© 1993 Ken Glasziou
© 1993 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
Ken Glasziou, Queensland
Firstly let me state that I am writing about my pathway — nobody else’s. Jesus said: “When did I teach you that you must all see alike… what I require of you is spiritual unity”. (UB 141:5.1) So I am not about to claim that the ‘teaching mission’, channelling, or any other phenomenon is false. What I really want to say is that even if any such pathway could be shown to be valid, I would still not want to take it. A good reason was given in an earlier Six-O-Six article by Meredith Sprunger who questioned why people would feel a need for channelling guidance when they already have direct personal contact with much higher sources of truth: their Thought Adjuster, the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit.
When considering this matter, it seemed to me that I would have to go right back to basics and first ask myself why God created us mortals at all! Why are we subjected to this strange, initial introduction to our universe careers in an often hostile environment on a material planet? After all, The URANTIA Book tells us that our final goal is to stand as a perfected spirit-being in the presence of the Universal Father. The book also tells us that: “the mistakes which you fail to forget in time will be forgotten in eternity”. (UB 156:5.8) So why do we have to go through this material experience? Why doesn’t our universe career commence in some much more advanced environment even Havona maybe?
Let us try to review our facts. We humans come into this inhospitable world as helpless and totally dependent babes, with minds not all that much more advanced than some of the other animals on Urantia, and with seemingly inferior bodies that appear to be inordinately unsuitable for successful competition in a survival-of-the-fittest kind of environment. Excepting for certain kinds of instinctive knowledge essential to our early survival, at birth our memory banks are completely blank. If we are very lucky, we might be born into a loving and secure family environment where our empty minds would be carefully nurtured and outfitted with a set of values having true spiritual worth. However, this is not so for most of us. Ideally, the values presented to us by the society in which we mature to adulthood should strike a reasonable compromise between our legitimate self-interests and those interests that impinge upon the well-being of that society. But for the majority of Urantia natives reality is to either compete or perish. And so life tends to degenerate into a survival conflict.
Why did our Creator want us to endure this extraordinary state? What alternatives were open to Him to achieve whatever end He has in mind for us? If we question our fellow human beings about the meaning of human life, we will be presented with an incredible set of possibilities ranging from the concept that the whole shemozzle is a meaningless, absurd and pitiless joke, to an equally meaningless one whereby our selfhood is extinguished in the merging of our souls with the Absolute. However, if we choose to believe our URANTIA Books, we will discover that the universe is populated by an enormous range and number of both descending and ascending children of the Universal Father — but that it is only we unfortunate mortals who have been singled out to start life in a competitive environment in which there is no confirmable evidence that our existence is anything other than an extremely unlikely accident, nor is there confirmable evidence that God really exists. Why would God want to do this to us, what and where is the value?
Our study group has flogged this question. The best we came up with is that God has some inexplicable desire to be loved by the likes of us, the most primitive possible form of self-conscious life. Moreover, he desires that we should offer that love on the basis of a purely faith decision made in an adverse environment amplified by uncertainty and our animal instincts for self-preservation and self-gratification. Does that seem unreasonable? Perhaps when we attain his presence in Paradise, we may find out why. Strange as it may seem, the Havona natives actually envy us!
Undoubtedly this conclusion could have been expressed in more elegant language, but the guts of it would have remained the same. Starting from a state of pure ignorance, without any concrete evidence for God’s existence, we are expected to put aside self-interest and to make a free-will commitment to want to be like him. Put in another way, we are required to make a voluntary transition from an initial state of total self-centeredness to a state of total selflessness (no half-measures), on the basis of the flimsiest of evidence that could very well be wrong. What a gamble! No wonder many think we are lunatics!
So what has all this to do with channelling? The crux of the matter is faith. It seems to me that The URANTIA Book (and the Bible) tell me that I have to make my decisions on my own with only a faith belief that my Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth might possibly be helping me. We are told that, as a consequence of rebellion, Urantia is a backward planet with an abnormal and genetically deprived population having limited spiritual capacity. I accept that I am so limited, and know in my heart that I, for one, am a long, long way from close communication with my spirit endowment.
