© 2008 Carolyn Kendall
© 2008 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| The Supreme and Outreach | Volume 9, Number 1, 2008 (Summer) — Index | A Missionary Experience in Turkey |
Presented Sunday, July 22, 2007, Fellowship Summer Study Session, Dominican University, River Grove, IL
That probably seems like a silly question to most people who have been reading The Urantia Book for dozens of years. But ask them and you’ll get a variety of responses everything from: “To make us better people,” to “Expanding our knowledge of the universe.” If you haven’t thought about it before, there is a viewpoint I’d like to present that I believe is outlined in the book as a subtext to all of the other major themes:
Premise : The Urantia Book is not an end in itself. The primary purpose for sending a new revelation in book form to the peoples of the world is threefold:
The first two events will happen. There is no doubt whatsoever. We just don’t know when they will occur. I suspect that the first two are directly related to each other. Our question should be: How can our efforts best be directed toward attaining these goals?
There is a vast “army” of unseen beings and overseers behind the scenes who watch over the affairs of our world. Can we assume it was the midwayers who petitioned the local and superuniverse governments for a new revelation of truth on our isolated and spiritually darkened world? Or, could it have been a higher personage? We know that Tabamantia, supervisor of decimal planets in Nebadon, arrived on a “periodic visit” and commented on the current state of affairs on our world. [UB 108:3.5] Every one hundred years a new resident governor general arrives to serve a term on this rebellion-scarred planet. [UB 114:3.1] Or, could it be somebody higher up?
Whoever made the requisition, the planned revelation included a portrayal of God, the Universal Father; his co-equals, the Eternal Son and Infinite Spirit; their vast retinue; Paradise, the central and superuniverses, and the beings of time and space. This was an unprecedented amount of information to be given to a planet at our stage of development; and to such a confused and unruly population. We are isolated—quarantined—from the other peaceful worlds in the local system because our Planetary Prince participated in a widespread rebellion against the government of our Creator Son, Michael, 200,000 years ago.
Because of the pending case, Gabriel vs. Lucifer in the Uversa court, the revelators were not entirely certain they had permission to speak about the bestowal of our Creator Son, who once graced our lowly world as Jesus of Nazareth. They were not only given permission, they were charged with revealing his entire life and teachings.
As it developed, all of this truth would be presented in a book, a highly unusual occurrence. Ordinarily, on other worlds, epochal revelations arrive in the form of bestowals—both visible and invisible—beings from Paradise or from within the local universe. These can include Lanonandek Sons, material sons and daughters (Adams and Eves) and occasionally, a Melchizedek. Other sons of the local universe, such as Brilliant Evening Stars and archangels, accompany Paradise Sons on their bestowals and temporary visits. In our unusual revelation, archangels wrote eleven papers in The Urantia Book, while the Evening Stars wrote eight, including the Chief of Evening Stars, who wrote Paper 119, Bestowals of Christ Michael, on assignment by Gabriel. Many, many other universe personalities participated in the authorship of the Urantia Papers.
This was a full dress effort in our behalf, but no book is mentioned as the medium of revelation on other worlds. How strange.
The book itself does not explain its timing, except to say that we are “now quivering on the very brink of one of the most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment.” [UB 195:9.2] For all we know, planning for this revelation extended as far back as the Middle Ages when questions about the reality of God were first raised.
Since World War I this has been a terrible century—one war after another, holocaust after holocaust. It was only in 1928 that the proposal to outlaw war, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, was signed. I suppose this made us provisionally civilized. [UB 54:1.10] Historian R.R. Palmer wrote in his History of the Modern World, [1965]: “our world has been in a state of cataclysm since 1914.”
The personalities behind the scenes, on Urantia, and on universe levels, see human evolution as eras within epochs. Human events become crises and chaos, such as the circumstances that led to the First World War, which, in turn, stoked the embers of rage and resentment leading to World War II. Communism lay dormant during the war, but emerged in virulent form afterward.
The proposed revelation-in-a-book would include an exhaustive early history of humankind, with remedies for our current problems suggested.
