© 2014 Bob Debold
© 2014 The Urantia Book Fellowship
The Journey Following Mortal Death | Volume 14, Number 1, 2014 (Summer) — Index | Urantian Language and the Preservation of Meaning |
If it wasn’t for The Urantia Book, I most certainly would not know about the master seraphim; I hardly could have spent the last twenty years attempting to fathom the ideas surrounding Supremacy, nor even breech the conceptually rich descriptions of the origin of the First Source and Center’s seven absolutes of infinity—the more replete and rational story of Genesis—for all these concepts would have been totally out of my reach. My transition from traditional, institutional religion to personal, revelatory religion commenced (at least to my knowledge) roughly fifty years ago now. But the primary cause for growing a deep personal taproot into the papers is without a doubt a direct result of some sublime experiences from traditional religion (Catholicism) in my formative years. Take note: these inspirational causes were not a result of the high spiritual attitude that this particular institutional religion afforded me. No, on the contrary, among a rising tide of cognitively dissonant facts and concepts which became more apparent to me as I became older, the implied and obvious distortions of the Adam and Eve story stood out. As a result of the Biblical narrative connecting humanity’s genesis to a fable, I would not have been interested in the assertion by the person who introduced me to The Urantia Book that it describes the Biblical original pair as “eight feet tall and purple.”
But let me fast forward to the very recent past. I took my nine-year-old grandnephew, Tyree to the American Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. The last time I was there, roughly twenty-five years ago, his father James, my daughter Ash’Leigh and I spent the better part of an entire day in this same museum. One can hardly forget the tremendous woolly mammoth standing erect right in front of you upon passing through the front doors. It is the iconic picture most have in their memories reminding one of the institution, as well as the fact that our home planet’s strange past is still emerging right in front of our eyes.
In addition to the upgraded heavy security at the front doors that requires officers to inspect any package, camera bag, and person, there were many other changes that struck me as significant. The exhibits are profoundly more replete; the food is painfully more expensive. But besides the obvious alterations, the amount of information packed into the exhibits is staggering. Take for example, data on the biodiversity of the planet. It is, in my view, exponentially more varied than was known just a quarter century ago. For example, the area in the ocean below two hundred and fifty meters is called “the twilight zone.” It requires an extremely large room dedicated to presenting merely some of the grotesque alien creatures (most are designated fish) that live below this depth. One easily imagines them as coming from another planet. James and Ash’Leigh did not have this opportunity to see these creatures just a mere generation ago; it is as though science has accelerated at a rate that challenges even Ray Kurzweil’s depiction of the “knee of the curve.”[1] As I fanatically snapped dozens of digital photos, both Tyree and I kept calling each other to “come over here” and see yet another strange depiction of evolution-in-a-jar. The experience was jaw-droppings to say the least.
What occurred to me at a more contemplative and thoughtful moment when we had a chance to sit down, was the paragraph by a Melchizedek that reminds us: “Mechanical inventions and the dissemination of knowledge are modifying civilization; certain economic adjustments and social changes are imperative if cultural disaster is to be avoided. This new and oncoming social order will not settle down complacently for a millennium. The human race must become reconciled to a procession of changes, adjustments, and readjustments. Mankind is on the march toward a new and unrevealed planetary destiny.” [UB 99:1.1]
Of course, I didn’t raise those precise words in my mind at that point, even though I have read this particular Urantia Book paragraph dozens of times. But I did think about the general implications related to this particular experience of evidencing the explosion of knowledge. Yes, the dissemination of knowledge is truly modifying civilization: in my thinking, my generation has met the cusp of this wave and Tyree’s clearly swims in the current. To avoid taking a regressive path, his generation will need to either get in the curl, or navigate a way to the shore without falling into the foam.
