© 1992 Kathleen Swadling, Matthew Block, L. Preston Thomas, Ann Bendall
© 1992 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
2 Salisbury Crt, Glen Waverley, Victoria, AUSTRALIA, 3150.
¶ In This Issue…
SIX-0-SIX
PO BOX 616, Sunnybank, Queensland, AUSTRALLA 4109
Six-O-Six is a bi-monthly publication dedicated to the promotion of International goodwill and understanding among readers of The URANTIA Book.
- So They Say
- Letters to the Editor
- News Around the World
- Articles
- Summary of Elanora Conference
- A Bibliographic Essay on Some Human
- Books Used in The URANTIA Book
- The Book- Study and Discussion
- Book Review “The Life and Teachings Of Jesus”
- Forum
- The Purpose Of the Fifth Epochal Revelation
- Divine Antidotes
- Quotable Quotes
- Crosswords
- On Reflection
- Why Do We Need Leaders?
- All is Said and Done
¶ Editor’s Notebook
The way to success for a religious book for a long time now has depended on its packaging.
But today more than ever it’s the packaging of instant appeal, power of impact, the non-participating aspect, mass media, and peer pressure.
How does The URANTIA Book stack up in that context? At best, it has power of impact for some.
Our youth generally are put off by their parents’ churches. With Jesus’ teachings so deeply buried, they are jettisoned with all else in favour of a group which better communicates its central message. Such as the charismatic theme. Or an easy to follow cult.
Children find a sprinkling of religion in schools, sporting groups, and youth organizations such as Scouts. But it is a side issue and perhaps rightly so.
The way is left wide open for the influences of their music and their television. Still not a book in sight. Society is unable to counter the effect. Surrealism struggles to stay ahead of advancing realism. Who needs religious values when a generation evolves their own! Not that I’m suggesting they be inhibited in their quest. Rather, where can they be contacted? Where do they find a peer or a book with the credentials of spiritual knowledge?
For that matter where do adults find them? Dame Iris Murdoch, in her newly published 500 pages of ‘Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals’ tells us: “God does not and cannot exist.”
But wait! The URANTIA Book has taken root. There is a plan in God’s vast domain.
He requires us to read the book, then act accordingly. Imagine not even bothering to read it, because of slothfulness and society’s conditioning — tantamount to ignoring God.
Social security in the mail, fast food delivered, non-do TV sport, non-think magazines. A lotus land of shifting sand.
Try and package The URANTIA Book for that world of effortless activity with its inherent stress factors.
I’m pleased to say the novelists and philosophers have already commenced, albeit by default.
In their chipping away of orthodoxy, they have few stones left to turn or throw.
They see the possibility of Christianity — reduced now to its uppers — disappearing, but only because their exploration of it has left them nowhere to go — atheism by the process of elimination.
Separate speculation about Jesus, by writers such as Wilson (Jesus) and Thiering (Jesus the man), indicate a world now bereft of evolutionary spiritual progress. Literal truth must be stabilized and clarified by revelation.
Our image of Christ is faltering. The key element is to see a fuller concept of Jesus and his teachings, one separate from the churches. And to see Jesus as a master creator distinct from other religious teachers. All confusion and disillusion shall then unravel like wrapping paper.
As for packaging The URANTIA Book’s teachings, well, that’s not a problem. Beyond the images of Jesus, drawn from the American movies, from smooth darkhaired Oriental performers, from pop culture, from Byzantine and post-Renaissance European art, there is a perfect communicator. The Spirit of Truth.
Facile and tactile, but to the soul.
¶ So They Say
Peter Mayer (Penguin Books)
What is special about a book is what is inside it, not the physical object itself.
Weekend Australian
Another important question raised by Leakey and Lewin (‘Origins Reconsidered’) is whether present-day humans had single or multiple origins. Did the prehuman to human transition occur in several different places? Or are modern humans the result of just one such transition? If we are all products of one overwhelmingly successful transition, then we are in a sense all of one great family.
Laurie Kavanagh (Brisbane Courier Mail)
Some ratbag wants to rewrite the Bible’s version of the Last Supper. There were no women at the table, you see. Personally I couldn’t care less if it was an all-women Last Supper with Christ a woman instead of a bloke. What difference does it make? And it wouldn’t matter if he or she was black, brown, brindle, or pink. If you want to believe in that sort of thing what does it matter. Christ was Christ.
Third World Bulletin
The ranks of the Protestant fundamentalist groups in the Philippines have grown enormously and now provide a threat to the stature of the Catholic Church.
