© 2022 Bobbie Dreier
© 2022 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Dedication | Special 2022 Issue — Index | Sources of Revelatory Insight: A Meditation on the “Human Sources” |
by Bobbie Dreier
Many of you knew Steve Dreier as a gifted public speaker. At the General Conference at Kendall College in Evanston, Illinois in 1975 he gave a talk called “Jesus’s Focus on the Individual.” Breaking with the tradition of formally dressed speakers reading a speech from behind a lectern, Steve pulled a chair to the front of the stage and spoke extemporaneously for forty minutes. When the plenary session broke for lunch Steve was approached by many people who said essentially the same thing: “I felt like you were talking personally to me.”
Steve was a natural teacher but his ability to speak so effectively was the consequence of devoted and serious study. He knew The Urantia Book well, and those of us fortunate enough to participate in study groups with him were the beneficiaries of his ability to explain difficult concepts like the Supreme, the Absolutes, and the triodities in language that began to make sense.
When Matthew Block revealed his discovery of the source books, Steve read them with great interest, and in spite of much community resistance, became an early advocate and defender of Matthew’s work. Steve was disappointed that there were no readers who took an interest in the source authors, as he felt that a serious study of their insights added depth and dimension to an understanding of the revelation.
Gard Jameson early on had introduced Matthew to some sources (e.g., regarding Morontia Mota), which lit Matthew’s fire of discovery. Gard subsequently began studying these books in earnest. Steve found a kindred spirit in Gard and the two of them shared many hours of enlightening discussions.
Steve’s latest source of interest was in comparing the biblical references in Part Four to the Old and New Testament versions. He shared his analysis of “The Women Taken in Adultery” with Angie Thurston at a New York Society meeting. In Angie’s condolence remembrance for Steve she wrote:
I’ll always be grateful for my last interaction with Steve on Urantia, which was just a couple of months ago at the New York Society meeting. He gave me precious encouragement for something new I’m working on. Then I was asking about the detailed study he had made of The Urantia Book, the Bible, and other source texts which I have always admired. He said his study has helped him to better understand the revelation, and to better know the Master. He gave the example of “The Woman Taken in Adultery.” In the Bible it says:
Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”
In The Urantia Book it is written:
Jesus said: “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no man remain to stone you?” And the woman, lifting up her eyes, answered, “No man, Lord.” And then said Jesus: “I know about you; neither do I condemn you. Go your way in peace.” [UB 162:3.5]
Steve had tears in his eyes as he said, “Jesus knew this woman. He knew that the sin was not hers. In this small difference in the account,” he said, “we see the matchless character of the Master. How fully and intimately he knows and loves each one of us.”
I hope the following essays which are the fruit of the insights of Gard’s and Steve’s studies will give you a taste for the value of the source materials and enhance your study of The Urantia Book.
¶ External Links
| Dedication | Special 2022 Issue — Index | Sources of Revelatory Insight: A Meditation on the “Human Sources” |