The most interesting perspective regarding the Melchizedek quote above is where it occurs in the papers. It is found in Paper 99: The Social Problems of Religion. In addition, this Melchizedek from our local universe of Nebadon spends no less than four additional papers discussing a myriad of aspects concerning religion, religious experience, and religionists and how these constituent elements inform us of some of the primary drivers for the progressive growth and development of society. In subsequent paragraphs he sends another dire warning that “…dangerous times of transition” are upon the planet. “Society is becoming more mechanical, more compact, more complex, and more critically interdependent.” the Melchizedek stresses. [UB 99:1.3-4]
The operative word here is “transition” and the salient one is “dangerous.” A transition is a passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another or a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another. The authors of the various papers throughout The Urantia Book discuss all kinds of transitions: from one stage of being to another, from one phase of culture to the next, from one phase of civilization to another, from phases of universe energies to higher spirit-reality forces of the celestial realms, to mention a few. In each description of conversion, there is specific and service-oriented support provided—it seems as a necessity—to ensure avoiding catastrophe, or at a minimum, regression. If you think about this aspect of all Urantian domains, transitions from childhood to teenager to adulthood are typically difficult, sometimes not peaceful, but often requiring support and guidance to effect a smooth passage, and transitions from dictatorship to democracy are rarely uneventful.
Support for transition is so important that the local universe Creative Mother creates an entire class of seraphim just for this purpose. A Melchizedek acting by request of the Chief of the Seraphic Hosts of Nebadon informs us these angels are of the sixth order of seraphic servers and that their ministry is devoted to facilitating the transit of material and mortal creatures from the temporal life in the flesh on into the early stages of morontia existence on the seven mansion worlds. What is apparent upon reading the highly concentrated “transition papers” (Papers 37-48) is that a large portion of transition support is obvious after one transits to the morontia spheres from the nativity planet. At least this is true for Satania and Nebadon, our local system and universe respectively.
But in ministering to planetary spiritual progression and social advancement, is Urantia being left alone in this all-important area of support for earthly transition? The rebellion devastated the progress made in the original Planetary Prince’s ten councils that sought to foster terrestrial growth and development in specific fields of human life. Archeology is slowly uncovering those odd remnants with excavations such as those at Gobeckli Tepi[2] and at Tayos, Ecuador[3]; the History Channel’s ongoing story of Ancient Aliens demonstrates that there was once undeniably superior progress across the globe. The default of Adam and Eve compounded this desolation of practical achievement because of their lack of time to develop similar human growth divisions, as their mission was designed to do. Are our spiritual superiors leaving us entirely on our own? The answer, of course, is “no” to this question and to the question that I asked at the beginning of the paragraph: The twelve corps of master seraphim are serving that role and are filling the mission gap today. They have been doing this since Pentecost.
Another way to further frame a transition is to describe it in relation to ‘progressive growth and development.’ Progressive growth and development is an inevitable function within the Supreme. It is a result of the Father-I AM’s self-liberation from the limitations inherent in infinity of status, eternity of being, and absoluteness of nature. Growth and development in the Supreme is a direct consequence of his finiteness which includes partiality of existence and incompleteness of nature, as we are informed by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on Urantia and writing about the nature of the Supreme in Paper 115 [UB 115:7.1] I will discuss this aspect in a bit more detail later in this article, but suffice it to point out here that as long as we remain personalities in the universe, as individuals we are all real cosmic constituents of the Supreme. We live, breathe, and act in the Supreme, and likewise the Supreme is dependent not only upon each individual’s survival, but also upon each natural cosmic unit’s progressive growth and development— families, planets, systems, constellations, universes, and universes of universes. In our quest for the Supreme, we learn that the “Father is no respecter of persons . . . he treats his experiential children as a single cosmic total.” [UB 117:6.22]
A logical question to ask is: why would a discussion regarding the growth and development of society need five full papers on religion? On the surface, it does seem that this much rhetoric about religion is overkill, even for a Melchizedek. A deeper look at the themes interwoven in these five papers is worthwhile, so that we can explore them and conjecture toward an answer to this superficially innocuous question.
It is reasonable to posit that the “religion papers” have the distinct and overt goal of impressing upon the reader-student that society—global society—is not heading toward but is in a transition period that will continue to present humanity with a number of serious challenges in all aspects required to both reconstruct and maintain a viable and non-regressive civilization. The theme of transition is followed by some not-so-obvious refrains:
As religion becomes institutionalized, its power for good is curtailed, while the possibilities for evil are greatly multiplied. [UB 99:6.3]
The sincere religionist is conscious of universe citizenship and is aware of making contact with sources of superhuman power. [UB 100:6.3]
Secular duties and obligations to society are absolutely important to the growth of true religion, i.e., personal faith.