It has been one hundred years since the first contact by revelators. It took twenty years to refine the technique of transmitting information without its being contaminated by personal bias. In 1924 the new revelation was announced. There was a twenty-year period following, when the material was revealed, studied by the Forum, questions were invited, clarification came, the material was expanded, proofreading was completed, and funds were raised to print the book.
The human contact commission envisioned publication to occur after World War II, but communism complicated the timing. It required an additional ten years to be certain that the godless system would not prevail before the order came to print the book in 1955.
Following communism, the chaos and confusion of terrorism and the rising tide of humanistic secularism and atheism constitute a never-ending battle against the religion of Jesus.
Meanwhile, the Lucifer Rebellion is still on the docket in the supreme court of Uversa. The first hearing in the Lucifer vs. Gabriel case was held during the preparation of these papers. [UB 54:4.8] Why is the settlement of the Lucifer case significant to such an insignificant world as ours? Until the case is adjudicated, we will remain in isolation, and the circuits will not be reinstated. [UB 53:9.6]
We have a general idea that the book was timed to enter the evolutionary mainstream at a critical point in history. Like an automobile entering a freeway it blends into traffic, not too fast, but not too slowly. Unfortunately, on this unruly planet, there have been setbacks to what might have been the expected social and intellectual evolution. If normal growth had occurred, one of our early leaders predicted, there would be no fewer than ten thousand Urantia societies ten years after publication. Was he equating societies with study groups? Did he anticipate the apathy toward new spiritual truth that informed the post-war world? Was traditional religion too comfortable? Or, did he not foresee the outright hostility toward religion in western European society in more recent times?
My personal theory is that The Urantia Book is a vital element of a projected second phase of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. In other words, The Urantia Book is Stage I of a Two-Stage Revelation. The book is intended to be the training manual for those who will assist the next Son, the next demonstrator of truth on Urantia. When will this event occur? Probably not in our lifetimes, if our inaction, apathy, and the world situation are indicators. But I think it will be sooner than most people expect.
Will it be the Master who returns? The probability of Jesus’ return raises the age-old image of Armageddon and the end of the world. One of the prime tenets of fundamentalist Christianity is the immanent reappearance of Jesus Christ and the End Times of the Apocalypse. Nothing in the book suggests that such a fate lies ahead for us. While they do point to the many problems that beset our isolated sphere, we have the tools to ameliorate most of them if we set our minds and hearts to the work.
Jesus revealed to his apostles his intent to return, which led them to the conclusion that it would be in their lifetimes. He said, “I also promise that I will sometime return to this world” [UB 176:2.3]
But the times of the reappearing of the Son of Man are known only in the councils of Paradise; …However, you should understand that, when this gospel of the kingdom shall have been proclaimed to all the world for the salvation of all peoples, and when the fullness of the age has come to pass, the Father will send you another dispensational bestowal, or else the Son of Man will return to adjudge the age.
But you should be wise regarding the ripening of an age; you should be alert to discern the signs of the times. You know when the fig tree shows its tender branches and puts forth its leaves that summer is near. Likewise, when the world has passed through the long winter of material-mindedness and you discern the coming of the spiritual springtime of a new dispensation, should you know that the summertime of a new visitation draws near.” [UB 176:2.5-6]
Have we passed through the “long winter of material mindedness?” How might we recognize the ripening of the age? Is springtime about to burst forth? Has summer arrived?
