© 1996 David Kantor
© 1996 The Brotherhood of Man Library
| The Purpose of Revelation: A Response to Martin Gardner's Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery | Volume 3 - No. 1 — Index | A response to some of the Gardner criticisms |
Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail. (UB 196:3.33)
One of the similarities which I see in the sequence of epochal revelations that are described in Paper 52, Planetary Mortal Epochs, is that each revelation provided mechanisms for expanding access to Deity. In doing so, they opened up new avenues of approach and provided more functional integration between evolving mortals and the agencies of celestial ministry.
My primary reason for reading The Urantia Book is that, if approached in a prayerful or worshipful attitude, it facilitates my personal encounter with God. The very act of reading becomes a symbolic approach to Deity—psychologically similar to any other symbolic ritual leading to encounter, such as making a pilgrimage to a holy place or participating in a remembrance supper.
This symbolic act of reading makes neither a religion nor a fetish out of the book, but recognizes it as a potent tool for bringing the individual into closer contact with planetary founts of spiritual ministry. Quotations that express the religious nature of my experience are:
“Religion is the experiencing of divinity in the consciousness of a moral being of evolutionary origin; it represents true experience with the eternal realities in time, the realization of spiritual satisfactions while still in the flesh.” (UB 101:1.1) This seems to happen to me when I prayerfully read the book!
“The divine spirit makes contact with mortal man, not by feelings or emotions, but in the realms of the highest and most spiritualized thinking. It is your thoughts, not your feelings, that lead you Godward…All such inner and spiritual communion is termed spiritual insight. Such religious experiences result from the impress made upon the mind of man by the combined operations of the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth as they function amid and upon the ideas, ideals, insights, and spirit strivings of the evolving sons of God.” (UB 101:1.3) This seems to explain what happens to me when I worshipfully read the book!
“Religion lives and prospers . . . in the discovery of new and spiritual meanings in facts already well known to mankind.” (UB 101:1.4) As I read this book prayerfully, I am constantly discovering new, spiritual meanings in facts! This book is an extremely valuable component of my personal religious experience!
Personal conversations with hundreds of readers over the years confirm that I am not alone in having this kind of experience with the text. The significance of this experience for my own personal growth is what keeps bringing me back to the text, day after day, year after year, decade after decade. It provides more useful sustenance than anything else I have encountered in my limited but not insignificant encounters with universe reality. It has helped me to learn how to open the worship channel of spiritual communion and it helps me learn how to function more effectively in my social environment. My experience with this text is so profound that I want to be sure that anyone else who might be interested in having such an experience has unrestricted access to it.
It is the power of this symbolic act, the prayerful and worshipful reading of this text, which holds such great potential for facilitating the spiritual transformation of each individual as well as the social aggregations in which those individuals participate. It is as if a prayerful, worshipful reading of the text opens the gateway to the ministry of our unseen friends. Such reading creates an open channel through which their ministry can pour into each individual and from thence into the world. Many readers have experienced a similar phenomenon in the social context of study groups. Jesus’ description of the Kingdom helps us to understand the nature of this experience and helps us gain insight into how we can effectively socialize it, consistent with the broadening horizons of the personal universe which this text reveals.
There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews.Byron, Childe Harold, IV
The ultimate failures of dictatorship cost humanity far more than any temporary failures of democracy.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
For a small group of readers to attempt to fabricate an air of authority for purposes of controlling and ‘managing’ the reactions of their fellows to this revelation reveals a level of insight which is shallow and superficial at best. Trying to establish and enforce an ideology which is designed to inhibit, restrict and control the reaction to this text is as rational as attempting to control a nuclear explosion by detonating it in a paper bag. The interaction between the spirit-indwelt, inquiring mind and the Fifth Epochal Revelation makes any policy of restricted access to the text both obscene and impossible of implementation. This revelation is the most powerful force to be liberated on the planet since Michael’s bestowal of the Spirit of Truth. Can you imagine anyone having the audacity to attempt to control the functioning of the Spirit of Truth? Or trying to establish ideological constraints upon where and when it should be allowed to function?
