distinction between evolution.
- 2:23And it turn to thee and that distinction was played with by
- 2:27Christians, but nothing like this.
- 2:29And so if the Odyssey depends, a lot on knowing that the
- 2:35time-space evolutional realm is its kind of own autonomous
- 2:41domain of value. Value expression that is subsist
- 2:46within the, the master universe and and the relationship of the
- 2:52two. To is the theodicy that the
- 2:55Odyssey is that paradise Perfection is in, is in a
- 3:01relationship with with our imperfection our evil, our
- 3:05course in its it. Coexists, you might say with the
- 3:10darkness of space and time Evolution and is the great goal
- 3:15of all of us who are coming up from from the bottom.
- 3:20And and so see Odyssey is It says that the grace is pouring
- 3:25out from the, you know, from from the from the deities in
- 3:29Paradise deities is is more than sufficient to compensate for the
- 3:37imperfection evolutionary profession.
- 3:39And we need only accept it and then work with it but to help us
- 3:47again. This is the Odyssey.
- 3:49They recognize we started as Animals with animal instincts,
- 3:54for survival and which, you know, for our survival depends
- 3:57on being, you know, actually violent and certain ways and
- 4:01that, that they obviously see that.
- 4:05And so they're doing a lot more than than say what Whitehead
- 4:09would say. They're they're spending
- 4:11incarnations, they're sending spiritual influences, such as
- 4:16the spirit of Truth. In the Holy Spirit, they're
- 4:19sending Revelations a book form. These are all parts of that's
- 4:21the Odyssey, which is That we're doing everything through these
- 4:25domains. The domains of the Trinity
- 4:28Trinity has various domain. The Angelic, angels are
- 4:32emanating from the third source and Center.
- 4:34That's part of C, 0, c, 2, because angels are helping us,
- 4:38you know, taking us by the hand and pulling us out of out of
- 4:42Darkness, but it's not just them.
- 4:44We got the indwelling spirit from the fathers, and it's not
- 4:47just that, we've got the sun sending incarnations.
- 4:51So, if the Odyssey is Very Dynamic, but open.
- 4:55It's not determined the other big part of this is that it's
- 4:58open rather than determinative because my, my view and this is
- 5:04a bit of a unique interpretation for me is that it's the Odyssey
- 5:08is like that of this new school called the open theists which
- 5:13says the yep, God is all-powerful.
- 5:16God is truly able to control these things but God only
- 5:22controls. In one big cents which is God,
- 5:27make sure that salvation is achieved.
- 5:33In those in certain places. Because the infrastructure is
- 5:38there for it, it's always going to be there.
- 5:40There's always going to be the say, the morontia worlds.
- 5:45So, even, if your Rancho gets snuffed out, so the so to speak,
- 5:51the modular homes, are still there, good point.
- 5:53So there can be these isolated Rebellion planets that do make
- 5:58it and really it is the case that it is not guaranteed.
- 6:05It is not guaranteed, it is not predetermined as Luther and
- 6:11Calvin and Augustine. All said that medieval Catholics
- 6:18said, no, all of this, especially Calvin, all of this.
- 6:22It's all going to work out all of it.
- 6:24There's not going to be anything lost, but the Rancher book does
- 6:27not say that. There's going to be lost is that
- 6:31are that are cannot be that there's a lot of losses of souls
- 6:38that are unredeemed. Because they chose not to not to
- 6:42not to survive. So that that's why the the these
- 6:46great thinkers fell into predestination as their only way
- 6:52out. And they're only way to do to do
- 6:54theodicy. They said well you know, God is
- 6:57all loving and all-powerful period And so therefore no one
- 7:01is ever lost except those who End up in hell.
- 7:09So they're not lost, they're getting Just Desserts, they're
- 7:14getting justice. So so that so they don't have
- 7:17any notion of souls that are entirely lost.
- 7:22Let's talk about the evil to send the Demonic.
- 7:24There's the internal, the original sin, which we haven't
- 7:27really touched on. But this idea that we are all
- 7:30born with sin in our DNA, and that's been addressed by open
- 7:35theist, most open theist have moved away from that.
- 7:38Concept or is it strictly a western evangelic whole thing or
- 7:42do a majority of Christians? Catholics still?
- 7:44Hold that we are originally in sin.
- 7:47Yeah, of course, you know, Cruces sort of Catholics would
- 7:49least still hold to original sin and it should be noted because
- 7:53we haven't touched on it. That the Eastern Eastern
- 7:55Orthodox, have an alternate alternate narrative about this.
- 8:01It's very important that because, as an important
- 8:06footnote is that Original sin means the year, you're so
- 8:10depraved that you cannot work your way to Salvation by your
- 8:16own, will by your own effort. You you are stripped of your
- 8:22powers to do that. Sort of in a Cooperative
- 8:27relationship, God has to do everything for you and you are
- 8:34really kind of passive except through faith where you Kept
- 8:38God's grace and forgiveness. The the Eastern View is not is
- 8:44that is not these terms. You and this is extremely
- 8:46important for Urantia book readers.