A midwayer writes about Jesus’ return, and I have rearranged some of the sentences to heighten the intrigue:
He promised a new revelation of the kingdom on earth, and at some future time; he also promised sometime to come back to this world in person; but he did not say that these two events were synonymous. …Jesus referred one phase of the kingdom to the future and did, on numerous occasions, intimate that such an event might appear as a part of a world crisis; …Remember that the order of progressive evolution is subjected to sudden and unexpected periodical changes in both the material and the spiritual worlds. [UB 170:4.14-15]
A midwayer continues, and again, the sentences are rearranged:
On one occasion he intimated that, whereas the eye of the flesh had beheld him when he lived here in the flesh, on his return (at least on one of his possible visits) he would be discerned only by the eye of spiritual faith.” … “Will his second advent on earth be timed to occur in connection with the terminal judgment of this present age, either with or without the associated appearance of a Magisterial Son?” … “Many of us are inclined to believe that Jesus will return to Urantia many times during the ages to come. … But if every eye is to behold him, and if only spiritual eyes are to discern his presence, then must his advent be long deferred. [UB 176:4.3-5]
Jesus assured his apostles there would be another revelation of truth: “And when the kingdom shall have come to its full fruition, be assured that the Father in heaven will not fail to visit you with an enlarged revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness, …” [UB 176:2.3] We have received the written revelation; now we await the demonstrator of righteousness.
On normal worlds, the bestowal Son waits for human races to achieve higher standards of intelligence and spiritual development, high cultural readiness for advanced teachings before arriving on his world of terminal bestowal. [UB 52:5.3] Urantia was not normal; we were in isolation, still beset by barbarism. Only the Jews and Chinese had a strong family culture. Michael elected to bestow himself among the Jews during a period of dawning readiness for a new revelation. “The second century after Christ was the best time in all the world’s history for a good religion to make progress in the Western world.” [UB 195:3.7] Might we wonder where the new “demonstrator” will appear?
A Master Son, such as Michael of Nebadon, has latitude as to how and when he and other Sons plan their visitations to the worlds:
®egarding the future appearance of Paradise Sons, … a Michael-bestowal world becomes the individual and personal ward of a Master Son and, as such, is wholly subject to his own plans and rulings. And with your world, this is further complicated by Michael’s promise to return. [UB 20:4.5]
After his elevation to settled sovereignty in a local universe a Paradise Michael is in full control of all other Sons of God functioning in his domain, and he may freely rule in accordance with his concept of the needs of his realms. A Master Son may at will vary the order of the spiritual adjudication and evolutionary adjustment of the inhabited planets. And such Sons do make and carry out the plans of their own choosing in all matters of special planetary needs, in particular regarding the worlds of their creature sojourn and still more concerning the realm of terminal bestowal, the planet of incarnation in the likeness of mortal flesh. [UB 21:5.9]
Apparently, Michael could rearrange the order of events even before he achieved Master Son status. He announced plans to come to Urantia as far back as Adam’s default thirty-seven thousand years ago. He dispatched Machiventa Melchizedek on an emergency mission to re-introduce the One-God concept, to get the people ready for his own bestowal nineteen hundred years later. In fact, The Urantia Book Revelation is a prime example of Michael’s answering the special needs of our planet by ordering up a book for the semi-literate planet of his incarnation, Urantia. The revelators called the Urantia Papers “the Word made Book.”
These Sons inaugurate “the transition from the evolutionary ages to the era of light and life.” [UB 52:7.2] This age is characterized by peacefulness, self-control, and awareness of affairs in the larger universe. Material problems and physical difficulties have been solved. The planet works smoothly and cosmic illumination is exalted. [UB 52:7]
Any expectation of the immanent arrival of Trinity Teacher Sons is premature. Their mission is far into the future—thousands of years. Does anyone reading this believe we are nearing the Age of Light and Life, which the Teacher Sons, the Daynals, administer?
Jesus will certainly fulfill his promise to return, “but no one knows whether his second coming will precede or follow the appearance of Magisterial or Teacher Sons on Urantia.” [UB 52:7.1] An unnamed Melchizedek writes, with hope in his heart:
And all these speculations associated with the certainty of future appearances of both Magisterial and Trinity Teacher Sons, in conjunction with the explicit promise of the Creator Son to return sometime, make Urantia a planet of future uncertainty and render it one of the most interesting and intriguing spheres in all the universe of Nebadon. It is altogether possible that, in some future age when Urantia is approaching the era of light and life, after the affairs of the Lucifer rebellion and the Caligastia secession have been finally adjudicated, we may witness the presence on Urantia, simultaneously, of Machiventa, Adam, Eve, and Christ Michael, as well as either a Magisterial Son or even Trinity Teacher Sons. [UB 93:10.8]
Well, well, I don’t think we’re ready for that level of excitement yet.
