© 2013 Charles Laurence Olivea
© 2013 The Urantia Book Fellowship
The following article is part of the Wrightwood Series of the Fellowship Forum for readers of The Urantia Book, “Perspectives on Race in The Urantia Book,” May 1-3, 1992 and April 30-May 2, 1993.
O Heavenly Father,
We love you as the Father-God of all
your affection,
your reach, your touch.
We know that your face is always
turned toward us;
and, we know that it does not matter
what we look like.
Our greatest hope lies in the tie
that binds us to you.
By this faith,
we will gain the
Inevitable evolutionary victory! Amen.
Of the Melchizedeks,
the Seraphic Planetary Government
and the United Midwayers of Urantia:
for your ongoing efforts
to help us resolve the evolutionary problems
of race, biology, and culture in this world;
and
Of Jesus: most beloved,
in appreciation and recognition
of the power and beauty of your
grace upon human affairs,
especially for your
Spirit of Truth.
May our efforts
to resolve the evolutionary
difficulties we face
meet with your
approbation
and guidance.
Race is a biological governor that permits various potentials of body, emotion, mind, and spirit to emerge on the finite stage of planetary existence. It seems to be part of some cosmic design Deity uses to create an evolutionary tension in finite creature growth. If it is desirable for God’s creatures to unite eventually in light and life, then diversity among them is presupposed. Since we were created imperfectly, and yet are offered perfection as our destiny, we must be faced with the necessity to make choices ranging from the personal to the social and up toward the eternal. Race fits into this evolutionary, experiential context of time and space.
A long view of the human condition might suggest that the cost of evolutionary antagonism among the different races is more than offset by the range of choice afforded us through racial variations. Racial differences serve to encourage mortals of time and space to think, express, and act more creatively than if we were all of a single race from the beginning. Racial differentiations promote developmental factors such as competition, opportunities for learning tolerance, and natural selection, all needed to help a human species reach maturity. UB 64:6-7
Perhaps the three most important considerations made in The Urantia Book about the subject of race are:
One of the basic points about progressive human society is that mental capacity is an indispensable prerequisite to human progress. In other words, cultural progress is partly dependent on the genetic quality of a population (along with the “site and situation” of culture.) The authors of the book are very clear on the linkage between culture and biology.
Race may be looked upon as an important dimension of the biologic foundation necessary for progressive human civilization. Even though there are many biological factors common to all races, the book makes the point that there are significant racial distinctions within the biological overlay common to the human stock.
What went through the minds of the first Life Carriers who were responsible for designing the first races of color? Based on my understanding of The Urantia Book, I imagine (surmise) that they took for their model (pattern) the major deities Father-Son-Spirit—plus their associative combinations. It makes sense to me that the biological nature and the specific number of races designated for the evolutionary planetary scheme would reflect the deified character of universe reality.
This, then, is my basic premise for why there are different races of color: there is an analogous relationship between deity personalities and their associative combinations, and the races of time and space. I believe it is through this means that much of the growth potential in human evolution is effected. The races, constituting a matrix of body, emotion, mind, and spirit, make up some of the lower rungs of the ladder of mortal ascension. Thus, different races create a biological energy-field making it possible for human personality to experience mortal life with varying perception—perceptions that resonate with a higher reality. The connections of deity to race as I perceive them are outlined in the chart below.
The parallel that I have drawn between the major deities and the listing of the races is based on the sequential hierarchy of the races and the way the deities and their associative combinations are arranged according to the book. It appears that deity sequencing is reflected in the manner the Seven Master Spirits are ordered in the grand universe.
The sequence of the primary Sangik races—red, yellow, and blue—along with the secondary Sangik races—orange, green, and indigo—is due to an arrangement that reflects both their relative biological quality and the order of their appearance within their groups in planetary histories (although, in our experimental world, they emerged in the same generation and in the same family.) It seems to me that the sequence of the mortal races (including the super-mortal violet race) follows the light spectrum throughout the universe, hence the universality of this racial hierarchy in time and space.
