© 1995 Ken Glasziou
© 1995 The Brotherhood of Man Library
| The Urantia Book. Why are some people turned off it and others love it? | Volume 2 - No. 1 — Index | On the Revelatory Status of The Urantia Book |
On arriving on Urantia for the 3rd Epochal Revelation, its purveyor announced, “I am Melchizedek, priest of El Elyon, the Most High, the one and only God.” His mandate—to keep alive the truth of the one God and prepare the way for the bestowal of Michael. (UB 93:3.8)
The purpose of the 4th Epochal Revelation is given to us in many places in The Urantia Book (UB 145:5.7, UB 149:6.7) the supreme purpose being, “never lose sight of the fact that the supreme spiritual purpose of the Michael bestowal was to enhance the revelation of God.” (UB 120:4.4)
We are left in no doubt on how this is to be accomplished, “The nature of God can best be understood by the revelation of the Father which Michael of Nebadon unfolded in his manifold teachings and in his superb mortal life in the flesh.” (UB 2:0.1)
No matter how effective we think the 4th Epochal Revelation may have been, the fact remains that the record available to us in the New Testament is both meagre and flawed. According to a recent study of the three synoptic gospels and the gospel of Thomas, it is doubtful if more than about fifteen percent of the material attributed to Jesus is his actual word—an amount that would be contained in less than ten pages of The Urantia Book. In contrast, the book devotes almost one third of its 2000 pages to the life and teachings of Jesus. Several hundred more pages provide further information that enhances the revelation of the Father. It requires no great feat of logic to postulate that a major purpose of The Urantia Book is to complete the missions of the 3rd and 4th Epochal Revelations.
We will so shortly begin the bold proclamation of a new religion…that makes its chief appeal to the spirit of my Father which resides in the mind of man; a religion which shall derive its authority from the fruits of its acceptance that will so certainly appear in the personal experience of all who really and truly become believers in the truths of this higher spiritual communion. (UB 155:5.12)
Your mission to the world…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. (UB 191:5.3)
All the successful generals of history were keenly aware that to choose a wrong strategy or to divert from the primary aim of a mission is likely to abort its main purpose. So one thing we readers must decide for ourselves is how we, as individuals, might figure in fulfilling the main purpose of the book.
At Pentecost, the mission of spreading Jesus’ teachings about the Father was bestowed upon a handful of his followers. During the next fifty years they were so successful that the mighty Roman Empire actually felt itself threatened by this ragtail band of Jesus’ disciples. Few of them were literate. In any case, they had no written records of the life or teachings of Jesus. How then did they accomplish their task? Perhaps the secret is contained in one of the earliest recorded remarks about them, “See these Christians, how they love one another!”
To what strategy did the early Christians owe their success? At the last supper, Jesus gave his apostles a new commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you. And by this will all men know that you are my disciples.” (UB 180:1.1) Jesus elaborated on this instruction in his farewell discourse—summed briefly as: “Herein is the Father glorified: that the vine has many living branches, and that every branch bears much fruit. And when the world sees these fruit-bearing branches—my friends who love one another, even as I have loved them—all men will know that you are truly my disciples.” (UB 180:2.1) Essentially Jesus told his followers that the message to be spread was his revelation of the nature of the Father and that it would be in and by their lives that this would be achieved.
One of the main hindrances to the spreading of the message of the 3rd and 4th Epochal Revelations was attitudinal. A false strategy lies in the concept that it is a static codification of teachings that needs to be spread rather than the living truth about the nature of God. No matter how long we have been readers of the book, no matter how many times we have read its content, no matter how well we can quote from the book, if people do not perceive that our lives and our purpose in living has been radically changed from our old ways to the new and singular purpose of displaying God’s love in our own lives, then the book tells us that we are as useless branches on the living vine, fit only for pruning. (UB 193:2.2)
There are many different ways that we might perceive the role The Urantia Book should have in the task “of changing the relation of man to God that constitutes the mission of the Son of Man on earth.” (UB 149:6.3). One is that the book, by itself, will do the work. Forty years of experience indicates that this will not be so. So what alternatives are there?