Stereotyped religious doctrines and dogmas can lead to spiritual death and the death of society; true religion acts as a catalyst through individuals for the progressive growth and development of society.
Religion is designed to change man’s environment, but much of the religion found among mortals today has become helpless to do this. Environment has all too often mastered religion. [UB 103:3.3]
In discussing the more serious psychological aspects of transition difficulties, the Melchizedek tells us:
“There is no danger in religion’s becoming more and more of a private matter—a personal experience—provided it does not lose its motivation for unselfish and loving social service.” [UB 99:4.7] (my emphasis) Personal religion dynamically motivates human response to life situations; it “is always and forever a mode of reacting to the situations of life.” [UB 160:5.2] Personal religion has the capability of engaging the individual to idealize supremely oriented transitions to the changing mores of the human races; personal religion is to institutionalized religion as prophets are to theologians. True religion refers to destiny and reality of attainment of the Father of all, as well as to the reality and idealism of that which is wholeheartedly faith-accepted. And all of this must be made personal to us by the revelation of the Spirit of Truth. Thus personal religion is extremely important to societal growth as long as it doesn’t in any way become institutionalized, a trend which has characterized the centuries of the past and continues to do so right on up to today.
It is this idea of personal religion, as it relates to the progressive growth and development of society, which makes the second refrain raised by the Melchizedek important to consider in connection with the master seraphim. This idea creates the possibility of an intriguing relationship between the master seraphim and humans aimed at ensuring that the transition succeeds. Refrains 1, 4, and 5 all point to the idea that institutionalized religion will fail to cross the chasm from relative local events to global interdependencies; in fact, institutionalized religion is seemingly a root cause for a societal retrogression! The Melchizedek makes this abundantly clear:
The institutionalized church may have appeared to serve society in the past by glorifying the established political and economic orders, but it must speedily cease such action if it is to survive. Its only proper attitude consists in the teaching of nonviolence, the doctrine of peaceful evolution in the place of violent revolution—peace on earth and good will among all men. [UB 99:2.5]
It is likewise abundantly clear even from a cursory study of history that very few societies have functioned on Urantia without an entrenched priesthood. This feature of Urantian civilization is no doubt a product of the combined rebellion and default.
It is what it is, however, and we must understand its origin, history, and destiny if we are to manage this oncoming, or rather, onrushing global cultural transition.
It is not speculative to assert that social reforms are going to spring from individuals; individuals are the wellspring of innovation and transition (change)management, because religions of authority divide men, while the religion of the spirit draws men to work together for a common goal. The Midwayer Commission has modernized Jesus’ second discourse on religion on the way to Phoenicia by paraphrasing what he said about this: “The religion of the sprit requires only unity of experience—uniformity of destiny—making full allowance for diversity of belief.” [UB 155:6.9]
“The hope of human brotherhood can only be realized when, and as, the divergent mind religions of authority become impregnated with, and overshadowed by, the unifying and ennobling religion of the spirit—the religion of personal spiritual experience.” [UB 155:6.8]
Thus, the Melchizedek completely supports what Jesus taught the apostles two thousand years prior to the publishing of Papers 99–103. But he takes Jesus’ philosophical instruction two steps further via the fifth epochal revelation. While criticizing the religions of authority as Jesus did, as well as promoting personal religion as the hope of human brotherhood, the Melchizedek infers that social innovators will vehemently reject institutionalized religion as a sup porting mechanism for their ideas while at the same time actually being religiously motivated themselves, even though they may not be aware of this.
Many individual social reconstructionists, while vehemently repudiating institutionalized religion, are, after all, zealously religious in the propagation of their social reforms. And so it is that religious motivation, personal and more or less unrecognized, is playing a great part in the present-day program of social reconstruction. [UB 99:3.6]
Has the Melchizedek presented a paradox, a dilemma, or both? On one hand, he is saying religion—institutional religion—is capable of navigating the curl in the societal tsunami; to do this requires social reconstructionists who bring secular innovations to society (refrain 3). And on the other, he reveals that a sincere religionist who is conscious of universe citizenship and is aware of making contact with sources of superhuman power (refrain 2) is a resource for staying on the social surfboard and thereby avoiding the foam. It is quite reasonable to believe the Melchizedek has deliberately proffered a paradox!
