© 2022 Gard Jameson
© 2022 The Urantia Book Fellowship
By Gard Jameson
In the minds of many students of The Urantia Book there exists much confusion and misinformation about the use of human source material. This special “Sources” magazine highlights the reason for their incorporation, examines the place of auto-revelation in the creation of an epochal revelation and shares some personal insights gained from a study of how the Revelatory Commission utilized the thoughts of various human authors. Their insights reveal the power of personal revelation in the life of a truth seeking mortal. These essays have been created with gratitude to Steve Dreier, who has been a friend, teacher, and mentor, and to Matthew Block who has been a relentless pioneer in the discovery of the texts.
There are several acknowledgments to the human sources in the text of The Urantia Book. In the “Foreword” a noble Divine Counselor from Orvonton states:
[Editor’s note: The Urantia Book does not make use of bold font for emphasis. In The Urantia Book quotations below, anything in bold font is “emphasis added” by this article’s author.]
“In formulating the succeeding presentations having to do with the portrayal of the character of the Universal Father and the nature of his Paradise associates, together with an attempted description of the perfect central universe and the encircling seven superuniverses, we are to be guided by the mandate of the superuniverse rulers which directs that we shall, in all our efforts to reveal truth and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give preference to the highest existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects to be presented. We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of presentation has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind.” [UB 0:12.11]
“Accordingly, in making these presentations about God and his universe associates, we have selected as the basis of these papers more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe meanings.” [UB 0:12.12]
In “Part IV. The Life and Teachings of Jesus,” the secondary midwayer of onetime attachment to the Apostle Andrew tells us:
“In carrying out my commission to restate the teachings and retell the doings of Jesus of Nazareth, I have drawn freely upon all sources of record and planetary information. My ruling motive has been to prepare a record which will not only be enlightening to the generation of men now living, but which may also be helpful to all future generations. From the vast store of information made available to me, I have chosen that which is best suited to the accomplishment of this purpose. As far as possible I have derived my information from purely human sources. Only when such sources failed, have I resorted to those records which are superhuman. When ideas and concepts of Jesus’ life and teachings have been acceptably expressed by a human mind, I invariably gave preference to such apparently human thought patterns.* Although I have sought to adjust the verbal expression the better to conform to our concept of the real meaning and the true import of the Master’s life and teachings, as far as possible, I have adhered to the actual human concept and thought pattern in all my narratives.
I well know that those concepts which have had origin in the human mind will prove more acceptable and helpful to all other human minds.* When unable to find the necessary concepts in the human records or in human expressions, I have next resorted to the memory resources of my own order of earth creatures, the midwayers. And when that secondary source of information proved inadequate, I have unhesitatingly resorted to the superplanetary sources of information.” [UB 121:8.12]
“The memoranda which I have collected, and from which I have prepared this narrative of the life and teachings of Jesus—aside from the memory of the record of the Apostle Andrew—embrace thought gems and superior concepts of Jesus’ teachings assembled from more than two thousand human beings who have lived on earth from the days of Jesus down to the time of the inditing of these revelations, more correctly restatements. The revelatory permission has been utilized only when the human record and human concepts failed to supply an adequate thought pattern. My revelatory commission forbade me to resort to extrahuman sources of either information or expression until such a time as I could testify that I had failed in my efforts to find the required conceptual expression in purely human sources.” [UB 121:8.13]
“While I, with the collaboration of my eleven associate fellow midwayers and under the supervision of the Melchizedek of record, have portrayed this narrative in accordance with my concept of its effective arrangement and in response to my choice of immediate expression, nevertheless, the majority of the ideas and even some of the effective expressions which I have thus utilized had their origin in the minds of the men of many races who have lived on earth during the intervening generations, right on down to those who are still alive at the time of this undertaking. In many ways I have served more as a collector and editor than as an original narrator. I have unhesitatingly appropriated those ideas and concepts, preferably human, which would enable me to create the most effective portraiture of Jesus’ life, and which would qualify me to restate his matchless teachings in the most strikingly helpful and universally uplifting phraseology. In behalf of the Brotherhood of the United Midwayers of Urantia, I most gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to all sources of record and concept which have been hereinafter utilized in the further elaboration of our restatement of Jesus’ life on earth.” [UB 121:8.14]
These statements by members of the Revelatory Commission, a Divine Counselor, and a secondary midwayer, substantiate the revelators’ intention to incorporate human insights into The Urantia Book. These insights reveal the authenticity and power of personal revelation in the life of a truth seeking mortal. The reason for their incorporation is that “those concepts which have had origin in the human mind will prove more acceptable and helpful to all other human minds.” [UB 121:8.12]
As of the writing of J.T. Manning’s book, Source Authors of the Urantia Book, in 2002 Matthew Block had discovered over 125 source books and articles written by over ninety authors. Since that time, many more books, articles, and authors have been discovered. If you have an interest in the specific parallel passages that were used you will find Matthew’s website at https://urantiabooksources.com. What is of interest to note is that many of the novel sections of the book, such as the parts on “The Central and Superuniverses” and “The Local Universe,” have relatively few human source parallels, as might be anticipated.
The Urantia Book makes clear:
“Revelation as an epochal phenomenon is periodic; as a personal human experience it is continuous. Divinity functions in mortal personality as the Adjuster gift of the Father, as the Spirit of Truth of the Son, and as the Holy Spirit of the Universe Spirit, . . . ” [UB 101:2.12]
It therefore remains forever true that evolutionary thought and revelatory insight stand in a complementary relationship. “Thus it appears that all human progress is effected by a technique of conjoint revelational evolution.” [UB 196:3.15] Evolutionary thought represents the footsteps upon the hidden ladder that has been extended from the Paradise core of reality to the evolutionary domains of time and space in a manner that brings illumination to “The Plan of Progressive Attainment” [UB 7:4.4], developed at the inception of universal reality. With each footstep humanity becomes more certain, both inwardly and outwardly, of the friendly nature of the universe!
My hope in these essays is to encourage the reader to read closely the text of The Urantia Book, to see how the thoughts of the human authors were weaved into the words produced by the Revelatory Commission in precise manner. Observe closely how words are used, how thoughts are sequenced, and how and why section follows section in the course of the book.
What emerges is the acknowledgement of personal or auto revelation in the life of a truth seeking mortal, such as Ralph Tyler Flewelling. His work on personality was groundbreaking. Flewelling’s book, Creative Personality, was very popular in its day, and was utilized heavily in most of the discourses associated with Jesus’ travels to Rome. Revelation is not always from on high; it sits before our eyes for those who cultivate eyes to see.
I wish you well in your own personal discovery.