Since the premise of my argument concerning the nature of the races is based on the assumption that everything in the universe that is real and good in one way or another is derived from the primary Deities, it would make sense to first examine the character of the Universal Father, Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit.
The Urantia Book denotes the Universal Father, Eternal Son, and Infinite Spirit, respectively, as “thought,” “word,” and “action.” The human equivalent of thought-word-action may be phrased as thinking-feeling-doing. This expression is intended here to suggest a finite, mortal approximation of the deity levels.
The thinking-feeling-doing phraseology is manifested at the morontia stage and seems to be part of morontia mota. An archangel of Nebadon, in depicting the work of Mansion World teachers, noted that: “On the mansion worlds such schools are organized in three general groups of one hundred divisions each: the schools of thinking, the schools of feeling, and the schools of living”. UB 48:5.6
I found it helpful to take note of various synonyms for these terms as indicators of some of their behavioral implicationsX.
| (Thought) | (Word) | (Action) |
|---|---|---|
| Thinking | Feeling | Doing |
| conceive | sensations | perform |
| imagine | sensitivity | achieve |
| surmise | endurance | contrive |
| reflect | tolerance | solve |
| reason | sympathy | completion |
| cogitate | love | production |
| contemplate | sufferance | manage |
| deliberate | response | finish |
| muse | pathos | serve |
| meditate | impression | render |
| ponder | emotion | work out |
Certain generalizations may be made concerning the total effect suggested by the synonyms listed above, especially in relation to the races. The three primary races—red, yellow, and blue—are characterized in the book in such a way that they seem to approximate the critical aspects of the natures of the principal Deities. Consider the language in The Urantia Book that is used in setting forth what I term the racial accents of each race. A racial accent may be defined as a marked tendency toward certain behavior in a particular race, including a special degree of talent somewhat better than the others.
The red race is characterized as “a most intelligent group” with notable “brain power.” They received the most life energy. This would appear to justify coupling this description of a higher capacity for thinking—a superior ability to conceptualize reality—with the Thought-Father. What this seems to add up to for the red race is an inherently higher mental culture—one with the greatest capacity to use reasoning as a way to understand reality. It is shown in their tendency to think a problem through to its conclusion. Perhaps this is why Rantowoc, one of their early wise men, was the first human on this planet to attain the third psychic circle and qualify for a personal destiny guardian.
The yellow race is characterized as best in “fraternal spirit” and the most in “soul and sentiment.” This seems to correlate feeling—referring to the spiritual-social power to form the most successful person-to-person ties—with the Word-Son. The traits employed in the power of feeling/expression, used in sensitivity toward others, made it possible for them to build a society that was the most effective in promoting family—village relationships (China). They approach reality more in terms of a sense or awareness of others (within the same race, generally, it would seem,) and less in terms of their own individuality.
The blue race is depicted as the “most aggressive, adventurous, and exploratory of all.” UB 78:1.8 This race “worked out the rudiments of many of the arts of modern civilization.” UB 64:6.21 It alludes to an ingenuity for creative problem-solving—a complex skill required for mastering person-to-object relationship—that seems akin to the Action-Spirit. Their sense of reality was often defined by their mighty curiosity of how things worked, coupled with a keen interest in spatial relationships: human technology. They were minded to construct, to explore, to use mind over matter.
Considering the analogy between the nature of the primary races of color and the three major Deities, I think it is reasonable to suggest that this correlation be extended to the secondary races as I have indicated in my chart.
Why would the Life Carriers design six races? The Adamic race notwithstanding, I think the Life Carriers stopped at six because it was logical to do so in terms of how universe reality is structured, i.e.,
…by three, seven, and twelve or by multiples and combinations of these basic numbers. UB 36:2.11
Very simply, three principal deities can only have three dual combinations, leaving one three-way combination as the seventh category, which I think is represented by the super-mortal Adamic race.
