© 2013 Rev. Gary Deinstadt
© 2013 The Urantia Book Fellowship
True religion must ever be, at one and the same time, the eternal foundation and the guiding star of all enduring civilizations. (Melchizedek of Nebadon) UB 92:7.15
Evolution and the status of progressive civilization determine the time and place of the planetary missions of divine Sons. The Urantia Book tells us that religious revelation is essential to the realization of brotherhood, which not only requires some spiritual pressure from above, but some progressive acts on our part. So how do we presently begin to look at ways we can best work together, along with revelation, to bring about the eventual societal goal of “one” religion?
¶ Oneness
Have you ever heard the joke about the Buddhist who walks up to the hot dog stand and the vendor asks him, “How can I help you?” And the Buddhist responds: “Make me one with everything!”
Well, that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. We also know that it’s going to take more than just wanting it or willing it to happen. It’s going to take the efforts of everything and everybody who chooses to be part of this incredible opportunity in the experience of becoming one with God.
The whole “one” God at some point in eternity lovingly divested all of himself to his creation. We’re told that the more you move out into space, the more you move away from Paradise, the gulf between matter and spirit widens into a separateness completely divergent of each other. I think that the separateness of things, cultures, races, demarcations of the superuniverses, matter, spirit, are purposely done that way so that we can participate in the experience of bringing it all back together. The eventual true brotherhood/sisterhood of humankind will only come from the experience of acting brotherly/sisterly. It’s the only way we can truly own it! The more we experience in bringing humankind together, the more we grow to love them. The attempted act of loving is the only way we can begin to know love and love can only be further defined for us by the experience of loving greater or loving more of. You just can’t will love to happen. As it is with God, belief in brotherhood can’t supersede the experience of brotherhood.
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. While Jesus has shown the way to the immediate attainment of spiritual brotherhood, the realization of social brotherhood on your world depends much on the achievement of the following personal transformations and planetary adjustments:
- Social fraternity. Multiplication of international and interracial social contacts and fraternal associations through travel, commerce, and competitive play. Development of a common language and the multiplication of multilinguists. The racial and national interchange of students, teachers, industrialists, and religious philosophers.
- Intellectual cross-fertilization. Brotherhood is impossible on a world whose inhabitants are so primitive that they fail to recognize the folly of unmitigated selfishness. There must occur an exchange of national and racial literature. Each race must become familiar with the thought of all races; each nation must know the feelings of all nations. Ignorance breeds suspicion, and suspicion is incompatible with the essential attitude of sympathy and love.
- Ethical awakening. Only ethical consciousness can unmask the immorality of human intolerance and the sinfulness of fratricidal strife. Only a moral conscience can condemn the evils of national envy and racial jealousy. Only moral beings will ever seek for that spiritual insight which is essential to living the golden rule.
- Political wisdom. Emotional maturity is essential to self-control. Only emotional maturity will insure the substitution of international techniques of civilized adjudication for the barbarous arbitrament of war. Wise statesmen will sometime work for the welfare of humanity even while they strive to promote the interest of their national or racial groups. Selfish political sagacity is ultimately suicidal— destructive of all those enduring qualities which insure planetary group survival.
- Spiritual insight. The brotherhood of man is, after all, predicated on the recognition of the fatherhood of God. The quickest way to realize the brotherhood of man on Urantia is to effect the spiritual transformation of present-day humanity. The only technique for accelerating the natural trend of social evolution is that of applying spiritual pressure from above, thus augmenting moral insight while enhancing the soul capacity of every mortal to understand and love every other mortal. Mutual understanding and fraternal love are transcendent civilizers and mighty factors in the world-wide realization of the brotherhood of man. (Emphasis mine) UB 52:6.2-7
So on Urantia today, how do we work with spiritual pressure from above while enhancing the soul capacity to love and understand each other better? Apparently, we will need to embrace the aforementioned personal transformations, multiplication of international contact/commerce, each race and each religion becoming familiar with the thought and feelings of all races and religions. With all the organized religions that we have in the world today, how do we begin to go about making one out of so many? Probably, the common response from most religious communities including our own, would say that the best way we can accomplish such unity is by concentrating on our commonalities. I think there is some truth to that. It does put us on the starting line of getting to know and work more effectively with each other. It gives us a place to begin, but I see just focusing on our commonalities as very limiting. It’s looking at their reality from the limitations of our own perspectives and experiences.