A paradox is a situation in which two seemingly contradictory, or even mutually exclusive, factors appear to be true at the same time.[4] It manifests as a condition contrary to expectations, existing beliefs, or perceived opinions. A paradox presents no real solution at the level of conventional knowledge. As opposed to the either-or nature of a dilemma, a paradox is characterized as a both-and problem. It demands that one reflect on a situation in an innovative way. One factor is true, and a contradictory factor is simultaneously true. Either these factors continue to coexist separately, or they create a problem of total incompatibility—thereby causing gross tensions in relationships that ultimately reach a breaking point. If a paradox is resolved, it is resolved with some higher strategies which are able to accommodate both factors at the same time.
For example, the paradox of competition and cooperation within a market-based, capital-oriented social framework suggests that there mutually exclusive approaches—polar opposites—for accomplishing the same goal, even though one is the direct antithesis of the other! With regard to this apparently unresolvable juxtaposition of approaches, there is much evidence associated with the arrival of the knowledgebased society that ubiquitous information is driving business and commerce to integrate these two naturally antithetical approaches by means of a concept called “coopetition.” In their book Coopetition, Brandenburger and Nalebuff.[5] demonstrate the necessity for “complementors” of products as a key to causing competition and cooperation to converge, so as to increase growth and develop market share. Many software products use plug-in architecture as an approach to resolving this contradiction.
Even though many products start out as either competitors or partners, plug-ins function as complementors for base products. In another entirely different example, the paradox facing the religion-science war of intelligent design versus evolution is resolved through epochal revelation by a both-and solution. The story of the Life Carriers describes implanting engineered base life (probably prokaryotes and eukaryotes) and then administering the process of evolution, which clearly resolves the paradox at a higher level of thought (reference here). Again, if we pause to examine the juxtaposed arguments, both sides are partially correct! As a final example, I can cite the emerging coopetition between contractors who provide service to the U. S. federal government via contracts. Not very long ago, competition for contracts to provide services was the only game in town: strictly a zero-sum methodology. The predominant pattern was to have one winner in a proposal shoot-out contest, typically winning a five-to-ten-year contract. This is no longer the situation since the advent of the internet: the U.S. federal government expects teams of competitors to collaborate on efforts that will blanket an almost impossible range of complex requests. In fact, it requires a team to cover all the tasks. Laws and regulations indeed require that small businesses team with large businesses, thus spreading the success in the short term while creating a more level playing field in the long term.
To tackle a paradox, a change of mindset must take place; one must wholeheartedly embrace and understand both positions—i.e. believe that both polarities are valid. In this complex global milieu wherein we find ourselves well past the first decade of the twenty-first century, it is reasonable to conclude that the Melchizedek is postulating something akin to complementors, in order to help us come up with solutions to the paradoxes of transition. This takes me right back to the master seraphim.
The master seraphim are complements of the guardian seraphim. Each ministers to us for different reasons; they pursue diverse goals that are entirely compatible and that reinforce each other. Guardian seraphim do their best to promote the personal growth and development of individual human beings. The task of the master seraphim is to promote the progressive growth and development of human society on Urantia as a whole. Thus the guardian seraphim are concerned about the religionist; the master seraphim relates to religion as a domain of human social activity. (This reciprocal relationship will be discussed under the rubric of Supremacy later in the paper.)
Nevertheless, the master seraphim do not focus their efforts so as to concentrate on religion. At a maximum, the “angels of the churches” constitute no more than one-twelfth of the functional domains of the service of the master seraphim, as currently in effect since Pentecost. The description [UB 114:6.7] of what this group does offers additional evidence that as planetary religious guardians they somehow forge necessary social anchors for making the transition from those long earned societal moral values and ideals to “less stabilized patterns of thought and conduct.”[6]
It may be that the existence of the master seraphim is pure revelation, as presented initially by a Melchizedek on the last page of Paper 39. If so, humanity was completely ignorant about these celestial agents prior to the assembly of the Contact Commission and the subsequent Forum, who first learned about these fascinating universe service personalities of God the Spirit. Thus, apart from the information presented in The Urantia Book, the ways that the master seraphim influence society and global culture as a whole are mostly a mystery. After all, they can’t tell us what to do. The Father’s absolute primary edict forbids them (or anyone who has a cosmic perspective) to manipulate an individual personality’s will: the Father has decreed that will is sacrosanct.