In this context, secondary means “immediately derived from something original, primary, or basic…not the first in order of occurrence or development” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary). The secondary races were also designed to add to, or broaden the diversity of the human species. It is their part in the unfolding drama of human destiny. Why else would the Chief of Seraphim write the following?
Though the primary races…were in many respects superior to the secondary peoples, it should be remembered that these secondary races had many desirable traits which would have considerably enhanced the primary peoples if their better strains could have been absorbed. UB 82:6.2
What is meant by the “better strains” of the secondary races will now be considered.
The orange race was said to have “a peculiar urge to build, build anything and everything.” By my analysis, this race was derived (secondarily) from the natures of the redyellow racial combinations—thinking and feeling. I think what this means is that their special sense of reality was to approach/express ideas through heightened feelingness/ sensations. For example, perhaps their conceptualizing or imagination was directed by a more sensitive sense of touch which led them to “build anything and everything.” Had they been uplifted by Adamic genes, then their way of perceiving reality would have been considerably augmented.
The green race, along with their orange cousins, possessed “strains of the giant order.” This may have been due to the experimental nature of our world, since height shortens from the red race down to the indigo race. At least, this is typical of the races on other planets. It is my extrapolation that their approach to reality was conditioned by a tendency to act first and reason later to a certain extent—reflecting the combination of thinking-doing of the red and blue races. This would have weakened their ability to communicate effectively within/among tribes of their race. They were “greatly weakened by extensive migrations in different directions ” as they left their South Asian homeland. Their physical size notwithstanding, such tendencies may have made them somewhat vulnerable in an age of tribal warfare. On the other hand, this quickened sense to act or implement ideas would have become a strong suit if their DNA had been improved by the progeny of Adam and Eve.
The indigo race and the other two secondary races were “… biologically considered…in some respects superior to [the] primary races.” The indigo people were also said to be “physically strong.” Again, it is my extrapolation that their make-up derived from the combination of feeling-doing, Eternal Son and Infinite Spirit. Theirs may be been an ability to act with a special awareness of emotional-esthetic sensitivities—action directed by feeling: to feel certain sensitivities and to act upon them. There is also their strength to endure. Perhaps this is why they tend to survive on other planets (and here as well), unlike the green/orange races. This race received only a slight touch of the violet race in ancient times. If circumstances had been different, allowing for a more significant Adamic uplift, then this race too would have enjoyed a beneficial enhancement of its natural traits. Its progeny is still in a position, in my opinion, to add certain sensitivities to the larger gene pool as the human race proceeds toward its destiny. This is the meaning I take from a number of statements on racial hybridization made by the Chief of Seraphim stationed on Urantia.
In summary, then, what might all this mean in reference to the qualitative difference between the primary and secondary races? All mortals reason; all are “minded.” They all have intelligence and physical capabilities. While they all perceive through mind, they perceive somewhat differently. At least this seems to be a conclusion warranted by the teachings of The Urantia Book.
My notion of the essential mindal difference between them is that the perception of the primary races tended to be somewhat more thought directed than sentient-directed. Sentient may be defined as “responsive to or conscious of sense impression” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary). The secondary peoples, through various combinations of derived traits, approached reality more through their sentient natures than the primary races. I think this is their functional contribution to the biological diversity of the human race, one important aspect on the road to eventual life and light.
All six evolutionary races of color have qualitative differences of mind, but the difference between the primary Sangiks and secondary Sangiks is a threshold of some note. Notwithstanding physical variations, it is in all probability for the most part, this intellectual threshold that gives them their ranking in the design of mortal races of color in the universe.
