© 2015 Charles Laurence Olivea
© 2015 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Destiny of the Master Michaels? | Volume 15, Number 1, 2015 (Summer) — Index | Is The Urantia Book a Sacred Text |
I think the revelatory text of The Urantia Book offers a solid basis for discerning its mission. I will draw from the text for its wisdom. I am writing this essay because I believe it is always worthwhile to try to articulate the primary aim of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. Also, I wish to address what I perceive to be a tendency by some in our movement to veer away from the planetary perspective of the book.
Within the book’s framework, this essay will present and elaborate on the following themes:
Humanity is the intended (potential) audience for the Urantia Papers;
The effort to appeal more to Christianity than other religions narrows the range of the revelation and constitutes an error in my opinion; and,
The long view or a higher vision embraces the origin, history and destiny of the myriad of relationships between Paradise and Urantia.
As the author, I represent no group or organization. I am expressing my reflections on the issues at hand.
According to The Urantia Book, there are at least three basic types of revelatory experience: personal, racial, and planetary. The personal and racial dimensions are referenced in the context of how the divine spirit(s) impact mortal existence. “We know [this] by three phenomena…religious faith; second, by revelation—personal and racial; and third, by the…extraordinary…reactions to the material environment….” [UB 101:3.17] The Urantia Book is described within as a celestial “gift” of revelation to all of humanity on Urantia. “The Urantia Papers…constitute the most recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia.” [UB 92:4.9]
I presume all students of The Urantia Book make personal interpretations and applications of the revelatory text to their individual lives. It is natural to do so. But the celestial narrative was not written for individual persons per se, albeit it may be viewed that way by some. Nor were the Urantia Papers designed for any particular race (or tribe or nation), but for all races, all peoples.
It was written to appeal to humanity, civilizations, and cultures, in other words, all Urantians. I would argue that this is hardly a moot point. There are those who refer only to readers of the book as “Urantians.” I believe that this is an error. The term, “Urantian,” certainly applies to every mortal born in this world. This is the meaning I attach to “Urantian.” I think this error reflects an unfortunate tendency to approximate the “chosen-people syndrome.” Such a mindset assigns special value and significance to a group. This kind of thinking may have a wider attraction than the designation above. I will address that problem later on in this essay.
The idea of the “Gift of Revelation” as planetary in its nature is supported in other places in the book. One of them is the listing of composite religions. “On Urantia, evolutionary and revelatory religions are progressing side by side while they blend and coalesce into the diversified theologic systems found in the world in the times of the inditement of these papers. These religions, the religions of twentiethcentury Urantia, may be enumerated as follows:”
Hinduism—the most ancient.
The Hebrew religion.
Buddhism.
The Confucian teachings.
The Taoist beliefs.
Zoroastrianism.
Shinto.
Jainism.
Christianity.
Islam.
Sikhism—the most recent._” UB 92:6.2-13
It seems to me that the Melchizedek who authored this paper is expressing the spiritual relevance of all religion in the progressive evolutionary civilization on Urantia. I believe the celestial government of Urantia wants all sincere religious faiths lifted up through revelatory presentations as led by the divine spirit(s). This listing of composite religions reminds me of the religions complied by Ganid and Jesus. UB 131:0.1 What impresses me about their work was the supreme spiritual value they placed on the several religions, including “Our Religion,” Ganid postulated from the tutoring of Jesus. Comparative religion reinforces the long view, which in turn allows us to keep our eye on the ball, to employ a baseball metaphor. The revelatory message shows respect to the wisdom-spiritual traditions worldwide, while aiming to enlighten the makeup of evolutionary religion, helping to grow the mortal consciousness of truth.
Is the name of our planet, “Urantia,” derived from the local universe language of Nebadon? Whatever the answer is, the title of the book introduces the worldly scope of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. Additionally, I suggest that Michael’s symbol of the Trinity, three blue concentric circles, also highlights the universal character of this “Gift” to the human race.
Herein lays a fault line in thinking about the dissemination of The Urantia Book and its teachings. I refer to the practice of targeting one religion as being more viable for presenting The Urantia Book, rather than craft an approach that recognizes the spiritual equality across human religious experiences. One might be forgiven for supposing that the practice of pitching to one religious tradition over or against others could convey the impression—to non-readers— that the Fifth Epochal Revelation contains a thread of religious favoritism.
Disagreements over how best to present the teachings of The Urantia Book seem to stem from the tension between evolutionary behavior and revelatory knowledge. “Evolutionary religion is sentimental . . . Revelatory religion is propounded by the real spiritual world; it is the response of the superintellectual cosmos to the mortal hunger to believe in, and depend upon, the universal Deities. Evolutionary religion pictures the circuitous gropings of humanity in quest of truth; revelatory religion is that very truth.” [UB 92:4.3] Even the composite religions of today contain a mix of advancements and animal-origin norms.