On UB 87:7.9, the revelators acknowledge the difficulty we face in a new and satisfying symbolism. They state that, “. . .the new symbolism must not only be significant for the group but also meaningful for the individual. The forms of any serviceable symbolism must be those which the individual can carry out on his own initiative, and which he can also enjoy with his fellows. If the new cult could only be dynamic instead of static, it might really contribute something worthwhile to the progress of mankind, both temporal and spiritual.” Prayerfully reading The Urantia Book provides just such a satisfying symbolic approach to deity for many people!
The discussion of the appearance of a new cult continues with the comment that, “There must be the demand for devotion, the response of loyalty. Every effective religion develops a worthy symbolism, and its devotees would do well to prevent the crystallization of such a ritual into cramping, deforming and stifling stereotyped ceremonials which can only handicap and retard all social, moral, and spiritual progress. No cult can survive if it retards moral growth and fails to foster spiritual progress. The cult is the skeletal structure around which grows the living and dynamic body of personal spiritual experience—true religion.”UB 87:7.10 With The Urantia Book, the Revelators have provided a masterfully conceived symbolism for the spiritual sustenance of humanity. If you appreciate the catalytic role the text plays in religious growth, and if you appreciate the text’s comments that the inevitable result of religious growth is a desire for service, and if you appreciate the way in which the desire to serve often results in an individual wanting that which is deemed to be of greatest value, perhaps you can then appreciate what a lost cause this ideology of restricted access really is. It is simply not consistent with the nature of the response the book itself says we can expect!
If the past forty years of events within the readership are a reliable indicator, the real challenge before us would seem to be that of helping each other to effectively socialize this new experience. We need to help each other to learn to adapt to the new psychological and spiritual realities encountered as a result of reading the text of this book.
How, then, are we to responsibly spread the revelation in ‘accord with its teaching.’ If we are going to answer this question, we will be required to make sure that any strategy we suggest is at least consistent with the concept of reality presented in the text.
Each of the preceding epochal revelations provided humanity with additional tools for dealing with the planetary environment, tools to help us in our ascent from the bonds of biological and psychological determinism to a fuller understanding of techniques of the in-process-of-being-revealed universe of personality, meanings and values. The Prince’s regime provided education in a variety of domains. The Adamic regime provided new genes for everyone, in addition to more education. Melchizedek highlighted the power of faith. Jesus empowered us by helping us to understand the personal nature of Deity and the immanently-present reality of the Kingdom. He also provided the Spirit of Truth as a substantial bonus. Each of these revelations, when assimilated by its recipients, provided additional empowerment for the tasks of personal and social evolution toward a greater degree of God-consciousness and adaptations to the trends of the cosmos. We might ask if there is any corollary with The Urantia Book—anything here which can more effectively empower us to deal with our planetary situation. I think the answer is ‘Yes!’ In addition to a comprehensive view of the nature and origin, history, and destiny, the book provides a revelation of the nature of Supremacy which should empower us to work effectively with our environment.
The nature of Supremacy is very nicely captured in philosopher Alfred North Whitehead’s description of each new moment as a “creative advance into novelty.” In Jesus’ terms, it is simply total commitment in all ways to the doing of the Father’s will—a conclusion reached during the forty day period he spent in evaluating how he should proceed with his life. In doing so, he settled upon a masterly technique which allows fresh empowerment within each new, novel moment. This is in sharp contrast to an ideology which presupposes that it ‘knows’ the optimum configuration of future reality as well as the means of manipulating present reality in order to reach that optimum configuration. The life of Jesus clearly reveals the superiority of submission to the Father’s will as contrasted with predetermined ideology as a method of advancing both individual and planetary progress.
Beloved, let us love one another:
for love is of God;
and every one that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God.He that loveth not, knoweth not God;
for God is love.
No man hath seen God at any time.
If we love one another,
God dwelleth in us,
and his love is perfected in us.God is love;
he that dwelleth in love,
dwelleth in God, and God in him.There is no fear in love;
but perfect love casteth outfear:
because fear hath toment.