This is what I think is meant by words such as “lesser” (lower) and “superior” or “backward” and “progressive” as applied to the Sangik races. (But it should be remembered that such terms are used at other levels of universe reality. I think this reflects a distinction Deity makes between function and value. )
When the Life Carriers designed the secondary races they produced a group with a type of perception that utilized enhanced sensory mechanisms. This was done, I think, at the expense of a mode of perception based on a somewhat higher intellectual threshold. Since the primary races as a whole were given that higher intellectual threshold, they would tend to progress more quickly than their secondary cousins.
On the other hand, the secondary peoples would complement the human matrix through their greater sensitivities in using various combinations of thinking-feeling-doing. Through these means, along with some physical traits, they were in some ways biologically superior to the primary peoples.
A good example of the “better strains” of some of the secondary group mixing with a portion of the primary is to be found in the Mediterranean basin of Europe. This was essentially a mixture of the Saharan, blue, and (later) the Andite peoples that together, along with some Andonite influence constituted the southern European white race.
This process took place approximately 25,000 to 5, years ago. Due to a series of climatic and geologic changes, the great Sahara pastureland of thousands of years ago turned gradually into a desert. As a result, the most progressive tribes of the indigo-Saharan peoples traveled northward to what is now Spain and, from there, spread out through the Mediterranean basin. They intermingled with tribes of the blue race migrating in a southerly direction. This admixture was up-stepped in quality by Andites who moved from east to west in the Mediterranean area as soon as the sea traffic and trade routes were opened several thousand years ago.
These racial mixtures laid the foundations for the southern European race, the most highly mixed of all…This Mediterranean race is, in fact, so freely admixed with the surrounding peoples as to be virtually indiscernible as a separate type, but in general its members are short, long- headed, and brunet.
In the north the Andites, through warfare and marriage, obliterated the blue men, but in the south they survived in greater numbers. The Basques and the Berbers represent the survival of two branches of this race, but even these peoples have been thoroughly admixed with the Saharans. UB 80:9.10-11
By way of a summary generalization and assessment of the earlier classifications of the northern, central, and southern white races in Europe, the following point was offered:
This was the picture of race mixture presented in central Europe about 3000 B.C. In spite of the partial Adamic default, the higher types did blend. UB 80:9.12
Concerning the sentient nature of the secondary races, there is another consideration worth elaboration. Remember the importance of the link between feeling and truth:
You cannot perceive spiritual truth until you feelingly experience it, and many truths are not really felt except in adversity. UB 48:7.18
I would like to suggest that one of the enrichments that the mixed secondary progeny can contribute to the larger gene pool is a greater sensitivity to the “feeling experience” of divine truth. Given the physical-emotional character of our mortal existence, is it any wonder that a sentiently more sensitive species is needed to enhance the mind’s responsiveness/expressiveness in:
The net effect should be to help actualize more of the potentials in human nature.
Despite the losses due to evolutionary vicissitudes, each race has a cosmic dignity. Normal individuals of every race have a noble value as children of God and a dignified function in the planetary ascension scheme for freewill material creatures.
Thus it is the task of a super-mortal race of material sons and daughters to enhance thinking-feeling-doing through biological grace.
A planetary Adam and Eve are, in potential, the full gift of physical grace to the mortal races. The chief business of such an imported pair is to multiply and to uplift the children of time…This is the origin of the violet race on the inhabited worlds. UB 51:3.3
This is a feature built into the framework of the local universes for their inhabited planets. All six evolutionary races of color are intended to be uplifted by the progeny of Adam and Eve. The original plan called for a superhuman administration on this planet to oversee the upgrading and eventual blending of the races. The Lucifer rebellion and the default of Adam and Eve largely wrecked that plan for our world. However, human culture has benefited from the limited infusion of some of Adam and Eve’s progeny. The violet race serves an integrative function through its higher level of thought-word-action.
In the universe, unequal contrasts between various beings and endowment levels abound. There are differences among midwayers, Lanonandek Sons, angels, and cherubim, and beings who are indwelt by Father fragments, Son fragments, or Spirit fragments. Life in the domains of time and space needs to be partial, imperfect, growing, and with relative levels of higher and lower function in order for evolution (as we understand it down here) to be possible. The virtue of evolutionary inequality is that it permits for new reality- possibilities beyond anything the central universe in all of its perfection could produce.