My Dad is now in his mid-80s and he recently met with me to discuss his last will and testament. He also discussed the same topic with my two brothers separately and at different times. When my brothers and I met to discuss the experience that we each had with Dad, we all agreed that the basic facts were the same, but as individuals, we all ended up walking away with very different reactions and perspectives. Initially, I found that interesting, but then again, their relationship with him is much different than mine. It suddenly dawned on me that the best way that I could know more about my Dad is through my brothers. Through them I get a clearer and more objective idea of who he really is. I think it’s the same with God. Even though I’m indwelt and have a personal relationship with God, my understanding of him will always be limited until I can Supremely experience him through the eyes of all of his children.
Obviously, so much of what we know about God is partial and incomplete, but you’d be amazed how much the religions of the world still provide new insights into the reality of possibilities of that faith-child relationship with a Universal Father.
Relying solely on our commonalities in the world’s religions really won’t take us very far in our understanding of each other and their faiths. We’ll eventually need to find out more about what separates us, but how can we objectively begin to see religion through the eyes of others without attaching our own bias and beliefs? Well, it’s probably not possible, but we do need to begin somewhere and what better place to start than the person who is standing right next to you? If we can begin to see God in and through the eyes of others, we’ll not only get to know God better, we’ll have a much better chance at breaking down the walls that separate us. It’s the only way that we can begin to meet people where they truly are.
¶ Working with Revelation
When we look at the success and failure of past revelation we can determine that the Fifth Epochal Revelation alone will hardly bring about one race, language, and/or religion. Dalamatia only lasted 300,000 years and soon digressed following the breakout of rebellion. The Adam and Eve mission essentially failed. Machiventa’s bestowal was an emergency mission. We ended up crucifying our own Creator Son and it seems way too early to predict how far the Urantia Papers will take us. It appears that before we can begin to come close to having one religion, language, etc. it’s going to necessitate some more revelation and more spiritual pressure from above.
The Urantia Book tells us that if we compare ourselves with a normal evolutionary world, we probably come closest to resembling the post Adamic age. “Great ethical advancement characterizes this era; the brotherhood of man is the goal of its society.” UB 52:3.12 Also in the postAdamic age it says that new revelations of truth characterize these ages, and “the Most Highs of the constellations begin to rule in the affairs of men. Truth is revealed up to the administration of the constellations.” UB 52:3.11
Close to the end of the following magisterial age on a normal planet it reads: “There are no race or color problems; literally all nations and races are of one blood. The brotherhood of man flourishes and the nations are learning to live on earth in peace and tranquility. UB 52:4.1 In the post-bestowal Son age it says: “Under the spiritual influence of these ages, human character undergoes tremendous transformations and experiences phenomenal development. It becomes possible to put the golden rule into practical operation.” UB 52:5.8 “There are many nations, mostly determined by land distribution, but only one race, one language, and one religion.” UB 52:5.10 Just now it becomes possible to put the golden rule into practical operation??
¶ In Preparation for The Second Revelation on Urantia, What Had to Happen and/or Be in Place before Adam and Eve Came?
Before Adam and Eve the Life Carriers took note about the races nearing their apex and the Melchizedek’s agreed. Then they requested biological uplifters from the Most Highs. Tabamantia, supervisor of decimal/experimental worlds comes here, inspects, and agrees that it’s time. One hundred years later we get Adam and Eve.
¶ What Had to Happen and/or Be in Place before Michael Came?
Before Michael’s bestowal the Melchizedek receivers and Machiventa saw the spiritual poverty that existed and felt that something had to be done. They knew Michael was coming, but they didn’t know when. So they requested permission from the Most Highs. Their initial plea was dismissed. Machiventa later volunteered, the Salvington authorities gave the go ahead, and then Machiventa had his emergency mission.
What’s so amazing to me is that it’s not like these marching orders came directly to the Life Carriers/ Melchizedek, etc. from a higher authority like the most Highs or even from Michael himself. Nobody came to them saying; “Okay, we think it’s time for an Adamic mission.” It was left up to the local administrators to make the call and to act. Do you see a pattern here? So many of us have said at one time or another “Oh God, please tell me what you want me to do!” The Life Carriers and Machiventa didn’t ask anything of God or Michael. They also didn’t wait to be told. They saw the problem, took responsibility, got permission from a higher authority, and acted.
¶ What Also Had to Be in Place before Michael’s Bestowal?