We do have some limited insight, however, into the mission of the master seraphim. Their tasks are quite similar to functions that the Planetary Princes and Adams and Eves are primarily commissioned to do. Their essential responsibility is to ensure planetary development along physical, intellectual, and social lines. In the paper that describes the Seraphic Planetary Government, we find a significant paragraph outlining how the master seraphim perform their well-nigh impossible tasks. The Chief of Seraphim writes:
The master seraphim of planetary supervision utilize many agencies for the prosecution of their missions. They function as ideational clearinghouses, mind focalizers, and project promoters. While unable to inject new and higher conceptions into human minds, they often act to intensify some higher ideal which has already appeared within a human intellect. [UB 114:6.19]
It is clear that the master seraphim are ministering to Urantia as a whole by focusing on those human beings who desire and have the fundamental resources to make a difference, those individuals and groups who may be able to act on their insights and ideals in ways that will eventually advance human society and civilization. The efforts of the master seraphim tailor the environment—specifically adjutant and cosmic-mind space—such that society as a whole will be able to handle the speed bumps of transition and avoid the sharp coral beneath the waves of change. Obviously master seraphim don’t have the direct access that humans have with humans. It is reasonable to consider that their missions would be well supported by means of appropriate access to the thinking of human complements who have a sense of their own responsibility to pursue goals and values associated with Supremacy—although it seems likely that the great majority of these human beings are not consciously aware of their implicit association with the master seraphim. The Chief of Seraphim supervises all these activities, and she is a primary supernaphim of Paradise—a well-trained and highly experienced veteran of Paradise service. It is this serviceministry—equally shared between certain groups of the Paradise Citizens and the ever-enlarging corps of ascendant pilgrims—that provides a supernaphim with the unique and distinctive experience related to Supremacy.
There is a distinct connection between the mission of the master seraphim and Supremacy. At a minimum, Supremacy is about growth and development of individuals and groups. And in fact, it appears that group progress, unified growth and development of the group, is tantamount to understanding the metaphor that offers a chicken as an egg’s way of ensuring that another egg will be produced. In this category of surmising which aspect is primary, Linda Buselli has made an interesting observation regarding the story of Ellanora of Panoptia. Ellanora was able to prevent all human Panoptians from being lost during the Lucifer rebellion, perhaps due to a planetary mind circuit. She conjectures that planets destined for spirit fusion may develop initially from group consciousness and progress toward individual expression; from this perspective, their personalities would mature along paths that are opposite to those that apply to human beings who are candidates for Adjuster fusion. This progression essentially mirrors the way a Creator Son and his Creative Spirit consort progress before the Creator Son becomes a Master Son: “the presence of the Conjoint Actor evolves from a living power focus to the status of the divine personality of a Universe Mother Spirit; the Creator Son evolves from the nature of existential Paradise Divinity to the experiential nature of supreme sovereignty.”[7] [UB 116:4.8] Their growth is reciprocal and complementary.