- 8:48Which is we don't hold to that the we hold to the more, the
- 8:52Eastern Christians you, which is that the human will is not
- 8:56depraved and we can work cooperatively with deity for our
- 9:02salvation and progression, and that is a minority view in
- 9:07Christianity. Because of the preponderance of
- 9:11the western church, right? But the Eastern Church is, is
- 9:17not given its due credit, because they figured this out
- 9:22and that is why your entry book is of should be a great interest
- 9:29to Eastern Orthodox. Christians.
- 9:31So as a, thank you for letting me go into that footnote that
- 9:33return. It's important.
- 9:35Let's talk a little bit about the idea, which is I'm Glad you
- 9:39brought it up in your book about the distinction that was made,
- 9:42that that Lucifer can protest against God and God allows him
- 9:49to do that. And you put a kind of a take on
- 9:51it which was unique it. Go into that a little bit about
- 9:55how God allows for sort of domains that his created sons
- 10:02have jurisdiction over. Yeah, certainly and that's
- 10:05that's a part of the beauty of the cosmology.
- 10:08The Book which reminds me or release me of something like the
- 10:14federal government of the United States, right?
- 10:16So you delegate authority to one of the states of the union.
- 10:22And in that state, the governor has a lot of autonomy.
- 10:26And, and you cannot, you cannot easily remove a governor.
- 10:31You can't really remove a governor of a state from
- 10:35Washington. There would be ways.
- 10:38To do their checks and balances for everything so you can sort
- 10:43of do it. So, that's the same thing with
- 10:45Lucifer. Lucifer is like a governor of a
- 10:47state, you know, Louis local system.
- 10:50And, and there's these agreements or sacred agreements.
- 10:55With, with nebadon, with the nemeton government government.
- 11:00The so this prior agreement, and since a with caligastia, there's
- 11:05a, there's a prior agreement that cannot be a Gated, unless
- 11:10you go to like the Supreme Court, right, saying, say, when
- 11:13the United States, you have to go Supreme Court to settle a lot
- 11:16of these things. So you have to go to the
- 11:18Ancients of days to settle the the that dispute you can't
- 11:23Michael and mother cannot settle that dispute.
- 11:27They don't have the authority to do it and so therefore you can
- 11:30have Michael come on to the planet but he can't settle it
- 11:33fully. And, and so, so the that that's
- 11:38that's part. Out of your theodicy.
- 11:40You know that's the evil is dealt with through legal means
- 11:46as well as other means. The legal means that the
- 11:49infrastructure. So you can't violate the
- 11:51infrastructure because those are sacred agreements with DDE and
- 11:54DDD never violates its promises and isn't it interesting to look
- 11:59at it that way people ask well why is the devil free to roam?
- 12:01Well there's a jurisdictional problem here.
- 12:04He's not going to abrogate is own system.
- 12:06Me chose to divest of himself and his trusted creatures and
- 12:12sometimes they are just like sometimes we have Governors that
- 12:15decide to do what they want to do, you know, and other times
- 12:18they don't. Okay, so we've covered a lot.
- 12:22What was your favorite chapter? What part of the book was your
- 12:25favorite and what was your least favorite?
- 12:27What was the most difficult? So I would say my favorite was
- 12:32Chapter 3, which is about the Eastern Orthodox view of evil
- 12:36and I grew up in that church so it's more more my style, you
- 12:41might say. And I liked it because I
- 12:43discovered what I really kind of already knew which was that
- 12:48they're closer to the ranch a book truth than deny that even I
- 12:53fought because of this partnership view of the
- 12:56relationship of creature creator.
- 12:59That is that it's really quite inspiring.
- 13:02And that's why when you read chapter 3, you you're probably
- 13:05filled my, my sense of love for that, for that tradition, that
- 13:11they arrived at this. And this more open View and, and
- 13:16my flight disdain for the East, the Western View, which stripped
- 13:22that off another words. They don't give you a way out
- 13:28Through your own decisions. And it's sort of like we're
- 13:33like, it's like a feudal view that that we're like slaves and
- 13:38God has to do everything for us. So the hardest, the hardest
- 13:43chapter was was, was the chapter about st.
- 13:47Augustine. Why was that?
- 13:50What you see with him? Is this?
- 13:52Absolutely world-class genius. It's just so impressive.
- 13:57What Does. But so misguided in his
- 14:03assigning of original sin Without Really any precedent,
- 14:09it's there in st. Paul.
- 14:11But in a kind of poetic way and Augustine is sort of, you know,
- 14:16kind of dark figure in a way that he Embraces it.