There are now more than 1600 of these groups with a congregation of 1.6 million. A suggested reason for these new churches is the failure of the Catholic religion to provide meaning to the life and faith of its community in today’s society.
A Note From Six-O-Six
All of us Six-O-Six wish the compliments of the season to our many readers around the world. We thank you for your continued support and diverse range of comment. We’ll be back in 1993 and trust that the year will bring further spiritual enlightenment, an enhanced vision for peace on earth and goodwill to all. And may we all work together to make the teachings of The URANTIA Book available to the people of all nations.
Six-O-Six is published sir times a year, and editorial contributions are welcomed. Subscription rates: Australia - $ 10 per year. Other countries - US $17 per year The material contained in this publication is of general comment only, and not advice on any particular matter. The publisher, authors and editors expressly disclaim all liability in respect of this information and of the consequences of any actions resulting therefrom. Interpretations and opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of Six-O-Sir or Urantia Foundation. All quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are front The URANTIA Book © 1955 and used by permission. This publication is copyright with the exception of fair dealings under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without and permission from the publisher.
¶ Letters To The Editor
¶ Paperback Worthwhile
Audrey Morris, Tewantin, Queensland
I agree with Keith Bacon of Victoria regarding a paperback edition of the fourth Section of The URANTIA Book.
The message of Jesus was always a simple one, understood by all, and we should make that simple message available to all. Wouldn’t a paperback edition make a great Christmas present!!
¶ Challenge The Book’s Teachings
Allan E.L. Lane, Mirrabooka, Western Australia
Please encourage and publish articles which question the accuracy of the URANTIA Book teachings. I am keen for this, not to weaken spiritual growth, but to strengthen it.
I believe in rigorously examining the teachings of any source claiming to be a higher than human authority. A strong spotlight should be kept trained on all of The URANTIA Book’s claims, including reincarnation theory, the statistics on personality survival, and so on. In my opinion, if the book is all it claims to be, it will only benefit in the longer term from intense and ongoing questioning regarding its claims concerning the nature of reality and existence.
I think the new-look Six-O-Six is great!
¶ Oops
In the last issue of Six-O-Six, paragraph 6 of Allan Lane’s article, “Ignore the Channellers?” should have read:
“The point I am trying to make here is that one day, post 1935 , if not already, higher authorities may communicate a small or large amount of excellent information or advice for public consumption via someone contemporary.”
The words in bold were mistakenly omitted. Our apologies.
¶ News Around The World
¶ New Service To Contributors
To facilitate early publication of letters and articles, your contributions may be faxed to Ann Bendall on (074) 491817 or to Ken Glasziou via Compuserve.
¶ Clarification Of Foundation’s Book Policy
The URANTIA Foundation will sell to an individual if they do not have access to a bookstore. However, these sales will be transacted at the suggested retail price, plus shipping and handling.
¶ A Disease Called Happiness
A recent edition of ‘NewScientist’ includes a proposition by distinguished psychologist Richard Bentall of the University of Liverpool to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder.
Happiness, he argues, must be irrational in a world as wicked as this, and therefore happy people are apt to behave in a manner incompatible with the true interests of themselves and society at large.
It must be treated, apparently, so “we can expect the emergence of happiness clinics and anti-happiness medications in the not too distant future”.
We could almost be forgiven for deciding this to be a very sad state of affairs. Keep watching the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases for further details.
¶ Exploration Closer To Home
Scientists have also reported detecting a powerful object only two million light-years from the Milky Way galaxy, by using the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer.
The object appeared to be an elliptical galaxy radiating as much energy as a trillion suns.
¶ The Bleep Goes On (Even Closer)
A ten-year NASA Program will probe the faintest of radio signals suggesting intelligence on other planets. The world’s largest radio telescope in Puerto Rico will conduct a “targeted search”, probing 1000 stars similar to the sun within 100 light-years of earth. (One light year is about 14 trillion kilometres.)
Incoming data will be processed using computers. Any possible signal will be verified to ensure they are not coming from earth or a hoax. The body of evidence suggests the events that led to the formation of earth are fairly common. As Cornell University Astronomer, Mr Carl Sagan, said: “For us to have the capability to seek out other civilizations and not to do so would be a great mistake. We have a chance to probe with rigor and in detail, one of the great questions: ”Are we alone?"’
¶ Dark Secret Exposed
The Hubble space telescope has photographed an unusual mirror-image of a distant galaxy that may help astronomers understand more about mysterious ‘dark matter’. The image appeared through a huge cluster of galaxies located at about four billion light-years from earth. Two six-hour exposures of the cluster showed the pair of faint objects with structures of perfect symmetry.