So we have some cogent reason to believe that Urantia needs progress and development in organizational terms and on a global scale. But prosecuting Supremacy (pursuing the goals and values of the Supreme) is not so obvious as an objective of the master seraphim. Before I provide some reasoning that leads us to infer such activities of theirs, let’s conjecture what a human complementor to the master seraphim would look like. Taking in all we know about these supremely prepared angelic ministers, along with the paradoxes that the Melchizedek shares with us, a human complement would logically embody at least some of these aspects:
Works totally behind the scenes
Understands and lives the inevitabilities [UB 3:5.5-14]
Attempts to achieve altruism in all endeavors (inevitability #2)
Lives the fifth epochal revelation so as to foster the inner life of man
Respects the Melchizedek’s religious paradoxes
Inspires the imagination, initiative, and creativity of other human beings
Appreciates the master seraphim and realizes that they work in mind space
Promotes personal religion rather than institutionalized religion, bur does so in ways that are not threatening
Embodies an approach to life that is philosophically consistent with the teachings of The Urantia Book
Endeavors to be spiritually fragrant in all human contexts and relationships
Supremacy is one of those transcendent concepts that the various authors of The Urantia Book present quite differently. Discerning what this abstraction means in the overall rubric of the Supreme is a lot like the task that Flatlanders have when they attempt to discern the threedimensional visitors who have come into their world and the space it occupies. The first significant step is to recognize that “Supremacy” with a capital “S” is very different from when it is spelled with a small case ‘s’. Some readers might reflect that in using this term and seeking to define it, the authors of The Urantia Book make statements that are predominantly oblique or highly abstract. For example, on page two of the Foreword, an Orvonton Divine Counselor tells us that Supremacy is “Deity functioning on the first creatureidentificational level as time-space overcontrollers of the grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of Deity.” [UB 0:1.9] This particular sentence would probably cause the eyes of a first-time reader to glaze over, or float quickly to the back of the head.
Although the word Supremacy/supremacy is not among the terms that the authors of the Papers use most frequently, it does appear one hundred and forty-nine times, instances that are almost equally divided between those that involve a capital ‘S’ and those that use a lowercase ‘s’ (actually 87–62 respectively). As far as I can determine, use of a lowercase ‘s’ pertains to a value or an attribute; the various authors use the version with a lowercase ‘s’ essentially as established in standard written and spoken English. In my opinion, however, even these uses of the word involve meanings that are slightly transformed from those that correspond to the conventional definition, which merely denotes a context, quality, or state wherein one individual or group has more power, authority, of status than someone or something else.
But the use of the version with a capital “S” involves far more extensive adjustments. Since they are a bit like the step into a Spaceland that the Flatlanders had to envsion, we may not attain a complete understanding of this while we remain on Urantia. In fact, a Perfector of Wisdom commissioned to function by the Ancients of Days on Uversa explains that it will take ascenders until the sixth Havona circle (actually the second step inward from the superuniverse level) to finally comprehend Supremacy. In a subsequent paper, a Universal Censor from Uversa tells us that Master Spirit Number Seven personally sponsors the progress of the ascension candidates from the worlds of time in their attempts to achieve comprehension of the undivided Deity of Supremacy. This comprehension involves a grasp of the existential sovereignty of the Trinity of Supremacy so coordinated with a concept of the growing experiential sovereignty of the Supreme Being as to constitute the creature grasp of the unity of Supremacy. Do you see what I meant when I called Supremacy a ‘transcendent’ concept?
In all likelihood, it will be a very long time after a survivor starts ascending in the superuniverse (i.e., upon resurrection on one of the mansion worlds) before he or she truly penetrates the mysteries that surround Supremacy. Nevertheless. The Urantia Book enhances the spiritual concept of Deity from the Creator Son level, through the Ancients of Days, all the way up to the personalities of the Paradise Trinity.[8] A thorough study of The Urantia Book introduces human beings to topics that the people of a normal world become familiar with when a Trinity Teacher Son arrives and is visible to the inhabitants.
Trinity Teacher Sons appear on normal planets after a critical mass of inhabitants have made the transition from “the shackles of animalism and from the fetters of materialism.” [UB 20:9.1] The “progress of events” is not a specific milestone indicating that a spiritual age is about to eventuate, but a foreshadowing of an age that will transpire during a thousand years of “cosmic enlightenment.” We are told by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa that Urantia is being visited by Teacher Sons “for the purpose of formulating plans concerning their projected sojourn on your sphere.” [UB 20:9.1] This is another data point for speculating with some assurance that we are in the transition period, and also a solid reason for the many reference-vectors to Supremacy that recur throughout the Papers.
