© 1992 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
Brisbane Study Group
How do we spread the message of The URANTIA Book? Good question. There was a time when many of us thought that we could rely upon instructions said to have been given to the human members of the Revelatory Commission. Presently there is considerable doubt about the validity of some of these supposed instructions. This may be a good thing, for it makes sense that the book itself should contain all the instructions necessary for its own dissemination. And at least we know that what we find in the book is authoritative. The following statement by the Master himself is both challenging and somewhat bothersome.
“Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired. The measure wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth co-ordinated life.” (UB 155:1.5)
The extent to which we have to take the message to the people is the measure of our failure! Speaking about the earliest Christian community, the book says: “Nevertheless they were filled with joy, and they lived such new and unique lives that all men were attracted to their teachings about Jesus.” (UB 194:4.6) It was the joy and the unique lives of these people and not the written word that drew attention to the teachings of Jesus.
Professor Huston Smith, in his book ‘The Religions of Man’, tells us that one of the earliest written observations from an outsider about these early Christians was, “See how these Christians love one another”. Smith says that there were two qualities that distinguished them, one a tranquility, simplicity, and cheerfulness that their hearers encountered nowhere else; the second, a joy that pervaded their lives. Outsiders found this baffling because most of them faced much greater than average adversity. Yet in all of their trials they laid hold of an inner peace that found expression in a joy that was almost boisterous. Perhaps radiant would be a better word, Smith says, though St. Paul himself described this joy as intoxicating.
Professor John Hicks has described the remarkable fortitude of early Christian martyrs. He quotes from a second century document, ‘The Martyrdom of Polycarp’ which says of certain Christian martyrs of that time, “they reached such a pitch of magnanimity that not one of them let a sigh or a groan escape them.” Professor Hicks also describes the martyrdom of a noblewoman named Perpetua who behaved as if in a trance whilst being gored to death in the arena by a bull, not appearing to realize even that she was being hurt. Among the early Christians, martyrdom was considered to confer an immediate, oneway ticket to heaven and some even sought martyrdom.
These and many other observations indicate that our inner attitude can exercise a powerful and transformative effect upon how we interpret suffering and misfortune.
Dr H.K. Beecher, reporting observations made during the Second World War, says that severe wounds were sometimes construed as a good thing if the wounding meant release from an intolerable situation. In particular, he describes the reactions of wounded men at Anzio during the Allied invasion of Italy where troops were pinned down for a long period by a frightful German bombardment. Only one quarter of the severely wounded men, having had no analgesics for at least four hours, and none at all in many cases, wanted anything done about it!
These and many other observations indicate that our inner attitude can exercise a powerful and transformative effect upon how we interpret suffering and misfortune. Huston Smith also tells us that there can be little doubt that the joy seen among the early Christians was a reaction to their release from three intolerable burdens firstly the fear of death itself, secondly, release from the burden of guilt, and thirdly, release from the cramping confines of the ego.
The URANTIA Book brings us the message that we are all indwelt by the Spirit of a Father-God who loves us, whose intent is that not one of his beloved children should be lost. For the asking, we all have an exciting universe career open to us in which we will ultimately be ushered into the very presence of the Father himself, then into the Corps of Finality from where we will be launched upon an everlasting and exalting adventure of service and discovery. None of us need miss out on achieving these goals; we can only do so by preferring self-destruction through the wholehearted embracing of iniquity. Even then we must approve of our own fate (UB 54:3.3).
Surely this 20th century version of the ‘good news’ should impact upon us at least as much as the first century gospel impacted upon the early Christians. And if it does so, should it not evoke the same kind of joy and cause the same remarkable spread of the Fifth Epochal Revelation as it did for the Fourth Epochal Revelation during the first 100 years of Christendom? To date, this is not apparent. Perhaps we are missing the point somewhere.