When we first get the book, since its source is from extra-terrestrial beings, many of us soon embrace it as totally divine revelation. And just as the Bible, the Koran, and other ‘holy’ books have been endowed with divine authority by their adherents, so has the divine dictation theory been applied to The Urantia Book in varying degree. That it is revelatory, most readers agree. That it is totally revelatory, the book itself denies. The book contains a considerable amount of what it calls cosmology and it tells us that statements with reference to cosmology are never inspired, with the consequence that the discovery of error therein may lead to the discarding of genuine religious truth. (UB 101:4.2)
Human history demonstrates that fundamentalist attitudes will inevitably develop about any book taken to be divinely authoritarian. It is indeed unfortunate that so many mortals feel the need for total certainty, a creed to believe without question, a set of rules to follow rigorously. Jesus described such people as: “those timid, fearful, and hesitant individuals who will prefer thus to secure their religious consolations, even though, in so casting their lot with the religions of authority, they compromise the sovereignty of personality, debase the dignity of self-respect, and utterly surrender the right to participate in that most thrilling and inspiring of all possible human experiences.” (UB 155:5.10)
When I was young andfree and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country. But it, too, seemed immovable. As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it. And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changed my self first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world.
On the tomb of a bishop (1100 AD) Westminister Abbey.
The fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace. If professed believers bear not these fruits of the divine spirit in their lives, they are dead; the Spirit of Truth is not in them; they are useless branches on the living vine, and they will soon be taken away. My Father requires of the children of faith that they bear much spirit fruit. If, therefore, you are not fruitful, he will dig about your roots and cut away your unfruitful branches. (UB 193:2.2)
The Urantia Book teaches us that: “Uncertainty with security is the essence of the Paradise adventure—uncertainty in time and in mind, uncertainty as to the events of the unfolding Paradise ascent; security in spirit and in eternity, security in the unqualified trust of the creature son in the divine compassion and infinite love of the Universal Father; uncertainty as an inexperienced citizen of the universe; security as an ascending son in the universe mansions of an all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving Father.” (UB 111:7.1)
Throughout his public ministry, Jesus concentrated upon using the best of the Jewish Scriptures, as well as his own original parables. Virtually his whole teaching is contained within this material—and is completely encapsulated within the gospels. Hence the churches do not really need a new book, they need clarification of the message they already have.
In addition, the mainstream churches are not yet prepared for any new book that is presented as a divine revelation. However, the minds of hundreds of millions of individuals among church congregations are ready for the message of Jesus concerning the nature of the Father.
Jesus said: first introduce men to God as their Father. (UB 141:6.2) In part, Christianity has done that. The next step is enlightenment that they are, in reality, sons of God. Only then is it the time to impart instruction having to do with the progressive advancement of the soul within the divine kingdom—a subject that is a revelatory component of the first three parts of The Urantia Book. But this last step is only to be taken when the first two have been completed, and even then, only in response to an inquiry. (UB 141:6.2)
Most of the important misinterpretations of the 4th Epochal Revelation are incompatible with the concept of a gracious, compassionate God whose mercy and love transcends his righteousness as a judge. This concept contains an automatic self-correcting mechanism for virtually all possible error of interpretation.
Jesus told us, “How often have I told you to labor only to put something into these hungry souls? Lead men into the kingdom, and the great and living truths of the kingdom will presently drive out all serious error.” (UB 141:6.2)
Starting from a mere handful, in less than one hundred years, the early Christians radically altered the Roman Empire with the message that Jesus loves us. Their method was simply to live the message.
Since The Urantia Book was released to the general public, maybe there have been about ten thousand readers who have made a total commitment to the propagation of its message. So should we have adopted some similar strategy to the early Christians?
| The Urantia Book. Why are some people turned off it and others love it? | Volume 2 - No. 1 — Index | On the Revelatory Status of The Urantia Book |