- 14:20And, and it, and he is so brilliant that it's still
- 14:24persuasive to this day in Conservative Catholics who are
- 14:28Are all over the place, still have this View and so I wanted
- 14:32to be able to present that in a way that was fair to
- 14:37conservatives. Why did Europe adopted the more
- 14:40Roman view, the more Pauline view of Christianity as opposed
- 14:44to say with the Greeks and correct.
- 14:47As you put it this relational view that he had, which is true
- 14:52to the, to the Orthodox teachings, actual teaching was
- 14:56one that is inhuman and Coloring.
- 14:59It's really a kind of humanism but as Christian humanism,
- 15:04whereas the West was under the Aegis of the Roman coercive
- 15:12worldview. And so the problem with sin
- 15:15Augustine is a he too, was it did not rise above it.
- 15:19Really and that he codified of you where we are powerless as
- 15:25not a humanistic new in The sense that they Abner would have
- 15:30had that. We are junior Partners in the
- 15:34senior partner is the father. Yeah.
- 15:37The indwelling spirit says, so if he doesn't have there's
- 15:40nowhere in there, that There's no, there's a hint of it, but
- 15:47the notion of what these calls divinization were deification.
- 15:51Were where the self is attaining, higher and higher
- 15:55levels of God, Consciousness is not in the East, the Western
- 16:01View breaks out here and there in the mystics Avalon.
- 16:05By the way, nice job at integrating, the Rancho book in
- 16:08the way that you explain it. Because I am sure that a lot of
- 16:11people reading your book may not have any knowledge.
- 16:14Motion whatsoever, the Urantia book and so the way that I think
- 16:17that you presented it made it sound less outlandish and more
- 16:21sophisticated. I think it was hard to, you
- 16:25know, first of all, I had to talk a professor into allowing
- 16:30me to cover it in my thesis and that's that allowed me to write
- 16:37this in the first place. Under the guide and under the
- 16:40guidance of a real good feel logical faculty.
- 16:44No, talking this guy into it. It was pretty tough, but I'd
- 16:48written papers for him me and he knew I was kind of a grown-up.
- 16:51I was double the age of the other students there and so I
- 16:55gave him on your Ranch a book and to his credit, he read a lot
- 16:59of it. And if he hadn't done that, it
- 17:02would have been impossible and it would have just proven my, my
- 17:08hypothesis, which is somebody in Christianity.
- 17:12Can't get this would only be a pretty sophisticated Theologian
- 17:19who could get in the ballpark and so he did and my second
- 17:23reader was pretty radical, feminist Theologian and and to
- 17:28this day, she is in dialogue with me.
- 17:32She picked up a Fascination for the UB because of my seat, my
- 17:36Master's thesis. Let's talk about the presence of
- 17:39evil in today's world. You how do we respond as
- 17:43individuals who subscribe to the Urantia book theodicy, or
- 17:46philosophy or perception. How do we address this ramp and
- 17:51evil? That seems to be taking the
- 17:54World by storm and you brought up a very good point about the
- 17:57ranch about being a response to the current evils in the world
- 18:01today. And you also pointed out that
- 18:04the book was actually finished right at the time that the atom.
- 18:07Bomb was dropped and I had never made that connection.
- 18:10Yeah, guys, I thank you. That's, that's, that's an
- 18:13observation that following Matthew blocks, discovery that
- 18:18there were, you know, small changes made in 1945 which is
- 18:22disputed, but but I think he's right that, that is that it was
- 18:27time, you know, sort of the deepest Revelation time for the
- 18:31when we made our most Grievous, iniquitous behavior on Earth.
- 18:37And And so it seems that we're headed in a similar Direction
- 18:41now with the climate with you know war in Ukraine with war may
- 18:47be against China and all these other things that was the right
- 18:52in our face every day that we haven't exactly learned the
- 18:55lesson and I think one of the problems with pretty Ranch a
- 18:58people in this connection is that we tend to think of the
- 19:02book and isolation and I think it's a huge error.
- 19:05I dunno to be book, disseminators the kind of To a
- 19:07vacuum right versus this is part of a lineage where deities
- 19:13trying to reach us and you and I have talked about this before
- 19:16that. The last time is trying to reach
- 19:18us through mainly through the Christian lineage and Arlene.
- 19:27Audience is to is them and they have to take the leadership we
- 19:34can catalyze them they have to get and, and particular, the
- 19:39liberal Christians don't really have a notion of sin that is
- 19:46strong enough to be honest, you know, the resist, the
- 19:48conservative part of the ranch argument, which is that the the
- 19:53sinful Tendencies are very strong because of the presence
- 19:56of caligastia, all these, you know, all these Millennia and
- 20:01the Lucifer, Eric orientation of our Elites, And the UB is needed
- 20:09to revive this notion of the supernatural realm, being being
- 20:15way off, you know that we have. So we are under a very difficult
- 20:21Legacy and we should take a cue from conservative Christians,
- 20:26even though most of us are liberal in our Christianity,
- 20:30that we tend to be almost moving toward new age, you know, new
- 20:34age being the snow. Ocean that they're, you know,
- 20:36that you've over-exaggerated the thing about Sin.
