© 2000 Jeffrey Wattles
© 2000 International Urantia Association (IUA)
| You say: The fifth epochal revelation | Journal — December 2000 — Index | The Importance of Worship and Prayer |
Jeffrey Wattles
Stowe, Ohio, USA
Booklet 195 gives clear indications for the reorganization of the world. First of all, new teachers of the religion of Jesus exclusively dedicated to the spiritual regeneration of humanity are indispensable, who by triggering a spiritual renaissance will bring forth leaders for social, economic and political restructuring. Therefore, while taking advantage of opportunities by sharing ideas on all kinds of topics with selected individuals who are ready to use them, for us the first priority will be to convey a spiritual message.
What message should we bring? The answer is not as obvious as it seems, because the message adapts to the needs of the moment. We are told that for each generation the Spirit of Truth formulates anew the message of Jesus to effectively resolve our varied and constantly renewed spiritual difficulties [UB 194:2.1]. What are these difficulties, and how is the Spirit of Truth rephrasing the message today? I only have the beginnings of an answer, but I believe we can learn a lot about today’s needs from the book itself.
It is easy to make a list of the problems facing people today. It takes work to discern the spiritual difficulties implicit in these problems and to think about the pathways leading to these spiritual difficulties in relation to the teachings of Jesus.
Here is a method for updating a spiritual message:
In what follows, I will focus on how The Urantia Book helps us discern contemporary spiritual difficulties.
Note that you cannot judge your accuracy in discerning spiritual needs by the apparent success of your message. The parable of the sower demonstrates this to us. What people like, respond to, and accept may or may not be the same as what they need. On and after the day of Pentecost, Peter proclaimed the resurrection of the crucified Savior, and won thousands of souls for the evil gospel. But during the first millennia of the Planetary Prince, the staff of the college of revealed religion selected the core message that was most useful and chose the patient work of substituting fear of the Creator with fear of ghosts while proclaiming the gospel of personal initiative.
There are spiritual difficulties in social, economic and political problems. In the chapter entitled “The Post-Bestowal Age on Urantia”, we are told that the realization of social brotherhood depends on various personal transformations as well as planetary adjustments in social brotherhood, in cross-fertilization of thought, in awakening ethics, political wisdom and spiritual insight (UB 52:6.1-8). In particular, social fraternity is handicapped by ignorance, lack of interaction and impatience. Does Jesus’ message implicitly address these issues? Of course he does. When you see ignorance, lack of interaction, and impatience in yourself and others, you can pray to cooperate with and when the Spirit of Truth ministers to these problems, prompting social action and a clear vision of the future of the kingdom of heaven.
Another social, economic and political problem is that posed by those who do not have capital and always expect to be fed by those who do [UB 52:6.1]. Note that there is an implicit spiritual difficulty here. Jesus met people with radiant faith strengthening their souls, enabling them to solve their problems. In past generations, the vigor of Jesus’ life and teachings were much better understood than today. Our path is clear. One of the difficulties we face today is that people lack religious teachers with an infectious religious faith.
Not having a general spiritual vision for men and women of all races, we are incapable of intelligently confronting both the complementarities and the differences between groups of individuals, and we forcefully convey the message of equality through the channels of politicized social science and through a rhetoric of diversity which mixes legitimate ethical relationships with the refusal to face the facts.
The modern world needs leaders and people who can work as a team; but leadership requires an exercise of fatherly love and teamwork requires an exercise of brotherly love, while both are an outline of the beatitudes of Jesus. The modern family is faltering, but the proclamation of the universal family will help us much more than we think.
We face the challenge of an aging population that needs neither neglect nor pity. Jesus showed that the manner of death can lead others into the kingdom.
Today we have to face ethical problems. Our society totters by our guilt which tolerates science without idealism, politics without principles, fortune without work, pleasure without restraint, knowledge without character, power without conscience and industry without morality [UB 195:10.20]. And our generation is showing itself with new intolerable behaviors. We must learn the wise, constructive and effective exercise of intolerance.
Moral and ethical issues have philosophical and spiritual roots. The fallacy thrives in today’s climate of relativism — the belief that in serious issues there is no truth, just opinion. You have your opinion, I have mine, and so everyone should be free to act according to their point of view. Today we see the promulgation of brazen, aggressive, well-funded follies coupled with intelligent arguments that raise serious questions for those who have the responsibility to uphold the path of wisdom. It is easier to attack than to defend, and there are limits to anyone’s ability to prove a point of view. There is thus a need for specialists in the various fields where expertise is required to respond to the incessant fallacies.