¶ Articles
¶ Summary Of Elanora Conference 1992
Kathleen Swadling, Sydney
Another annual conference for students of the URANTIA Book has come and gone leaving all who participated, I’m sure, with a feeling that their time was well spent and full of qualitative experiences and reflection. Over the four days, around thirty to thirty-five people attended, some staying and others visiting on a daily basis. We had folks come all the way from the USA, New Zealand, Victoria, Queensland and NSW. New and old friends were met and much meaningful and valuable sharing took place.
The theme was ‘Human Nature and the Twelve Apostles’. Twelve people were previously selected to study up on the nature and character of an apostle and presented that apostle to the group. The Women’s Corps was also presented.
¶ A Bibliographic Essay On Some Human Sources Used In The Urantia Book
Matthew Block, Chicago
“…in making these presentations about God and his universe associates, we have selected as the basis of these papers more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe meanings.” (UB 0:12.12)
“We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of presentation has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind.” (UB 0:12.11)
“The memoranda which I have collected…embrace thought gems and superior concepts of Jesus’ teachings assembled from more than two thousand human beings who have lived on earth from the days of Jesus down to the times of the inditing of these revelations, more correctly restatements…the majority of the ideas and even some of the effective expressions which I have thus utilised had their origin in the men of many races who have lived on earth during the intervening generations, right on down to those who are still alive at the time of this undertaking.” (UB 121:8.13)
Following these introductory remarks is a list of nineteen books which in all probability were used in the inditement of some of the Urantia Papers. Each of these books (with a few exceptions noted in the list) contains sentences, paragraphs or even whole chapters whose phrasings and organization of thoughts or information are so closely paralleled in The URANTIA Book as to strongly suggest their use as source materials by the revelators. While a few of these have long been known to some URANTIA Book readers (e.g. the books by Breasted, Bundy, Jones), most were apparently first discovered in libraries and used book stores in the Chicago area during the spring, summer and fall of 1992 in the course of my research into The URANTIA Book’s human sources.
¶ The Book Study And Discussion
¶ Book Review Of ‘The Life And Teachings Of Jesus’
by L. Preston Thomas, California
This book is a restatement of Jesus’ life and teachings created by putting together verses from the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These verses are arranged in chronological format inspired by Part IV of The URANTIA Book. The translations used for particular verses were chosen with an eye toward their harmony with the wording of the Urantia Papers. In general only those teachings that are verified by the new revelation are included, while erroneous passages are simply left out.
The effort is to provide a simple, comprehensive, and true statement of Jesus’ life and teachings that will be readily accepted by most people, especially those with a Christian background.
Through a clearer and truer statement of Jesus’ life and gospel, it is hoped that this work can contribute to the expansion of his kingdom — the rule of God in the hearts of his earth children.
Believers in the Urantia revelation may find that this book has other special uses:
First, it provides a much needed tool of ministry for followers of the new revelation. These gospel verses furnish us with all the true teachings of Jesus.
Second, this book harmonizes the teachings of the Bible with the teachings of the Urantia Papers. It is a demonstration of the deep harmony that exists between the teachings of the gospels and the new revelation.
Third, this collection of teachings provides a language of intercommunication — a language that is common to both sets of believers.
Fourth, this book provides the cream of the gospels relatively purified of the human errors that became a part of the early Christian teachings.
Finally, this book provides a means for believers in The URANTIA Book to go forward now in the direction projected by the Urantia revelation, the return to Jesus and his true teachings.
The book is available at the price of $US16 (including postage) from:
Einstein School Publications
c/o Larry Watkins
3720 El Rincon Way
Sacramento, CA 95864
¶ Study Booklets From The Fellowship
As a service to our continued study of The URANTIA Book and its teachings, The Fellowship has developed new booklets which are now available:
Glossary And Pronunciation Reference
This new 24-page reference work contains brief definitions, pronunciations, and primary page references for over 200 words selected from The URANTIA Book. This glossary has been limited primarily to words which are not included in other standard reference sources. Although a phonetic spelling approach to pronunciation has been used in this first English edition, it is the intention in future editions to utilize the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association (IPA) to facilitate international usage of this reference tool (cost $US2 plus $US1 overseas postage).
A Summary Of Textual Changes Made In The Urantia Book:
(Since the first printing in 1955 through and including the tenth printing in March, 1990). This Summary of Changes Reference was compiled from research conducted over many years by dedicated students of The URANTIA Book. Its purpose is to help answer questions often raised in study groups when reading aloud from different printings of The URANTIA Book raises an inconsistency. These changes were made by the publisher of The URANTIA Book (URANTIA Foundation Trustees) for reasons and by whose authority they have chosen not to reveal. Although most of the changes are minor (spelling and grammatical changes) they are compiled as a simple matter of record and made readily available to readers. (No charge. $US1 for overseas postage.)