He that feareth
is not made perfect in love.We love him because he first loved us,
and this commandment,
we have from him.
he who loveth God,
loveth his brother also.First Epistle of John.
Paper 99, The Social Problems of Religion, makes quite clear the impotence of ideology in dealing with the present situation. The argument for ideology is based on an assumption that the dynamics of reality are far more amenable to the positivistic methods of intervention and control than those of the personal universe we find revealed in The Urantia Book. Ideology assumes mechanism, a formula to achieve individual success and social progress; the book reveals living organism—an individual and personal, moment by moment, dedication to the doing of the Father’s will.
Again we may ask the question, “How should we approach the challenge of introducing The Urantia Book in accordance with the view of reality that it sets forth?”
A personal philosophy of seeking the Father’s will in each decision is the only way I see of functioning creatively within Supremacy, while remaining consistent with the view of reality set forth in the book. The task will be accomplished via the additive contribution that each individual makes to the process.
“Religionists must function in society . . . as individuals, not as groups, parties or institutions.” (99:2.3) Individuals thus oriented can create sequences of particular occasions (to use Whitehead’s term) within the evolving supreme through which our spiritual benefactors are able to supply their ministry directly toward planetary uplift. The inevitable interference and distortion created by human institutions is kept to a minimum. from a process viewpoint, any attempt to apply institutional control through the enforcement of a particular ideology represents an illusory understanding of reality and is predestined to fail.
Divine Love
Thou hidden love Of God, whose height
Whose depth unfathom’d, no man knows,
I see from far Thy bounteous light,
Inly I sigh for Thy repose;
My heart is pain’d, nor can it be
At rest, till it finds rest in Thee.
John Wesley
Ye, pure
Children of God, enjoy eternal beauty;
Let that which ever operates and lives
Clasp you within the limits of its love;
And seize with sweet and melancholy thoughts
The floating phantoms of its loveliness.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Reality constantly metamorphoses into novel configurations that were unforeseen when the institutional or ideological structures were developed. When we have a growing number of individuals dedicated to seeking the Father’s will in all things, and interacting in consultation and seeking group wisdom, we provide our spiritual benefactors with a fertile, growing field of particular occasions which can be utilized for purposes of the revelation. As we work to bring about the social coordination of these individuals, we help to mitigate the extremes of ultra-individualism as well as the wild fluctuations inherent when a few self-selected individuals try to control a dynamic system.
The challenge here is to keep the task of social coordination from becoming one of ideological control. This approach recognizes and attempts to harmonize with the locus of planetary spiritual ministry in the inner world of individuals and communities. The real frontiers become psychological and spiritual domains rather the domains of institutions which attempt to achieve a spiritual objective by manipulating social processes. Considering the loss of the external ministry infrastructure which would have been provided by the Prince’s staff and the Adamic regime, can we look at the last three epochal revelations (Melchizedek, Jesus, and The Urantia Book) and postulate the fostering of an internal ministry structure consistent with the nature of Supremacy?
The concept that access to the Fifth Epochal Revelation needs to be limited and controlled seems highly untenable in a society whose very lifeblood has become the free flow of information. And how can such views be reconciled with those expressed by the Master, “The invitation is and always will be: Whosoever will, let him come and partake of the water of life.” (165:3.8) Can we imagine Jesus laying down criteria about who is and who is not ready or worthy to receive his revelation?
Our challenges are increasingly psychological and spiritual as we seek to orient ourselves to the service of God and our fellows in this world of Supremacy. How do we more clearly perceive the Father’s will? How do we more wisely discern the difference between genuine spiritual guidance and expressions of our own psychological processes and social needs? How do we effect the social coordination of readers from radically different backgrounds, perspectives and levels of education?
These become the issues at the frontiers of growth and service. Jesus revealed to us the way in which to operate creatively for the Father’s purposes in an environment of increasing complex, novel and unpredictable process—simply by doing as he did and living our lives fully dedicated to the discovery and the doing of the Father’s will.
| The Purpose of Revelation: A Response to Martin Gardner's Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery | Volume 3 - No. 1 — Index | A response to some of the Gardner criticisms |