Avonal Sons are created by the Eternal Son and Infinite Spirit; and are a self-governing order of Paradise Sons. They are not creators, but are ministers and judges. There are one billion serving in the grand universe. There are four possible ways an Avonal Son serves an evolutionary planet. [UB 20:2.1]
1. Avonal Son on Judicial Mission—Invisible. “The Avonals are known as Magisterial Sons because they are the high magistrates of the realms…They preside over the awakening of the sleeping survivors, sit in judgment of the realm,” and end a dispensation. “… (A) Paradise Avonal ” who comes only “to terminate a dispensation and inaugurate a new era of planetary progression is not on a magisterial mission or bestowal mission.” He arrives on a planet, invisible to the material creatures of the realm, and is not incarnated. Such Judicial Missions “occur repeatedly in the long history of an inhabited world,” both before and after bestowal missions. [UB 20:3.1-3] There was no dispensational adjudication when the Urantia Revelation was received.
2. Avonal Son on Magisterial Missions; Incarnated— Visible. Normally we would have received “a magisterial mission sometime between the days of Adam and the bestowal of Christ Michael. But the regular sequence of Paradise Sons on your planet was wholly deranged by the appearance of your Creator Son on his terminal bestowal nineteen hundred years ago.” [UB 20:4.4] An Avonal Son terminates a dispensation and his presence constitutes a judgment of the realm. When on magisterial missions they incarnate, remaining to act as teachers of spiritual truth. When “this Magisterial Son is universally accepted, he remains for one age;…” [UB 51:7.1] “(W)hen they do serve in the likeness of mortal flesh, they always appear as adult (male) beings of the realm; they are not born of woman.” They do receive Thought Adjusters though they do not fuse with them. [UB 20:4.2-3] “Melchizedeks support Paradise Avonals on magisterial missions to inhabited worlds, and are visible to mortal eyes if the Avonal Son is also thus manifest.” [UB 35:2.6] There are usually twelve Melchizedeks on these missions. [UB 20:4.5] Urantia may yet be visited by an Avonal commissioned to incarnate on a magisterial mission…[UB 35:2.6] “(T)he Avonals, are supported by the full power and authority of a primary Paradise Son [Michael], the Creator Son of their local universe of service.” [UB 20:2.9]
3. Avonal Sons on Magisterial Missions; Not Incarnated—Invisible. When “repeated magisterial missions occur, the Avonals do not always submit to mortal incarnation;” [UB 20:4.2]
A planet may experience many magisterial visitations both before and after the appearance of a bestowal Son. An Avonal Son on a Magisterial Mission, whether incarnated or not incarnated, still acts as an adjudicator of the planetary age and inaugurates a new dispensation. He associates with the invisible beings of the planet; he just isn’t visible to humans.<a id="a142_364"></a>[[UB 20:2.4](/en/The_Urantia_Book/20#p2_4)] Would we be aware of it if an Avonal arrived on this type of mission? It would probably depend upon whether we had emerged from isolation and the human population had accepted the concept of the existence and oversight of higher beings.
4. Avonal Sons on Bestowal Missions—Visible. On most inhabited worlds the bestowal Son is of the Paradise Avonal Son order. Urantia was different; our bestowal Son was the Paradise Creator Son of our local universe of Nebadon who incarnated as a baby, born of woman. Had he not been our bestowal Son, we would have received an Avonal Son born a male infant, of a woman, and grown to adulthood. The Bestowal Avonal Sons work in skilled occupations, just as did Jesus of Nazareth [UB 20:6.3] They judge the preceding dispensation and open the new age. When an Avonal completes his bestowal, after ascending to the Father, he returns to the local universe, and together, he and “the Creator Michael send their joint spirit, the Spirit of Truth to the bestowal world.” [UB 52:5.6] The succeeding epoch was termed the dispensation of the Spirit of Truth by Jesus. [UB 179:5.1-2] We will never receive an Avonal on a Bestowal Mission since we have already had our one allotted bestowal Son.