Again, “backward,” “lesser,” “progressive”, and “ superior” are terms used in other contexts. A Mighty Messenger characterized Orvonton as
…tardy and backward in comparison with other sectors, but there undoubtedly awaits us a transcendent development and an unprecedented achievement sometime in the eternal ages of the future. UB 34:2.6
The language used in The Urantia Book expresses the long view toward contrasting levels of capacities and development on this side of the central universe. Some of the same language is employed for the primary races. A Life Carrier indicates that the yellow race was
…the first to abandon the chase, establish settled communities, and develop a home life based on agriculture. Intellectually they were somewhat inferior to the red men, but socially and collectively they proved themselves superior to all of the Sangik peoples in the matter of fostering racial civilization. UB 64:6.14
The roles played by these primary and secondary races in human evolution are evaluated in the book in reference to their biological functioning in the scheme of things, not their spiritual value (worth). It is clearly stated in the book that the races are spiritually equal in the eyes of God and in the view of celestial authorities responsible for the overcontrol of human evolution. This remains true regardless of variations in mental/physical capacities, and differing rates of spiritual growth.
This is not a disclaimer for the sake of democratic egalitarianism. Rather, it is stated because of the magnitude of our kinship with our heavenly Father. This is most primary of all relationships. The experience of an individual’s relationship with the living God is the most profound reality any of us, from here to Paradise, can ever know. This truth conditions the attitude of higher creation toward lower creation. Indeed, the magnitude of unity implied by the Fatherhood of God is infinitely greater than the magnitude of difference suggested by the various races of color.
Up to this point the emphasis in this paper has been on the origin and nature of race. The focus will now shift to a consideration of modern times and human destiny.
Twentieth century civilization is faced with two interesting developments. Our modern technology of trans portation and communication is turning the world into a neighborhood. The other point is that the races are mixing at an accelerated rate. Earlier in this century, the Chief of Seraphim noted that,
For the past hundred years more racial hybridization has been taking place on Urantia than has occurred in thousands of years. UB 82:6.8
The parameters of what is desirable in racial crossbreeding according to the book may be gauged by the following quotations:
On your world, even in the face of the miscarriage of the ordained plans, great progress has been made since the gift to your peoples of Adam’s life plasm.
But while the pure-line children of a planetary Garden of Eden can bestow themselves upon the superior members of the evolutionary races and thereby upstep the biologic level of mankind, it would not prove beneficial for the higher strains of Urantia mortals to mate with the lower races; such an unwise prodedure would jeopardize all civilization on your world. UB 51:5.6-7
The point is then made about the mixed progeny of the primary peoples:
Interbreeding between the highest types of the white, red, and yellow races would immediately bring into existence many new and biologically effective characteristics. UB 82:6.9
However, some qualification is made concerning hybridization between descendants of the primary and secondary groups:
Mixtures of the white and black races are not so desirable in their immediate results, neither are such mulatto offspring so objectionable as social and racial prejudice would seek to make them appear. UB 82:6.9
When a primary Sangik race amalgamates with a secondary Sangik race, the latter is considerably improved at the expense of the former. And on a small scale—extending over long periods of time—there can be little serious objection to such a sacrificial contribution by the primary races to the betterment of the secondary groups. UB 82:6.10
Lastly, the emphasis shifts to the issue of degeneracy:
If the present-day races of Urantia could be freed from the curse of their lowest strata of deteriorated, antisocial, feeble-minded, and outcast specimens, there would be little objection to a limited race amalgamation. And if such racial mixtures could take place between the highest types of the several races, still less objection could be offered. UB 82:6.4
After all, the real jeopardy of the human species is to be found in the unrestrained multiplication of the inferior and degenerate strains of the various civilized peoples rather than in any supposed danger of their racial inbreeding. UB 82:6.11
And if I may elaborate on a corollary point to the last two statements: The black race of today is not the indigo race of long ago. It is energized by traits drawn from the extinct orange and green races, along with its indigo core. Furthermore, there are a number of individuals in the black race who very likely possess some trace of Andite infusion as a result of mixing with members of the white or yellow races, or quite possibly from the Saharan civilization of long ago that “received a very limited amount of the violet inheritance.” In my opinion, these are some of the individuals who should be reckoned with concerning the characterization of the “higher types” within the larger grouping of the black race.