In this article, drawing upon multiple statements by a Melchizedek and on our own empirical evidence, I have argued that society has reached a “dangerous” transition stage whereby global society is crossing a chasm between low-lying terrain that involves relatively local relationships and the foothills that will lead us to a planetary stage. During this transition, institutionalized religion will definitely not get us past the onrushing cross-currents of interdependent and interwoven societal complexities. In fact, only personal religion will provide humanity the ability to inspire and uplift the inner life so as to create viable solutions. The fifth epochal revelation restates Jesus’ gospel in modern phraseology. It also reveals insights into the history of the first two revelations by disclosing that these two epochal events, although ultimately unsuccessful, were oriented and organized so as to advance key aspects of society’s practical need to build a stable civilization—a society in which human beings will collectively love and worship the Father, an integral part of their eternal quest to become more and more like him. This perspective and these goals create an obligation for those who have become stewards of the keys of revelation; in addition, they create a burden that these stewards must bear.
I have also maintained that as humanity progresses toward the spiritual age that the revelators have described, it is the master seraphim of planetary supervision who are the foremost agents for promoting the progressive growth and development of specialized meanings and values already conceived in the inner life among mortals aggregated in social groups according to the spiritual structure of the current seraphic planetary government. The twelve groups of special angels function today “as the immediate superhuman directors of planetary progress and stability.” [UB 114:5.6]
And lastly, it will be through a progressive intellectual, morontial, and spiritual understanding of Supremacy, efforts whereby human beings will do their best to act as complements to the master seraphim, that we can most effectively engage in spiritual outreach. This active engagement will enable us to develop a model of ministry whose purpose will be to support and reinforce the seraphic ministry that is being promulgated on a planetary scale and that already touches the life of every living person.[9], [10]
Bob Debold has been studying The Urantia Book since 1975. Bob’s efforts to further understand the inscrutable Supreme can be found in three unpublished articles Couching Deity/ Hidden Supreme. Mr. Debold continues to work on expanding these synoptic treatises related to The Supreme Being. Parts I and II can be found on the Fellowship website. Bob performs as Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the Global Endeavor, an entirely independent project intended to promote and encourage the process of imagination, innovation, and creativity that will be a pervasive and enduring theme throughout the next thousand years of life on our planet. The Global Endeavor is http://www.globalendeavor.net.
The Journey Following Mortal Death | Volume 14, Number 1, 2014 (Summer) — Index | Urantian Language and the Preservation of Meaning |
Raymond “Ray” Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and trans-humanist movements, as has been displayed his vast collection of public talks, wherein he has shared his primarily optimistic outlooks on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology. He has been quoted often as saying “…it’s not when you’re stuck in the eons in which not much happens. But it is of great significance when you find yourself in the ‘knee of the curve,’ those periods in which the exponential nature of the curve of time explodes either inwardly or outwardly.” ↩︎
H. Katzen, Gobekli Tepe Report, (2011) http://ubthenews.com/topics/GobekliTepe.htm (Accessed 3/7/14) Gobekli Tepe ↩︎
Merriam Webster Online. [a passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another : change / b: a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transition (Accessed 3/27/14)
Hall, 2006, Tayos Gold The Archives of Atlantis. Adventures Unlimited Press. Kempton, Illinois.
Also see: http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/episodes/season-2 (Accessed 3/7/14) ↩︎
B. deWitt & R. Myer (1998) Strategy Process, Content, Context. International Thomson Business Press, London ↩︎
Brandenburger & Nalebuff , Coopetition, 1997 ↩︎
J. Johnson, Up Close and Personal with The Urantia Book, 2009 ↩︎
Linda Buselli, “The Dual Nature of Supremacy”, The Fellowship Herald VOL.2 NUMBER 2, Winter 1999-2000. The Dual Nature of Supremacy ↩︎
D. Elders et al. Discerning_Michael’s_Plan. (Accessed 3/7/14), https://uai.org/documents/mplan/L2/Discerning_Michael’s_Plan.pdf ↩︎
D. Kantor, Exactly How Do Seraphim Work?, http://urantiabook.org/archive/readers/seraphim_work.htm (Accessed 3/7/14) ↩︎
N. Waldrop, The Unceasing Campaign of the Master Seraphim, http://www.globalendeavor.net/Documents/20113-22MasterSeraphim.pdf (Accessed 3/7/14) ↩︎