Human cultural evolution takes origin in fear and is complicated by a sense of the unknown. Celestial culture arrives as a superior force of mind-spirit facing phenomena partly of animal-origin. The task or challenge of presenting revelation to evolution is necessarily a delicate one concerning proper and effective judgment. Discretion is usually called for, to go forward in service, yet be spirit-led in doing so. We should keep the big picture in sight. I think this is the fundamental responsibility of devotees of The Urantia Book. Hence, the supreme importance of crafting an approach that “lets” the text of the revelation “speak for itself” and by the way the revelation is manifested in our lives, the day to day living of the Fruits of the Spirit.
Here is where sectarianism can muddle our best intentions to present the revelation to evolutionary institutions. I believe that the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth transcend evolutionary religion (including Christianity), yet complement and elevate it when placed in the living context of his universe moral and spiritual authority. Exemplifying Jesus from the higher level of revelation is to present him with his broader presence in universe and world reality. In this way the Fifth Epochal Revelation is “superior” to the evolutionary level. It is the Michael-Inspired-Jesus that I am convinced will help turn Urantian civilization and culture to love and respect our beloved Universal Father.
Here is the rub: any move to “single out” one of the evolutionary religions at the expense of the needs of the others will invariably get entangled in sectarian weeds. Christianity is not the issue; giving the impression of “favoring” it is the issue for students of The Urantia Book. I am not disparaging the Christian tradition. God bless those who pursue a biblically based life of prayer and worship in the quest for that amazing grace offered by Jesus. (“Emergent Christians” come to mind.) But I think they are not our priority; touching intellectually and spiritually the spectrum of human religious experience is our priority. Christian interests are a separate agenda. Our responsibility is epochal and nonsectarian. I remain troubled by the convolution of the two in recent years. It is disquieting to listen to, or to read about, notions that could have the effect of “Christianizing” the presentation of this revelation. This is penned more as a cautionary note, than an alarm.
However, the convolution of the two strikes me as unbalanced: unwise and unsound from the cosmic-planetary viewpoint. It smacks of a variant of the chosen-people syndrome and also “being in a hurry.” to rush social evolution. That is what is disquieting to me. Incorporating and singling out Bible-related worshippers as a special domain of our revelatory movement shifts the orientation from higher to lower. In that sense, I believe such a move is in a way, “de-evolutionary,” for Fifth Epochal students. It lessens or possibly ignores the religion of revelation in its fuller super-intellectual cosmic and worldly vantage point. In my opinion, it misses much of the revelatory mark. It attempts to accomplish an evolutionary jump without the basic, pedagogical framework in The Urantia Book of the complex > simple. The effort lacks higher vision.
It is not at all my intention to disparage in any way my fellow students of the revelation whom I regard as misguided, however well meaning. It is not their sincerity I question; my dispute is with their judgment. I do believe firmly that this “Gift” of revelation provides us with a superlative advantage for mind and soul—a magnificent opportunity to see with an eagle’s perspective (flying high up with its superior eyesight). The Urantia Book gives us the chance to penetrate a paradox, The best way to understand and appreciate any present moment is to incorporate past, present, and future, integrating origin, history, and destiny.
There is a rather explicit description (the revelation’s pedagogy) in the book. It is presented as the means of comprehending any phase of universe reality. It is worth quoting at length: “The human mind would ordinarily crave to approach the cosmic philosophy portrayed in these revelations by proceeding from the simple and the finite to the complex and the infinite, from human origins to divine destinies. But that path does not lead to spiritual wisdom. Such a procedure is the easiest path to a certain form of genetic knowledge, but at best it can only reveal man’s origin; it reveals little or nothing about his divine destiny.” [UB 19:1.5]
Even in the study of man’s biologic evolution on Urantia, there are grave objections to the exclusive historic approach to his present-day status and his current problems. The true perspective of any reality problem—human or divine, terrestrial or cosmic—can be had only by the full and unprejudiced study and correlation of three phases of universe reality: origin, history, and destiny. The proper understanding of these three experiential realities affords the basis for a wise estimate of the current status. [UB 19:1.6]
Briefly, here are some of the ways this is achieved in The Urantia Book. The light of universal “origins” is revealed in the first five papers concerning our Father. “History” is revealed in various contexts: the Central Universe (even though it is outside of time and space as we understand them); the development of the Superuniverses and especially ours, Orvonton; the unfolding of the local universe of Nebadon; and likewise for Urantia itself. “Destiny,” leading ultimately to Finaliter status, is detailed throughout the universe hierarchy. All three phases of reality are personified in Michael’s bestowal life of Jesus of Nazareth. He took origin as a babe born of woman, and made history as a man among men, reaching individual destiny by gaining light and life personally. It is the revelatory narrative mainly in Part IV of The Urantia Book that fills in year-by-year his glorified earthly story. It is that narrative—greater, deeper, and more universal than anything before it—that must be preserved and disseminated, thoughtfully and meaningfully, now and in the long future ahead.