Monotheism was the common belief. The location was centered in and around Jerusalem. It was the mecca of its day, a centralized city with a good mix of people and the Father idea was already established.
The centralization of the Jewish temple worship at Jerusalem constituted alike the secret of the survival of their monotheism and the promise of the nurture and sending forth to the world of a new and enlarged concept of that one God of all nations and Father of all mortals. . . .
The Jewish people of this time, although under Roman suzerainty, enjoyed a considerable degree of self-government and, remembering the then only recent heroic exploits of deliverance executed by Judas Maccabee and his immediate successors, were vibrant with the expectation of the immediate appearance of a still greater deliverer, the long-expected Messiah. UB 121:2.6-7
In revealing, it’s obvious, God needs us as much as we need him.
Look how the revelators go about revealing. First they learn much about those to whom they are revealing. Do you recall the thousands of years of training seraphim have to go through before they’re permitted to minister alongside a mortal?[1] Adam and Eve spent 15,000 years in the trial and testing physical laboratories on Jerusem, and long before that they had been teachers in the citizenship schools for new arrivals on Jerusem. Look how long it takes a Creator Son before he can meet us where we are. And after all that training, to some degree, he becomes one of us. Even with all those thousands of years of preparation by brilliant beings, nothing can substitute for the experience of learning, loving, and teaching for themselves. I think that we can learn much by the example of our revelators. We, too, need to learn a lot more about whom we are revealing to and then, to some degree, become one of them. The pattern of revelation is reciprocal. It demonstrates that while the revelator is revealing he/she or they, are also being revealed to.
¶ Religion of One
We alone can’t bring about one religion to the planet, but we can help pave the way. We can look to pattern as we lay the fertile ground for future revelation.
Approximately three and a half years ago I found out that I was going to lose my job at CBS. The television show I was working on was about to be cancelled. About six months later, due to finances, home, and work responsibilities, I had to step down as Education Chair of the Fellowship. Shortly after, I received a call from the dean of All Faiths Seminary International, which is an interfaith seminary located in New York, and founded by a Rabbi J. Gelberman. The dean of the seminary, Rev. Dr. David Rothblat told me that I was in the Rabbi’s phone book and they were calling everybody to let people know that he had just passed away. He was 98. I met the Rabbi approximately thirteen years ago while doing some volunteer work with another interfaith organization called The Temple of Understanding. At the time, Rabbi Gelberman suggested that I’d be a good candidate for his seminary. We got together for about an hour or two and discussed it further. I was somewhat intrigued by the curriculum, but my work life took over and that was the last time I saw or spoke with the Rabbi.
After expressing my condolences at the Rabbi’s passing, I asked Rev. Dr. David about the status of the seminary. He said that a new semester was about to begin, and I asked him if he had room for one more. When I was chair of the Education Committee one of the things we had difficulty getting off the ground, was to create a program to help train teachers.[2] I always felt that it was important for students/ teachers of the revelation to study the world’s religions, so I decided to take this opportunity to begin to be what our committee was trying to create. I also felt pretty grounded in my own personal religious experience and thought that it was about time that I got to know more about others. Fast forward to three and a half years later, I’m now an ordained interfaith minister with a Masters of Divinity. I was recently accepted as a member of the executive board of the seminary. I’m involved in local interfaith efforts and sub as a pastor at a local Presbyterian Church. Due to my involvement in the local church I enrolled in their CLP program, (Commissioned Lay Pastor). I continue to take on-line classes from the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary.
I see the value and importance in organizations like the Fellowship, the Foundation and the UAI who are working diligently on various outreach efforts such as book expos and the like. In the years that I served on the Fellowship’s General Council and the Executive Committee I saw that most efforts of dissemination came from the outside-in approach—for example: bumper stickers that read: “You’ve got to read this book,” Urantia Book signs over booths in expos, participating in book fairs, introductory lectures, etc. There have also been great individual and small group outreach efforts, but I’m starting to see strides in the outreach efforts by the inside-out approach. Just like everybody else, we’ve all gone out to become servers/participants in our community, but when asked what motivates me/us (and eventually, you will be asked) I tell them the truth—I’m motivated by what I’ve learned from The Urantia Book. I think we may have reached a point in time where it’s safe to come out of the revelation closet. Teachers and classmates in the seminary, including the seminaries’ board members, local clergy, church members etc., all know that I read The Urantia Book. Three pastors, an interfaith minister, and congregation members come to my home for Urantia Book study group. The inside-out approach has been slow, but effective. Actually, more people have asked me about The Urantia Book in the last three and a half years than they have in the last thirty.