When I think about it, I realise that this apparently disadvantageous situation must have long term benefits for my universe career — otherwise there would be no sense to it. So if there is real value in the mortal situation at all, then the more primitive and backward my condition and environment, and the more I am on my own, then the more opportunity I will have to make those courageous and worthwhile decisions that have the kind of unique and inexplicable cosmic value sufficient to have induced our heavenly Father to put us here in the first place! That surely has to mean we are luckier than those born on a light and life planet where such decision making is bound to be much more restricted. So why should I long for some celestial teacher to tell me what to think and what to do? And for what reason would I want to lessen this once-in-an-eternity opportunity to make my decisions on the basis of an irrational faith?
However There Are Many Pathways That Lead Us Godward, All With The Same destination.
The trigger that initiated these mixed up musings came from a book entitled Understanding the Present by Bryan Appleyard (Pan Books, London, 1992). He states: “For what does faith mean? Clearly it cannot mean being rationally persuaded of something. If we had reason for faith, then it would not be faith at all, it would be logic. Faith can only be unreasonable”. At first I wanted to argue with that statement but when I boiled it down, I had to acknowledge that a faith decision is one for which there is no hard evidence. Hence it can only be an unsubstantiated hypothesis. There is no way round that conclusion.
The URANTIA Book has lots to say about the necessity to enter the kingdom by faith.
“John came preaching repentance to prepare for the kingdom, now have I come proclaiming faith, the gift of God.” (UB 137:8.17)
“The right to enter the kingdom is conditioned by faith, personal belief.” (UB 140:8.28)
“By faith, recognize the indwelling spirit of God whose acceptance makes you a son of God.” (UB 150:5.2)
“Salvation is by the regeneration of the spirit and not by self-righteous deeds of the flesh. You are justified by faith and fellowshipped by grace.” (UB 143:2.6)
“Salvation is the gift of the Father and is revealed by his Sons. Acceptance by faith on your part makes you a partaker of the divine nature, a son or a daughter of God. By faith you are justified; by faith are you saved; and by this same faith are you eternally advanced in the way of progressive and divine perfection.” (UB 150:5.3)
There’s lots, lots more on faith in the book, but I like this one:
“There is but one struggle for those who enter the kingdom, and that is to fight the good fight of faith. The believer has only one battle, and that is against doubt — unbelief.” (UB 159:3.8)
Two others that I cannot omit are:
“Now, mistake not my Father will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith.” (UB 155:6.17) …and one that happened during the crucifixion: “When the malefactor saw the face of Jesus turned toward him, he mustered up his courage, fanned the flickering flame of his faith, and said, ‘Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom?’” (UB 187:4.1)
And he made it! Can we have any doubt that our heavenly Father really does want us to make a blind faith decision to adopt his goodness as the goal of our life mission?
Following the crucifixion, the resurrected Jesus made an interesting comment to a gathering of believers at Tyre. He said:
“You rejoice that the Son of Man has risen from the dead because you thereby know that you and your brethren shall also survive mortal death. But such survival is dependent on your having first been previously bom of the spirit of truth-seeking and God finding.” (UB 193:2.2)
…which is, of course, the result of a faith decision. So actually being present to witness the appearance of the resurrected body of Jesus, and to hear (and know) his voice, had no survival value unless a faith decision had already been made. So I ask myself what value can there be in the hearing of voices of celestial teachers in circumstances when even the appearance of Jesus himself would have none?
I make no judgement on the value or validity of the so-called Teaching Mission. I have little doubt that it is bringing many to become believers who might otherwise not have done so. It also appears to be of help for some in making the transition from an intellectual understanding of The URANTIA Book to an actualization of its teachings in their very being. I have no argument against that. But I have read transcripts and I think that I have detected a yearning to be told what to do.
Also I have listened to tapes and have heard participants asking teachers to make decisions for them. I do not think that is what I should do. It seems to me that I would be devaluing God’s injunction that I fight the good fight of faith — a faith the value of which is heightened the more adverse the circumstances of its genesis. However there are many pathways that lead us Godward, all with the same destination. It behooves us to wish one another love and bon voyage as you take your path and I take mine.
I leave you with this thought:
“I have called upon you to be born again, to be born of the spirit. I have called you out of the darkness of authority and the lethargy of tradition into the transcendent light of the realization of the possibility of making for yourselves the greatest discovery possible for the human soul to make-the supernal experience of finding God for yourself, in yourself, and of yourself, and of doing all this as a fact in your own personal experience.” (UB 155:6.3)