© 1991 Helena E. Sprague
© 1991 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
This feature is written by laypersons active in their church-
Polls and opinions indicate that there is a surge of religious interest in the country, yet the support for some churches is faltering. Many that are thriving have found that constructive self-examination can lead to more satisfying experience for individuals and more effective service to the faith community. The Urantia Book offers a relevant evaluative tool, as well as an intriguing and credible approach to new frontiers of spiritual understanding.
The role of the church can be defined in different ways. If religion is a personal experience and if the mission of any religious group is to nurture the unique spiritual journey of each individual within it, then valid self-evaluation first asks how effective that nurturance is. There is nothing unusual about doubt and confusion regarding God and the universe; there is nothing new in personal struggles with death, loneliness, fear, wounded self-esteem, and moral and ethical pressures, although these may be especially difficult in a materialistic, secular society with a fast and impersonal life style. What is new is a resource which reasonably and effectively addresses all of these!
In its remarkable diversity, The Urantia Book helps to bring ageless truths into a contemporary setting. Its insights cover many areas vital to the church, among them:
The earnest seeker asks: “How can I know God? What is spirit? Are angels real? Who is Jesus for me? What am I doing here? Where am I going? If there is eternal life, what survives?” The Bible’s priceless guidance for these concerns is broad in application and relatively brief. The Urantia Book addresses them in detail and in a manner which is consistent with late 20th century developments in science, philosophy, and religion.
Jesus skillfully taught at the level of his listeners, who were newcomers to the idea that the “spirit within” is the spark of God residing in each human mind — eternal, close, noncoercive, loving. Urantia Book readers often say that, after the life and teachings of the Son of Man, the description of the origin, nature, function, and destiny of this God-fragment within us is the most valuable section.
The book recounts the “ordinary” experience of Jesus’ “hidden years,” his family, education, friendships, and work. These specifics bring inspiration and comfort by describing how he faced struggles, disappointments, and death with forgiveness and the overriding joy of complete faith in his Father.
Herman Fiefel in New Meanings of Death remarks, “…one wonders whether, in the last analysis, it is only a compelling
The Spiritual Fellowship Journal vision of man and his role in the universe which can prepare us to face the certainty of death and its sequelae.“ Readers of The Urantia Book who declare, ”It has changed my life," will most often mention its clear, logical, and compelling vision of death as a transition to another level of reality, a step in the experience of an enduring human personality finding God. We elect this journey through our lifelong choices, free will decisions to seek to do his will; we take along our values and relationships. God accompanies us with his spirit and surrounds each of us with forces and celestial personalities to teach, guide, and comfort. As a truly loving parent, he does not indulge or punish, but envelopes us all with affection as we grow in our grasp of his teachings and the strength of our faith.
The church is reminded that its mission can be crippled by rigidity and over emphasis on organization. The kingdom of heaven that Jesus taught is the unseen, within-the-heart, borderless fellowship of all believers in the Fatherhood of God, the kinship of humankind, and the survival of personality in a friendly universe. A religious organization is a visible, social community of believers. Within it Jesus “would teach how to perfect your inner spiritual life so as to render you manyfold more competent to attack the solution of your purely human problems.” (UB 140:8.17)
The Urantia Book demonstrates that genuine revelation is possible in these times without ecclesiastical authority, ego, publicity, power, profit or “proof” in phenomena. It makes understandable much which has been abstract, elusive, and mysterious; it fills gaps in the records and offers reasonable cause to reinterpret or discard some of them. There is practical guidance for living with the problems of rich and poor, selfaggrandizement, family and parenting, personal and political violence. There are plausible explanations of humankind’s origin, the role of this planet and our ultimate destiny, and the world’s present disorder and confusion. The incarnation of a Son of God is set within a cosmic context consistent with our space age, comforting each person by bringing a new intimacy with Jesus as a divine being who lived a fully human life.
How ministers may choose to open the way for The Urantia Book to contribute to the church depends on the readiness of the congregation. They could adapt concepts into sermons and counseling, mention the book as a reference, suggest it as an aid to Bible study, lend it, encourage groups to read and discuss it, and welcome the readers who arrive with it. (There are many who are active in their churches.)
While disclaiming infallibility or finality, The Urantia Book presents a milestone in the intellectual and spiritual evolution of the planet. This remarkable resource can help to deepen our personal faith in the degree to which it is woven into our lives by solitary search, in study groups, or in any church which earnestly and flexibly undertakes to nurture faith as a developmental task.