It is not that racial crossovers are new; some degree of intermingling has always gone on. What is new is the rapidity encouraged by modern travel, trade, communication, and the media. And along with those developments, we also have an increasingly sophisticated science of genetics and ever-improving tools of medical science. Certainly, problems of race harmonization and biological improvement are becoming more acute, but solutions are also more promising.
What to do?
The following is offered as a kind of minimum that might be advised by our unseen planetary directors if we could ask them directly:
Having failed to achieve race harmonization by the Adamic technique, you must now work out your planetary problem of race improvement by other and largely human methods of adaptation and control. UB 51:5.7
To accomplish this we need new institutions, roles, norms, laws, and symbols, or at least new meaning to the ones we have now. This, I suppose, is one of the major reasons Paper 72, “Government on a Neighboring Planet,” was given to us. It provides a practical model we can build on, for example:
The feeble-minded are trained only in agriculture and animal husbandry, and are committed for life to special custodial colonies where they are segregated by sex to prevent parenthood, which is denied all subnormals. These restrictive measures have been in operation for seventy-five years; the commitment decrees are handed down by the parental courts. UB 72:4.2
Efforts to prevent the breeding of criminals and defectives were begun over one hundred years ago and have already yielded gratifying results. There are no prisons or hospitals for the insane. For one reason, there are only about ten per cent as many of these groups as are found on Urantia. UB 72:10.3
These methods of control should work on this world as well. There are many fears over this issue. Equality and prejudice are two of the leading concerns about genetic adaptation and control—little wonder, considering our history. States that have used race consciousness as their foundation have created repressive societies, and have sometimes engaged in mass murder; Nazi Germany, South Africa, and the American South come to mind. Would not some of the “sting” be taken out of the fear of policies and programs toward biological control if genetic quality per se, and not race, was the special consideration?
There is no doubt in my mind that it would take a major revelation in religion, science, and philosophy to ease the way. I believe this is one of the intended purposes of our planetary textbook, The Urantia Book. The book, because of its superhuman authorship, may some day take the place of the aborted mission of the Planetary Prince and the Adamic default, certainly to the extent that it will shed light on the direction our world was ordained to follow.
The concept of cosmic citizenship linked to knowledge of the Supreme could be a positive influence in turning us toward biological control and adaptation. Such a linkage would highlight the long view of human life. The task has biological and social aspects. To illustrate my thinking I will quote from a paper on the relationship of Adjusters to human beings, presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton:
. . . It is to the mind of perfect poise, housed in a body of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical function—when the physical, mental, and spiritual powers are in triune harmony of development—that a maximum of light and truth can be imparted with a minimum of temporal danger or risk to the real welfare of such a being. By such a balanced growth does man ascend the circles of planetary progression one by one, from the seventh to the first. UB 110:6.4
We should be aiming for a population whose members exhibit these characteristics. The critical dimension of human improvement appears to lie in the symmetry of variables. But to encourage “poise” and “clean habits” (and so forth), it would also be necessary to re-evaluate and elevate society’s perception of marriage and family, the home life.