What goes on backstage, among the superhumans to prepare? “In all their work for, and on, the inhabited worlds, the Magisterial Sons are assisted by two orders of local universe creatures, the Melchizedeks and the archangels, while on bestowal missions they are also accompanied by the Brilliant Evening Stars” [UB 20:2.9] The Evening Stars are visible to midwayers. “A corps of one hundred [archangels] accompanies every Paradise bestowal Son to an inhabited world for the duration of such a bestowal. Two senior archangels are assigned as personal aids of an Avonal on all planetary missions,” . . . “If [he] should become temporary ruler of the planet these superangels act as directing heads of all celestial life on that sphere.” [UB 37:3.5-6] One can assume that the one hundred archangels who arrived with Michael are still here because a divisional headquarters has since been established. More later.
My thanks to another reader for finding the next quotation: “Each new evolutionary attainment within a sector of creation, as well as every new invasion of space by divinity manifestations, is attended by simultaneous expansions of Deity function revelation within the then existing and previously organized units of all creation. This new invasion of the administrative work of the universes and their component units may not always appear to be executed exactly in accordance with the technique herewith outlined because it is the practice to send forth advance groups of administrators to prepare the way for the subsequent and successive eras of new administrative over-control.” [UB 56:7.5] She further suggested that: “ The Urantia Book is obviously a part of a planet-wide preparation for a large number of celestial personalities who will assist the Magisterial Son when he officially begins his bestowal. However, I also think it is entirely possible that he (the Avonal) is already here and part of an extensive programming of preparation.”
Remember, Avonals are always assisted by Melchizedeks, but Melchizedeks are not rulers; they’re teachers. They can function in any capacity on a temporary basis, and Melchizedeks can make themselves visible, when necessary. [UB 50:2.7] With a Magisterial Son and Melchizedeks all visible, that would shock and awe the population!
The book devotes a good deal of space to the archangels, who work with the Magisterial Sons; their circuit, and their new divisional headquarters. Recall that after Jesus’ resurrection, on Sunday morning, April 9th, AD 30, “(t)he circuit of the archangels operated for the first time from Urantia.” [UB 189:3.2] The circuit has proven to be quite useful to the planetary government because we are a world in quarantine. [UB 114:5.4]
In more recent times a divisional headquarters of the archangels has been maintained on Urantia. It is this unusual fact_ [the divisional headquarters] _that soon arrests the attention of extra-Nebadon student visitors. Among their early observations of intrauniverse transactions is the discovery that many ascendant activities of the Brilliant Evening Stars are directed from the capital of a local system, Satania. On further examination they discover that certain archangel activities are directed from a small and apparently insignificant inhabited world called Urantia.” And this teaser: “Do you grasp the significance of the fact that your lowly and confused planet has become a divisional headquarters for the universe administration and direction of certain archangel activities having to do with the Paradise ascension scheme? [UB 37:3.3-4]
We can speculate that the archangel headquarters has a lot to do with both items of the Premise: the arrival of a Paradise Son, and the end of the quarantine of our Planet.
“T_he bestowal of Michael terminated the Lucifer rebellion in all Satania aside from the planets of the apostate Planetary Princes._” [UB 53:8.3] Caligastia is still free on Urantia, though he has no power to enter our minds to tempt or corrupt unless we “really desire to be cursed with his wicked presence.” [UB 53:8.7] The devil gets a lot of credit for evil he doesn’t cause. Lucifer has not been on this planet since he tried to dissuade Jesus from his mission 2,000 years ago. Lucifer is now detained on one of the Jerusem satellite worlds. [UB 53:9.2]
The case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer was placed on the docket of the Uversa Supreme Court 200,000 years ago. [UB 53:9.3] All disloyal personalities were taken into custody except for Satan, who was allowed to visit the isolated worlds up until the presentation of the Urantia revelation, when he, too, was detained with Lucifer. At that time the first hearing occurred in the Gabriel vs. Lucifer case in which Gabriel pleaded for annihilation of the arch rebels. [UB 54:4.8] When Lucifer and the others die, the system circuits will be reinstated. [UB 53:9.6]
“The rebellion has ended on Jerusem. It ends on the fallen worlds as fast as divine sons arrive.” … “We await the flashing broadcast that will deprive these traitors of personality existence. We anticipate the verdict (which)… will effect the annihilation of these interned rebels.” . . . “All await the Uversa decree.” [UB 53:9.7]
The “neighboring planet” described in Paper 72 is also in isolation, having lost both its planetary prince and Adam and Eve to rebellion and default. They have never received the bestowal of a Magisterial Son. [UB 72:0.3] But one of the nations of that world has made greater progress in religion, government, home life, education, and biological improvement than has our world. Then, the statement, “Of course, if a Magisterial Son should soon come to this advanced nation, great things could quickly happen on this world.” [UB 72:12.2] On the world described in Paper 72, only one nation has achieved civilized status; the other countries still reside in semi-darkness, yet they hold out hope of a new revelator—an indication that the whole world doesn’t need to achieve the same level of progress to receive a revelation.
