© 2001 Jeanmarie Chaise
© 2001 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| Anova (Part One) | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 19 — Autumn 2001 | The Supreme, God the Sevenfold, Forces, Energies and Universal Control of Power: 100 Questions and Answers (1) |
Mortal man may draw near God and may repeatedly forsake the divine will so long as the power of choice remains. Man’s final doom is not sealed until he has lost the power to choose the Father’s will. There is never a closure of the Father’s heart to the need and the petition of his children. Only do his offspring close their hearts forever to the Father’s drawing power when they finally and forever lose the desire to do his divine will—to know him and to be like him. Likewise is man’s eternal destiny assured when Adjuster fusion proclaims to the universe that such an ascender has made the final and irrevocable choice to live the Father’s will. (UB 5:1.11)
Before learning of the Revelation, did we know that we had the choice between doing the will of God or rejecting this divine proposition? Yes, we knew it more or less, but to a certain extent we could refuse to believe it or even simply refuse to think about it. Those who are unaware of the existence of The Urantia Book are in that state where innocence is a temporary protection, a blind way of deferring the choice. But the Revelation opens the eyes of consciousness, and we become more and more eager to know as we no longer fear learning too much. It is the awakening of consciousness, the awakening of real faith, that state in which “the mind must find itself in that embarrassing situation where it always knows less than it can believe.”
We must therefore consider the irremediable nature of choice, in the sense of the Father’s will or in the sense of refusal. Our destiny is sealed from the moment we lose our power of choice. The power of choice therefore only exists as long as we do not have all the cards in hand and as long as we have not perfectly studied what we can do with them. The Power to choose only exists in time in a state of latency and as long as we are not in the presence of the choice itself. Because when the moment to choose comes, it is the sign that we have acquired all the knowledge necessary to do so. There is no longer time, therefore, to procrastinate, the two paths are before us, the living path of the Father or the path of non-existence.
The choice is to lose or not to lose the desire to accomplish the will of the Father and thus to not go or to go on the path that he has traced for us. But to lose or not to lose this desire, we must first become aware of the realities that are subject to our thirst for learning. These are provided to us in abundance in The Urantia Book. We can carefully study and assimilate them or consider them only very superficially. We can also grant only a certain importance to certain aspects of the Revelation and neglect all the other aspects, which is what happens far too often, no doubt, so lazy and fond are we of satisfying only our own inclinations, our own curiosities. This is not an attitude very in keeping with the spirit of the Revelation. Indeed, what would a generous host say of his guest who found that the various dishes he had affectionately prepared were not given equal honor? Thus our choice must necessarily be based on a global, synthetic knowledge of the realities offered to us, and we cannot ignore any knowledge that comes to us through a Revelation such as that of The Urantia Book. “There is always a danger, we are told, of succumbing to the error of having a restricted point of view, of succumbing to the evil inherent in a fragmentary conception of reality and divinity.” (UB 19:1.4) But in order not to succumb to the error of a restricted point of view, we must broaden the latter to the conceptual dimensions offered to us. This proposition is therefore a request amicably enjoining us to overcome our difficulties of understanding. In short, we must study the Revelation from one end to the other, because it forms a synthesis - an origin, a history and a purpose - inscribed in the divine project concerning us.
What are our resources to do this? I think we must answer this question by saying that we have everything we need to have as long as we use each of our common attributes. We have the data of the mind supported by the adequate physiological data. We have thought, we have speech. And this speech and this thought, if they are not innate, are at least potentially present from birth, and even a little before. Personality is cast in matter. From the embryo it is embryonic, from the fetus it is fetal, from birth it is present with all its potential of will which is inherent to it.
So, from the beginning, we are in a state of latency. The decision is up to us, but with full knowledge of the facts. And it is this knowledge of the facts that is the problem. The first requirement is to inform ourselves, while knowing that it is from this information that we will have to decide for or against the way of the Father. If we are afraid of this choice, let us postpone the deadline, let us not study the Revelation that The Urantia Book brings us, because it is an advance in knowledge that is very likely to quickly overtake us. Similarly, if we feel that our fellow travelers are not ready to receive such a wealth of information, let us not put them in danger by showing them the way. Are we not told, in fact, that the Revelation is a substitute for mota? Do we not feel that collectively the state of our world is still material, and that individually and for the vast majority of individuals on the planet, the study of our advancement on the path of wisdom is to be postponed?
So, should we disseminate the knowledge of The Urantia Book, at the risk of copying by this method so many ways of acting that have practically always failed in a sectarianism of bad alloy or should we let it be and be content to make available to authentic seekers of truth the bookish source of the fifth Revelation? Should we engage in commercial proselytism in the manner of the current globalizing system or simply let only souls in search of universal realities come to the truth? What does our current status impose on us? Here again the answer is given to us. We are told: “We can grasp the true perspective of any problem of reality - human or divine, terrestrial or cosmic - only by the study and the complete and unprejudiced correlation of three phases of universal reality: origin, history and destiny. The correct understanding of these three experiential realities provides the necessary basis for a wise assessment of the present status.” (UB 19:1.6)
If our time has come, if it is our moment to choose, let us choose. Otherwise, in any case, we will all soon find ourselves on the road to Paradise.
Jeanmarie Chair
| Anova (Part One) | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 19 — Autumn 2001 | The Supreme, God the Sevenfold, Forces, Energies and Universal Control of Power: 100 Questions and Answers (1) |