Once again, on our neighboring planet, we find that
These people regard the home as the basic institution of their civilization. It is expected that the most valuable part of a child’s education and character training will be secured from his parents and at home, and fathers devote almost as much attention to child culture as do mothers. UB 72:3.4
Marriage and divorce laws are uniform throughout the nation. Marriage before twenty—the age of civil enfranchisement—is not permitted. Permission to marry is only granted after one year’s notice of intention, and after both bride and groom present certificates showing that they have been duly instructed in the parental schools regarding the responsibilities of married life.
. . . Notwithstanding their easy divorce laws, the present rate of divorce is only one-tenth of the civilized races of Urantia. UB 72:3.8-9
My point in quoting these passages on marriage and family is that in order to effect harmonization and improve ment of the human race, we should emphasize the social as well as the biological side of the human condition. While all of this is rather simply put, I think it goes to the heart of the matter. Those of us who advocate changes of a social-biological nature ought to heed carefully the admonitions of an Archangel of Nebadon, who said that
Man should be unafraid to experiment with the mechanisms of society. But always should these adventures in cultural adjustment be controlled by those who are fully conversant with the history of social evolution; and always should these innovators be counseled by the wisdom of those who have had practical experience in the domains of contemplated social or economic experiment. No great social or economic change should be attempted suddenly. Time is essential to all types of human adjustment—physical, social, or economic. Only moral and spiritual adjustments can be made on the spur of the moment, and even these require the passing of time for the full outworking of their material and social repercussions. . . . UB 81:6.40
These qualifications are very important because any social-biological engineering will involve the home life— marriage and family are the foundation of society. In light of the above, it is my conclusion that the hand on social-medical-genetic controls can be safely entrusted only to persons who at least:
One final note: I have faith in our heavenly Father and I trust Jesus. Our destinies—yours and mine and all the others—are secure.
Fusion with a fragment of the Universal Father is equivalent to a divine validation of eventual Paradise attainment, and such Adjuster-fused mortals are the only class of human beings who all traverse the Havona circuits and find God on Paradise. To the Adjuster-fused mortal the career of universal service is wide open. What dignity of destiny and glory of attainment await every one of you! . . . UB 40:7.5
Thus, in the final analysis, it would be hardly proper to use the words, greater—or lesser—in contrasting the destinies of the ascending orders of sonship. Every such son of God shares the fatherhood of God, and God loves each of his creature sons alike; he is no more a respecter of ascendant destinies than is he of the creatures who may attain such destinies. The Father loves each of his sons, and that affection is not less than true, holy, divine, unlimited, eternal, and unique—a love bestowed upon this son and upon that son, individually, personally, and exclusively. Sonship is the supreme relationship of the creature to the Creator. UB 40:10.13
The preceding was presented by a Mighty Messenger who was called upon to work temporarily with Gabriel of Salvington.
One day while resting at lunch, about halfway to Tarentum, Ganid asked Jesus a direct question as to what he thought of India’s caste system. Said Jesus: “Though human beings differ in many ways, the one from another, before God and in the spiritual world all mortals stand on an equal footing. There are only two groups of mortals in the eyes of God: those who desire to do his will and those who do not. As the universe looks upon an inhabited world, it likewise discerns two great classes: those who know God and those who do not. Those who cannot know God are reckoned among the animals of any given realm. Mankind can appropriately be divided into many classes in accordance with differing qualifications, as they may be viewed physically, mentally, socially, vocationally, or morally, but as these different classes of mortals appear before the judgment bar of God, they stand on an equal footing: God is truly no respecter of persons. Although you cannot escape the recognition of differential human abilities and endowments in matters intellectual, social, and moral, you should make no such distinctions in the spiritual brotherhood of men assembled for worship in the presence of God. UB 133:0.3
Charles Olivea first encountered The Urantia Book in 1965 and became a serious student of its teachings by 1968. He has dedicated himself to the search for truth as presented in the revelation and perceives this as a service to the movement at large and a service to the Supreme. Charles has been married for 46 years to date, having two sons who are also married and are the fathers of his grandsons. Charles would add that his allegiance is to Michael of Nebadon and him only.