- 20:39It's over exaggerated, we're perfectible, right?
- 20:42Yeah, that is, that could be really damaging to the ranch of
- 20:45movement. And I think I've felt and seen
- 20:48the damage to the ranch of movement that it's going in that
- 20:51direction of a liberal New Age view.
- 20:54We're in a way profits to, to the, to the Christians.
- 20:59You know, the theologians that I met these are more academic
- 21:02theologians, they are embattled people, they My Cemetery was
- 21:08very, distinguished Cemetery. They're running out of money.
- 21:12They they, they sold off part of their quadrangle to a private
- 21:18developer and built. A 40-story building the middle
- 21:22of the campus to stay in business.
- 21:25That's a given example. These people know that, that
- 21:28they're not giving they're not being listened to by our
- 21:32culture, their, their influence is waning and why Is that, you
- 21:36know? So you know, I said to my
- 21:37professors your Ranch your book is offering credit, not
- 21:42criticism, but correction on certain doctrines like the
- 21:47omnipotence of deity that that you guys need to hear you at all
- 21:53on the atonement doctrine, of course, and the Virgin birth
- 21:56these things, we all see through that, but here's here's deity.
- 22:01God, is, is helping you get, you know, God loves you.
- 22:06Mr. And mrs. Theologian is giving you the
- 22:09correction in this sophisticated text that is unsurpassed and so
- 22:15we if we can convey that to Christian leaders, it's not
- 22:21easy, but it's doable, then they can take up the they have the
- 22:26institutions to do this, we don't have them, we don't have
- 22:30seminaries. We don't have endowments of
- 22:32millions of dollars. We don't have libraries with a A
- 22:36thousand books, they have them. They are the ones that should be
- 22:39carrying this torch. And so I think I made some
- 22:44inroads with a few professors and we'll see how this book gets
- 22:47reviewed because we're sending it out.
- 22:48To all of the, all of the journals, all the theological
- 22:51journals, do you think the caligastia is what's what do you
- 22:55think he wants the outcome to be?
- 22:58What's caligastia is horse in this race?
- 23:01Well, we all know that you know the Rancher movement is is a
- 23:04critical Intervention and it is nearing, you know, certain
- 23:11people think this is kind of in default because it's really
- 23:14unknown to the leadership of the planet and particularly to the
- 23:18church. So that would be his agenda,
- 23:21which is keep this out of the hands of smart, Christians and
- 23:26watch who watches the church goes into greater and greater
- 23:29Decline and, which it has done. But the, the sort of the
- 23:34Salvation for the church is the ranch Revelation, so the ranch
- 23:39Revelation, keep it, keep it isolated, keep it, put it in the
- 23:45hands of well-meaning, people interested in their own
- 23:49spiritual growth rather than into the institutional, putting
- 23:54into the hands of this, great civilization called Western
- 23:58Christian civilization. That's where it's supposed to
- 24:01be. It's not supposed to be a little
- 24:04sect with you know, tiny little study groups.
- 24:10With people over 60 and remember that.
- 24:14I really think that's the sad reality that we're part of a
- 24:19lineage back to Christ and we're together.
- 24:27And and so we have to bring up our brothers and sisters from
- 24:31the judeo-christian tradition. Otherwise this will default what
- 24:37a critical part of this It's not addressed in my book so much but
- 24:40yeah, I mean, you know, want to this, give you all the tools you
- 24:43need. And so, why does a guy like me
- 24:46go to a seminary and find no one at this famous Seminary, sort of
- 24:50the Rancher book and that we can give a platform for science for
- 24:55philosophy that that they that they can accept with the
- 25:00teachings of Jesus. As I know you do a lot for
- 25:03public speaking and if there are people who might want to bring
- 25:06you into their groups, what's a good way?
- 25:08People to get a hold of you. Yeah.
- 25:10Thanks for asking for Byron. It's the same old email address
- 25:13Byron at or Ridge and press.com. And again, we appreciate Byron
- 25:17Bledsoe stopping by, and talking to us about his latest book
- 25:21which you can buy on amazon.com called the truths about evil sin
- 25:25and the Demonic by Byron boletos.
- 25:28We so appreciate him stopping by.
- 25:30If you have comments or questions, feel free to email me
- 25:33at your Ranch evoke radio at gmail.com, and we will Air this
- 25:37periodically also on Are you Ranch radio channel?
- 25:40Which you can find at your Ranch radio dotnet.
- 25:42Until next time, God bless and thanks for stopping by.