In addition, The Fellowship has recently published the 1992-93 International Study Group Directory. It lists 302 Study Groups worldwide and all Area Coordinators. it represents a most impressive readership family.
For further information, contact:
The Fellowship
529 Wrightwood Avenue
Chicago, Il, 60614
¶ The Forum
¶ The Purpose Of The Fifth Epochal Revelation?
Adapted from a file (SOS1 OYR.NLA) in the Brotherhood of Man Library.
What is the specific purpose of the Fifth Epochal Revelation on this planet? Perhaps the simplest answer is that it has been given to us in order that we should proclaim the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of All Men. But that message has been proclaimed before, so is there some other purpose for this revelation? Undoubtedly part of its purpose is to rectify errors that have partially negated the effectiveness of the Fourth Epochal Revelation. Another purpose would be to amplify upon the knowledge of our place in God’s creation from a cosmic viewpoint. But why has this new revelation come to us at this time, and not 1000 years hence or whence?
To try to answer this question, let us take a look at Paper 99, ‘The Social Problems of Religion’, addressing specific problems confronting our planet in this century. We are told that, in the past, religion did not have to adjust its attitude to extensive changes in economic and political systems; then it goes on to comment on the current rapidity of changes in living conditions, which require that institutional modifications must be greatly accelerated, and that religion must accordingly quicken its adaptation to an ever-changing social order. We are told that this period of gross instability will not settle down for a millennium, that is 1000 years! Hence, “the human race must become reconciled to a procession of changes, adjustments, and readjustments. Mankind is on the march toward a new and unrevealed destiny”.
¶ Divine Antidotes
What, The URANTIA Book was first published at five to eight in the evening?
Yes, nineteen fifty-five to be exact.
What’s the best way to make friends? UB 1
What part of Orvonton is in Havona? Von
How many balls of string will it take to get to Paradise?
One, if it’s long enough.
I hear that channelling is becoming widespread in the
Yes, from the East Ghost to the West Ghost.
Knock, Knock!
Who’s there?
Noah!
Noah who?
Noah good book to read?
What did one ghost say to the other ghost?
Do you believe in people?
In which Biblical story is tennis mentioned?
The one where Moses served in Pharaoh’s Court.
¶ Crosswords
by Audrey Morris, Tewantin, Queensland
Across
3. Michael’s message 8. Midst 9. Disloyal Captain 11. Save 12. Your faith is private 15. Vetch 18. Jesus’ brother 19. Gain 20. Roman patriot 24. Nazarite colony 27. Mix of Caucasoid and Negroid 28. Cereal 30. Talent 31. Rebel
Down
1. Superior boats 2. Agree 3. Country 4. Defected leader 5. Skeleton 6. Roman highway 7. Present 10. Alloy of gold and silver 13. Religious sect 14. Put forth 16. Jesus healed his withered hand 17. Erne 18. Old Spain 21. Widow of Damascus 22. Water creatures 23. Lode 24. Jesus viewed this town from Simeon 25. Wild Ibex 26. Sad 29. Race
Solution To Previous Crossword
Across: 3. Martha 6. Mastery 8. Industry 9. Oak 11. Indwelling 14. Ode 15. Ere 16. Sanobin 19. Issue 21. Hem 23. Urals 24. Nile 25. Cede
Down: 1. Darkness 2. Seize 3. Mad 4. Rise 5. Herod 7. Yields 10. Air 12. Water 13. Glory 15. Elihu 17. Abel 18. Need 20. Son 21. He 22. Me
¶ On Reflection
¶ Why Do We Need Leaders?
Ann Bendall, Nambour, Queensland
I see so many of my beloved brothers and sisters running around trying to find someone to lead them, someone to follow.
Why do any of us need a lesser person than Jesus to follow? Perhaps it is because Jesus refuses, in love, to do as we ask — to tell us exactly what we should be doing. Are we not supposed to be doing the will of God? So why can’t we get our orders directly? Is it that a false idea has infiltrated into our minds on what the will of God really means? In answer to a question Jesus said:
“The will of God is the way of God, partnership with the choice of God in the face of any potential alternative. To do the will of God, therefore, is the progressive experience of becoming more and more like God, and God is the source and destiny of all that is good and beautiful and true.” (UB 130:2.7)
¶ When all is said and done…
“…there is a way, there always has been, and I have come to make that way new and living.” (UB 146:3.7)