To elaborate further, it is my position that the long view must at least embrace divine, cosmic, morontial, spirit (e.g., angelic), and human relationships. As children of the Universal Father, we are actually brothers and sisters to one another (brotherhood, i.e., family). Service in time and space, co-creating Orvonton with the Supreme, makes us (active) cosmic citizens. Cooperating with the angels (Seraphic Guardians and Master Seraphim), through the combination of intelligent prayer and wise action, we become collaborators with the planetary celestial government. And when we practice enlightened fellowship with our mortal brothers and sisters, we create a fraternity of laborers in the vineyards of truth, beauty, and goodness.
A Divine Counselor expresses it with sweeping eloquence: “The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness.” [UB 2:7.10]
Within the larger contexts just presented, I would like to highlight two seminal relationships concerning humans and angels. Together, they address one of the priorities in Michael’s Plan: to eventually produce thousands of study groups worldwide. This particular priority, I think, honors the aforementioned high ground of universal-planetary revelation.
To build upon such an association requires a minimum of two intersecting axes. One may be characterized as a “vertical axis” connecting through living faith, prayer, and spiritual patience of the Master Seraphim and students of the book who gather in its study. The other may be characterized as a horizontal axis, whose sociology consists of living faith, prayer, and spiritual fragrance between mortals of the realm. The axes ought to form, conceptually, a “cross,” symbolizing a benign labor of love and Urantia as the “World of the Cross” in Nebadon.
I would make one last point concerning study groups and dissemination in general. Jesus talked about the spiritual liability of going to people with our message, rather than have them want to come to us to learn what we have spiritually and intellectually. “Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired. The measure wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth-co-ordinated life.” [UB 155:1.5]
He elaborated on this point during some of his Morontia appearances following his resurrection. When he appeared to the faith-believers in Alexandria, he said, “Peace be upon you. That which my Father sent me into the world to establish belongs not to a race, a nation, nor to a special group of teachers or preachers. This gospel of the kingdom belongs to both Jew and gentile, to rich and poor, to free and bond, to male and female, even to the little children. And you are all to proclaim this gospel of love and truth by the lives which you live in the flesh. You shall love one another with a new and startling affection, even as I have loved you. You will serve mankind with a new and amazing devotion, even as I have served you. And when men see you so love them, and when they behold how fervently you serve them, they will perceive that you have become faith-fellows of the kingdom of heaven, and they will follow after the Spirit of Truth which they see in your lives, to the finding of eternal salvation.” [UB 191:6.2]
These form the contours of my vision. They enable me to draw a “straight line,” figuratively speaking, from the Father’s presence on Paradise to Urantia. (The image is adapted from an excellent lecture I heard in 1972 at 533 for the Summer Study Session.) I follow Jesus of Nazareth, and him only, as a devoted student of The Urantia Book. I rely on his Spirit of Truth in my endeavor to discern and do the will of my Father, the Source and Center of all things and beings. The bestowal of his divine spirit—my inestimable Thought Adjuster—is a gift, the length, breadth, and depth of which, I will never fully be able to gauge. But I greatly appreciate this divine spirit companion even now! I happily acknowledge what the celestial administration, with Michael’s blessing, has bestowed so freely and lovingly—the power and glory of these revealed teachings in the pages of The Urantia Book.
I would like to conclude with some verses of my own about the Fifth Epochal Revelation that I wrote a few years ago, and a prayer:
| Challenge of This Age |
|---|
Past times
Physical survival
Was the challenge
Modern times
Mental adroitness
The watch word
Need to discern truth
Carries this necessity
Further along
These times
Concern the advent
Of new planetary revelation
A task
To be continued
For 1,000 years.
May we be more receptive to our Father’s grace.
Thank you Father for all that you do.
| The Urantia Book |
|---|
Revelation touching evolution
Up stepping progressive civilization
On a planetary scale
East and west may hope to reconcile
Non-dualism with personalism
The relative with the absolute
Universe of universes clarified
Paradise at the stable center
Superuniverses revolving around it
Inhabited planets go from primitive to light and life
God’s plan of evolutionary worlds connected with celestial worlds
Lucifer rebellion delays, but cannot prevent our real future
Origin and history in time and space
Destiny in eternity and infinity
Truth, beauty, and goodness will yet prevail.
Born in New York City in 1943, Charles Laurence Olivea married his wife, Mary, in 1966. We raised two sons, Peter and Gordon, both of who are fathers to a grandson each. I enjoyed a teaching career of about 45 years at the high school level and taught history in New York, Connecticut, and New Mexico. We moved to Santa Fe in 1999 where we reside today. I first encountered The Urantia Book in 1965. I became a serious student of the revelation in 1968 and have studied it ever since. I believed it was an epochal revelation when I initially found it and have held it in that light to this day. I think of The Urantia Book as a jewel that will not decay. The Universal Father has given us a blessing of phenomenal scope and depth.
| Destiny of the Master Michaels? | Volume 15, Number 1, 2015 (Summer) — Index | Is The Urantia Book a Sacred Text |