On Jerusem, the system capitol, there are broadcast stations. One of the stations receives broadcasts from the worlds that are not in quarantine, while another sends broadcasts. [UB 46:3.1,4] They tell us that if we “could be transported” . . . “to some normal planet in the post-bestowal Son stage,” we would see that it “enjoy(s) all the advantages of the universe broadcasts and the reflectivity services of the superuniverse.” [UB 52:6.3]
Tabamantia, a finaliter/agondonter who is Nebadon super visor of decimal planets (of which Urantia is one) [UB 49:5.5] inspected Urantia thirty-seven thousand years ago, and in less than one hundred years, Adam and Eve arrived to “untangle the confused affairs of a planet retarded by rebellion and resting under the ban of spiritual isolation.” [UB 73:0.3] His more recent inspection is described, and is alleged to have occurred early in the twentieth century, as “admonitions and indictments delivered to the various chiefs of superhuman personalities.” He extolled the work of the Thought Adjusters, “the Godlike servers of the mortal inhabitants of this strife-torn, grief-stricken, and disease-afflicted world.” [UB 108:3.6] Perhaps his visit will hasten the arrival of a Magisterial Son.
How to help speed things along?
Circumstances that Impede Progress on Urantia:
Spiritual, Social and Moral Progress in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century
The slowness of evolution, of human cultural progress, testifies to the effectiveness of that brake — material inertia — which so efficiently operates to retard dangerous velocities of progress…(W)hen culture advances overfast, when material achievement outruns the evolution of worship-wisdom, then does civilization contain within itself the seeds of retrogression; and unless buttressed by the swift augmentation of experiential wisdom, such human societies will recede from high but premature levels of attainment, and the ‘dark ages’ of the interregnum* of wisdom will bear witness to the inexorable restoration of the imbalance between self-liberty and self-control. [UB 118:8.6]
Even on normal evolutionary worlds the realization of the world-wide brotherhood of man is not an easy accomplishment. On a confused and disordered planet like Urantia such an achievement requires a much longer time and necessitates far greater effort. Unaided social evolution can hardly achieve such happy results on a spiritually isolated sphere. Religious revelation is essential to the realization of brotherhood on Urantia. [UB 52:6.2]
*Dictionary definition of “interregnum:” 1. An interval of time between the close of a sovereign’s reign and the accession of his successor. 2. Any period during which a state has no ruler or only a temporary executive. 3. Any period of freedom from the usual authority. 4. Any pause or interruption in continuity. 5. Gap.
Handout available: “Timeline: Anti-religious Personalities, Events & Trends, 17th—21st Centuries.”
Carolyn Kendall has retired from a varied career in educational and professional offices. Still active in the First Urantia Society (Chicago), she has served the Urantia community as a member of four different committees, a member and vice-president of the General Council, and as an associate trustee of Urantia Foundation (2002– 05). She and her late husband, Tom Kendall, have five children and seven grandchildren.
| The Supreme and Outreach | Volume 9, Number 1, 2008 (Summer) — Index | A Missionary Experience in Turkey |