On one Sunday, a Presbyterian pastor began his sermon by saying, “When I get up in the morning, I like to start my day reading from a religious text. Could be the Bible, could be The Urantia Book.” Could have knocked me over with a feather! I was amazed how all this came from my sincere desire to learn and know more about other peoples’ faiths and religious experiences. It was never about promoting The Urantia Book. I had no intention of revealing anything to anyone. I never wanted to put new wine into old wine skins; I was more interested in what went into creating great wine. I was there because I wanted to be revealed to, not the other way around. In the process I discovered that revelation lives in places that I didn’t even know existed. My sincere desire to learn from others taught me a great deal more about how spirit works in and through others. In the same way I learned more about my Dad through my brothers, I learned more about God through the religions of my brothers and sisters.
We will continue to make the mistake of over- or underrevealing if we don’t learn more about the religious experiences and religious backgrounds of our fellows. It takes a lot more than just knowing what they believe in. You need a greater awareness of one’s religious foundation before you can attempt to build on it. It’s also important to keep in mind that the person you’re revealing to has just as much to give you, as you have to give to him or her. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have something more to offer than he does. This attitude can lead to an exaggerated sense of self and easily hinder you from meeting others where they really are. When we meet people where they actually are we can better understand what they really need, instead of giving them what we think they need. Within the act of giving, helping, or teaching, lives the opportunity of new growth. In learning we discover, and isn’t it interesting what follows each new discovery? What follows is the realization of how much more there is yet to learn. Learning more creates the opportunity to give more, and who understood and gave us more than Jesus?
As they thus tarried before embarking on their active public preaching, Jesus and the seven spent two evenings each week at the synagogue in the study of the Hebrew Scriptures. In later years after seasons of intense public work, the apostles looked back upon these four months as the most precious and profitable of all their association with the Master. Jesus taught these men all they could assimilate. He did not make the mistake of overteaching them. He did not precipitate confusion by the presentation of truth too far beyond their capacity to comprehend. UB 137:7.14
One of the best ways we can reveal to others is by becoming one of them just like Melchizedek, Adam and Eve, and Jesus did. Of course it’s a bit different for us, but the principle is the same. In a way, isn’t that what the authors struggled to do with the Urantia Papers—to meet us where we were??
The common people heard Jesus gladly, and they will again respond to the presentation of his sincere human life of consecrated religious motivation if such truths shall again be proclaimed to the world. The people heard him gladly because he was one of them, an unpretentious layman; the world’s greatest religious teacher was indeed a layman. UB 196:1.4
Then the Master proceeded to warn his hearers against entertaining the notion that all olden teaching should be replaced entirely by new doctrines. Said Jesus: “That which is old and also true must abide. Likewise, that which is new but false must be rejected. But that which is new and also true, have the faith and courage to accept. Remember it is written: ‘Forsake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him. As new wine, so is a new friend; if it becomes old, you shall drink it with gladness.’ UB 147:7.3
There is revelation everywhere and you don’t have to dig that far to find it! The world religions continually inspire and motivate. They all ask us to seek God, seek perfection. They all ask us to practice the “golden rule.” They continue to provide the fertile ground for the eventual fruits of future revelation, fertile enough for the Fifth Epochal Revelation to take root. For example:
Did you know that The Sh’ma in Judaism is the key commandment that Jesus built all his teachings from?
“Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart with all your might, with all your soul. And these works, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart that you may remember, do all my commandments and be holy unto your God.[3]
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”[4]
In Hinduism, The way to God through Love- the aim of bhakti yoga is to direct toward God the love that lies at the base of every heart… bhakti yoga has countless followers, being, indeed, the most popular of the four… bhakta will strive not to identify with God, but to adore God with every element of his or her being.[5]
Rabbi J. Gelberman who was also a modern Hassidic Rabbi and a master of the teachings of the Kabbalah wrote a segment in a book that included many other Jewish authors. The book was titled: _Jesus Through Jewish Eye_s. His segment was titled: My friend, Jesus. He wanted to convey that to follow Jesus was to follow God. He wrote, “Don’t follow me—follow God.”
