© 1991 Art Gregory
© 1991 The Fellowship for readers of The Urantia Book
A Topical Study by Art Gregory, Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Reported by Stuart R. Kerr, III, Troy, New York
On June 7, a weekend “Celebration of the Angels” was inaugurated at Simon’s Rock of Bard College in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This year’s Northeast regional conference for readers of The Urantia Book was hosted by the Warren Study Group (of Warren, Connecticut) with Karen Anderson acting as conference coordinator. The angels must surely have been with us, for the weather was of a wonderful vintage, sunny and warm, with a special freshness of the kind only the incoming, northerly Canadian air can provide. The weekend-long spiritual fellowship more than matched the weather in pleasantness, as evidenced by the sunny countenances and lovingly warm dispositions expressed by all.
Friday evening featured a study group session on the topic of the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the angels. Art Gregory of the Great Barrington Study Group led a spirited discussion that drew on a number of comparisons between Ezekiel’s account of God’s angelic guardians of his throne (Ez. 1:1-28) and The Urantia Book’s description of the transport seraphim as covered in paper 39, “THE SERAPHIC HOSTS”. (UB 39:5.10-15 - 5. The Transporters/ otherwise specified.)
The Urantia Book plainly states that human beings “have sometimes been permitted to observe seraphim that were being prepared for transport service, and the traditions of these experiences have largely determined the Urantian concept of angels.” (UB 39:5.12). Observation of these angels being made ready for interstellar transit reveals what seems to be “double sets of wings” that extend the full span of the angels’ bodies. We are informed that these are in fact, energy insulators — friction shields — for the protection of both angel and passenger during transport.
In his vision, Ezekiel saw four strange forms of God’s angels, each having the appearance of man, “but each had four faces and each of them had four wings.” (Ez. 1:6) Ezekiel continues to describe how they stood in the middle of each side of a square, their outspread wings touching at the corners of the square. Most interestingly, Ezekiel notices that they “sparkled like burnished bronze,” like “gleaming bronze,” and that they moved “like a flash of lightning”, creating a noise like the sound of the ocean.
The Urantia Book discloses that, as seraphim prepare to swing into the energy currents of the universe circuits in preparation for terrestrial departure, they become enshrouded in a “queer light of amber hue,” taking on a “glistening luminosity” as they prepare for the “departing flash.” The wording here is remarkably similar for both accounts of observed angelic phenomena. Burnished bronze most certainly takes on the appearance of an amber hue, as both accounts attest. Isn’t it possible that Ezekiel may have been permitted to observe the departing flash of transport seraphim that aptly takes on the appearance of lightning?
It was in the midst of just such a vision that “the word of the lord” descended upon Ezekiel, providing him with prophesies that covered a period of twenty-two years. Could it be that this prophetic visitation was initiated by a personage brought to Urantia by seraphic transport?