Society reels from our guilt in tolerating seriously harmful conduct, in part because of the confusion of applying love and mercy to such conduct. There is little religious teaching around Jesus’ words “Judge not.” There is a lack of intellectual clarity in making distinctions and a lack of moral courage in speaking clearly on subjects with which we are familiar. However, once we realize our guilt, we can repent and find rehabilitation in the circuits of love, in our family of the Father. Then we can use spiritual power to break down all material resistance to do our Father’s will.
The core of Jesus’ message has not become obsolete as a result of developments since the time of the Urantia Papers. On the contemporary scene, from my limited perspective, planetary religion places increased emphasis on conservative doctrine, ritual, and political involvement. Judaism has not recovered from the Holocaust; Islam is only slowly developing liberal options. Paganism grows and the more atheistic currents of Buddhism attract researchers today. Mysticism and reincarnation penetrate New Age religion. Nearly 60% of scientists are atheists, and theological leaders working to integrate science and religion are abandoning the promise of eternal life. “The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man” is no longer a popular slogan. Many liberals have been persuaded by the diabolical scam proclaiming that the fatherhood of God is unfair to women. Many conservatives worry that proclaiming the brotherhood of man undermines the importance of saving faith. Many men and women have a deep need to hear about God’s motherly love. We will bring our ministry to the spiritual difficulties involved in these matters. In a civilization hypersensitive to the real or imagined implications of language, we will live and speak in a way that frees the prisoners of culture, criticism and suspicion. We will boldly proclaim the name of the God we have chosen, while respecting the freedom of each person to choose the name symbolizing their own spiritual relationship. In teaching about the universal family of God, we will sometimes choose to use traditional terminology, in other cases new terminology. As students of complex revelation, we will overcome the temptation to overanalyze the truth or become paralyzed, waiting for someone else to rise up with courage and clarity to teach the simplicity of the gospel to a culture in crisis . Self-awareness, the theological burden, apologetic speech are not a proclamation at all. We will find wisdom, patience, and spiritual tenacity to persist in this gospel. We can at least pray for these eventualities.
I asked the students in my World Religions class, their 15-day study project on Buddhism, to practice compassion for all beings and to select the most appropriate passages from the Buddhist writings they were reading, way of writing a short and inspired speech. They had to be led to think about a particular group of beings to whom they wanted to address, and they had to be led to think about their best understanding of the spiritual difficulties their group was facing. Here are the spiritual challenges he identified:
And now you wonder. What are the avenues of loving understanding and merciful proclamation by which the Spirit of Truth ministers to these difficulties? What are the useful meanings in the concept of the Fatherhood of God? Jesus’ teachings on the Fatherhood of God highlight the closeness and ease we have of “experiencing” our Father. Even the revelation of the spirit within us results in practical terms in the assurance that we can experience God. What meanings are applicable in the concept of the brotherhood of man? One of the most important meanings is that there is a worldwide network of people who love and care. And of course there are many teachings added to the core concepts of the gospel.
I would love the opportunity to tell many of the life-affirming stories that resulted when these students went out to show compassion by living with humanity. Here is just one example: “I had gone to great lengths to treat [a student sister who had moved into our house and who was very distant from all of us, and rather snotty] as if she was one of my best friends. It didn’t take long for her to react. This weekend she made us cakes and left them in the kitchen for us to eat.”
They are not students of the Urantia Book. They are ordinary men and women, most under the age of twenty, enrolled at a major state university. The more I ask people to put their revealed method of teaching into practice, the better results I see.
(If you want to know more about what we do go to http://webct.kent.edu/ then click on the courses offered, spring 2000, PHIL 21020- Comparative Religious Thought I, and enter and use “JHW” as login and “guest” as password.)
Jesus taught that the persistent preaching of this gospel of the kingdom would one day bring to all nations new and incredible liberation, intellectual freedom and religious liberation [UB 178:1.9]. I have listened to prominent leaders deny that preaching is a valid means of communication for today’s readers. I used to correspond with Hindus who went by bicycle with their whole family on Sunday afternoons to visit the inhabitants of neighboring villages to bring them a message of the gospel. When desire is supreme we find a way. When the desire is not supreme, the difficulties are overwhelming. As we dream of ministering to the spiritual difficulties of others, let us not forget to face our own. When we look for the new and greater John the Baptist to guide us and we hope for a new and greater Gautama to awaken India, why don’t we ourselves try to be a new and greater Deborah or a Malachi or a Habbakuk? Living prophets, forward!
| You say: The fifth epochal revelation | Journal — December 2000 — Index | The Importance of Worship and Prayer |