“We have a part of the Messiah in each one of us and we act accordingly by embracing and loving each other. That’s the way of the Messiah. The Messiah could come today. As far as I’m concerned he is here right now. Do you love me? When you look at me what do you see? See the God in each other…most important prayer- See the God within- see the indwelling God.”[6]
“Just as there is fragrance in the flower, and
Reflection in a mirror, so
Similarly God lives within us
Search for Him in your heart!”[7]
Chuang Tzu says, “A man looks upon God as his father, and loves Him in like measure.[8]
Jainism says, “Being eternal themselves, humans can also attain “perfect beingness,” or divinity.”
Did you know that most Catholic scholars believe that Jesus was probably born in August and around 7 to 2 BCE?
Paul experienced the love of Christ and his calling was to share and reveal that love to all. He was all about translation. “To the Jews I became like a Jew in order to win over Jew … to those outside the Law I became like one outside the Law… in order to win over those outside the Law”[9] He had basic Hellenistic rhetorical skills, quoted from the Scripture in Greek and knew Deuterocanonical Books composed or preserved in Greek. His tenaciousness born of love and his knowledge and respect of those he taught are attributes that are as valid today as they were 2000 years ago.
Paul glorified the Son and through his faith in Christ’s love, his singleness of purpose and devotion enabled him to find this new religion of faith, hope, and charity. He obviously personally attained a sublime peace in his religious experience, a stability of faith, which transcended doubt and hostility when he said; “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[10] What an incredible level of faith and trust in God for all of us to aspire towards!
Buddhism is essentially the practice of becoming perfect in and through love. A Buddhist monk once told me, “Stormy seas makes a great sailor.”
The Baha’i faith stresses the importance that one must seek his/or her understanding of reality and respect the efforts of others to do the same. Did you know that they believe that religion evolves? Divine revelation is expected. They believe in true brotherhood, one universal language, one world order, world peace, complete equality between the races and the genders etc.
The Baha’i’s also believe that heaven is the indescribable bliss of closeness to God, harmony with God’s will as revealed by the Manifestations—eternal spiritual life. The closer one is to knowing and loving God, the greater the joy of paradise. Hell is the self-made torture of isolation from God—spiritual death. Unlimited spiritual growth toward perfection continues after death.
The Sufi’s who were alarmed by the worldliness they saw overtaking Islam sought to purify and spiritualize it from within. The external should yield to internals, matter to meaning, the outward symbol to inner reality. “Love the pitcher less,” they cried, “and the water more.”[11]
Did you know that Hinduism’s profusion of gods is just the many faces and roles of the one God?
In Confucianism, “The moral law begins in the relationship between man and woman, but ends in the vast reaches of the universe.”[12] Defining how present actions ripple into a vast universe of infinite possibilities. A stretch further-” The act is ours, the consequences, God’s?” UB 48:7.13
In Taoism—the way of ultimate reality—everything is indwelt. It stresses importance on achieving inner harmony with the ultimate of reality.
I’m only scratching the surface here. Obviously, some theology has become outdated, but it continues to inspire the individual who believes and actively pursues to know Spirit/God in his or her own personal way. In the religions of the world there still exists much that we can learn from and contribute to. My journey through interfaith and the world’s religions has just made it more obvious to me that regardless of one’s faith, one’s religion, background, profession, gender, race, etc., that if you sincerely, if you truly and sincerely seek to know and become more like God, that no matter what the circumstances, it won’t be denied you. Many of our brothers and sisters bear much fruit that has grown and or has originated from a primitive belief. Obviously, the Father responded. So, if the Father is going to respond to the faintest flicker of faith, then shouldn’t we?
Gary Deinstadt has been a student of The Urantia Book since 1982. He is an ordained interfaith minister with a Masters of Divinity. He is also a musician and composer who has received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition in 2007 and 2008. He also received two BMI film and television music awards. More info: http://www.rev.garydeinstadt.com and http://www.garydeinstadt.com
¶ References
- Article obtained from The Fellowship site
¶ Notes
For more information see Paper 38: section 5, paragraphs 1-4 ↩︎
The Fellowship Constitution from 1955 to 2010 required the Education Committee to train teachers and leaders. It has since been changed. ↩︎
Huston Smith, The World’s Religions ↩︎
Rabbi Joseph Gelberman ↩︎
Adi Granth, P. 684 (Sikh scripture) ↩︎
Herbert A. Giles, Confucianism and Its Rivals, p. 134 ↩︎
Huston Smith, Islam, p. 76 ↩︎
Doctrine of the Mean ↩︎