© 2003 Ken Glasziou
© 2003 The Brotherhood of Man Library
“All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.” (UB 94:12.7)
“Is it I Lord? Are you really waiting upon such as me? Is that really why I have the Urantia Book. And surely it cannot be true that we Urantia Book readers are expected to carry your message to intolerant, unreceptive, backward people whose minds are closed to any message but their own?”
But what of all those exciting concepts about us book readers? Are we not a very special emergency group chosen to be transferred to some new planet when these ‘other people’ have made this one uninhabitable? Or are we not a special gene pool chosen to be the survivors of an atomic holocaust to found a new and superior race? And are we not all elite members of the Reserve Corps of Destiny?
And what of all those UFO’s specially prepared for us? Was that just a rumor? Is our destiny simply to be here, living a mundane life in your image to demonstrate goodness to people who wont listen? Surely there must be something better for special people like us to do?
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your self esteem, the answer is, “Precisely my son! You can find it in the book if you take the trouble to look”
It is easier to fight or one’s principles than to live up to them.
Alfred Adler
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
William Cowper
It will be interesting to watch developments in countries such as in the South Americas among those who have only recently been able to read the book in their own language. Will they make the same mistakes? Or will they be better suited for the task set for us? The book says:
“The living Jesus is the only hope of a possible unification of Christianity. The true church–the Jesus brotherhood–is invisible, spiritual, and is characterized by unity, not necessarily by uniformity.” (UB 195:10.11)
For goodness sake–how is the Urantia movement ever going to demonstrate unity to a disunited Christian church. Maybe we are an improvement–we only persecute and sue those who do not obey. We do not burn them at the stake. Not yet anyhow. But what if it was legal??
It’s time for a mood change: “Jesus never faltered in his faith. He was immune to disappointment and impervious to persecution. He was untouched by apparent failure.” So let’s be positive and discover our real task.
“Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I lived a God-revealing life among you; on the truth that you and all other men are the sons of God; and it shall consist in the life which you will live among men–the actual and living experience of loving men and serving them, even as I have loved and served you. Let faith reveal your light to the world; let the revelation of truth open the eyes blinded by tradition; let your loving service effectually destroy the prejudice engendered by ignorance. By so drawing close to your fellow men in understanding sympathy and with unselfish devotion, you will lead them into a saving knowledge of the Father’s love.” (UB 191:5.3)
The detail of Jesus’ God-revealing life is supplied in Part 4. The revelators tell us it is important–in fact there is nothing in this whole world of more value. “To ‘follow Jesus’ means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master’s life of unselfish service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.” (UB 196:1.3)
How can we make a start on this mission that has been allocated to us. We cannot take over the Christian churches, we cannot sack their clergy, and telling them where they are wrong will only breed defensiveness and retaliation. There are some timely warnings in the book about past happenings that still apply to day.
One was the failure of the Melchizedek missionaries. “Melchizedek had warned his followers to teach about the one God, the Father and Maker of all, and to preach only the gospel of divine favor through faith alone. But it has often been the error of the teachers of new truth to attempt too much, to attempt to supplant slow evolution by sudden revolution.” (UB 95:1.8)
Another concerned the incredible Ikhnaton of Egyptian history: “The weakness of Ikhnaton’s doctrine lay in the fact that he proposed such an advanced religion that only the educated Egyptians could fully comprehend his teachings.” (UB 95:5.12)
The religion of The Urantia Book is by far the most advanced that has ever been available to us. It is far too advanced for the vast majority of people on Earth. So what can we do? First recognize the Melchizedek missionaries’ mistake–they tried for too much, too quickly. Then recognize Ikhnaton’s mistake–and keep it simple.
And even the most solid of things and the most real, the best-loved and the well-known, are only hand-shadows on the wall. Empty space and points of light.
Jeanette Winterson
To commence our mission, besides our actual life in the imitation of Jesus that we ourselves must lead, two things only are essential. The first is to help people understand that the Spirit of the Father really does indwell us as our helper and guide–and seeks a personal relationship with each individual. The second is that the external expression of our religious belief must come through our service to the eternal (rather than immediate) welfare of our brothers and sisters.
But how? For the first thirty five years of his life, Jesus solved this problem, not through organized group service, or by addressing crowds, but by serving “as he passed by.” Once when asked why he had not become a public teacher, he responded that he was on his way to Rome and that was enough for the day. “My tomorrow is wholly in the hands of my Father in heaven,” he said. Only after he became aware of his divinity did Jesus embark upon a teaching mission to the multitudes.
If we are to follow Jesus then, for the main part, our service must be quietly inconspicuous, on a personal and individual basis, and wholly in the hands of our indwelling Father-Spirit.
Nor is it essential that we should be seeking to promote The Urantia Book. The simple message that God is our Father, that we are all his children, and that God is to be found within ourselves is all that is really necessary.
There are many verses in the New Testament that tell of God’s indwelling. A few are appended.
“Surely you know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells within you.” (1 Cor. 3:16)
“If we love one another, God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12)
“But you live not in the flesh but in the spirit if it so be that God dwells in you.” (Romans 8:9)