© 2021 Urantia Association of Spain
Antonio Moya Cerpa lives in Seville. He is retired and has three children. He has been reading The Urantia Book for 43 years. He was a founding member of the Seville study group and translator of the European edition of The Urantia Book.
¶ 1. How did you get to “The Urantia Book” and why do you think you found it?
It was the book that found me, not I him. He came to meet me. I had done my part of the journey: I had looked everywhere for answers to my questions, I had read many books and magazines on revelations, spiritualism, ufology, contactees, etc. One fine day in 1978, a very investigative friend told me that he had bought The Urantia Book in English, and spent several weeks telling me by phone every morning what he had read the night before. The topic interested me more and more and I finally decided to buy the book. Since I didn’t know enough English to read it in that language, I ordered it in French from its translator, Jacques Weiss, in Paris.
¶ 2. What was your first impression when reading it?
It’s been so long that I barely remember. But right away I noticed or perceived that it was something totally different from everything I had read up to then.
¶ 3. At what point in the reading (document, sentence, etc.) did you accept that “The Urantia Book” is really what it claims to be?
It was a gradual process that took years. I had many ups and downs, many internal doubts between yes and no, many talks with my friend about whether what the book said was true, or whether it was someone’s theories or fantasies. We did not have sufficient evidence or reasons to lean in favor or against. It is a fact that the text was impressive, the reasoning impeccable, the moral teachings exquisite… How could people who said those things be lying or kidding us? It took me time, reading and reflection to convince myself that they were telling the truth.
¶ 4. How has “The Urantia Book” changed your life?
From up to down. There is a before and after of The Urantia Book in my life. My vision of Reality was greatly expanded, and things that until then had been important to me, began to occupy a small place in a corner of this immense new Reality.
¶ 5. Has the faith you had after reading it changed? If so, in what way?
I did not have a definite faith. He was not an unbeliever, but neither was he a devout practitioner of established religion. Therefore, faith as such was acquired and established based on experiences, reflections, study and personal experiences. It was a gradual thing.
¶ 6. Are there any points (or points) of the revelation that you find difficult to accept?
There has been more than one, but they have been diluted with time, lived experience and a broader vision of things. I remember that the sometimes harsh or very harsh qualifiers that the developers used when referring to our world bothered me. I thought they were exaggerating, that they were going too far. But today, with a little more awareness and sensitivity, I realize that the revelators really fell short, and were even soft or benign, in their way of qualifying our world.
¶ 7. What is the part that has most deeply impressed you?
There is more than one thing that has impressed me, but to mention a few, the way in which the revelators explain the beginning and development of Reality, starting from the absolute and infinite I Am. For us, Reality comes from infinity, passes in front of us (that’s where we get on the car) and goes towards infinity. There are many things that amaze me about the Universal Father: God as an engineer and God as an artist (Bill Sadler’s words), as well as God as a father. The two discourses of Jesus on religion are illuminating and impressive. His conferences in Urmia, unmatched. And so on…
¶ 8. How do you understand “doing the will of the Father”?
It is a concept that has taken me several years to understand, to realize. To do the will of the Father is to live in truth, beauty and goodness. The authors say on page 1431: “The will of God is the way of God… Doing the will of God is the progressive experience of becoming more and more like God, and God is the source and destination of all that is good. , beautiful and true. The will of man is the way of man…”. And as I usually say, the path of man has been throughout history an endless bloody war, something nothing worth following.
¶ 9. Have you become aware of the presence of your Adjuster?
Absolutely. My level of evolution is far from that possibility. In my opinion, it is highly unlikely that a human being would ever become aware of their Adjuster’s presence.
¶ 10. Have you tried to put the Master’s teachings into practice? What was the result?
Putting the Master’s teachings into practice is as simple as helping those who need it, showing respect and consideration to everyone, being kind and tolerant of others, being brotherly, and trying not to harm anyone. If you treat others well, what do you think the result can be?
¶ 11. Do you think that “The Urantia Book” has something “mysterious” that makes not everyone decide to read it?
For me, The Urantia Book is the most important work in this world today. There is no other work that equals it, much less that surpasses it. But there is nothing “mysterious” about the book; on the contrary, it unveils and reveals mysteries that up to now humanity has not been able to solve, for example the origin of Reality, the meaning of life, the reason for our existence, etc. If not everyone decides to read this book, it is because those people are on a different wavelength, their current interests are different. Not everyone is equally interested in searching for the Truth, not everyone has a strong curiosity to know the content of this book. Each one of us has a different internal torch, and some burn more, and others less.
¶ 12. Is there anything else you would like to say regarding “The Urantia Book”?
I want to indicate that for me, the book has two readings: an intellectual and a spiritual one. The intellectual is what we do with the mind, looking for information, planets, galaxies, systems, the shape of the universe, historical facts, data, orders of beings, etc. And the spiritual is what we do with our hearts, discovering values, role models, attitudes, morality, behaviors, decisions, etc.
I started (I guess like everyone else) with the first reading, eagerly looking for data and information. And when the mind was more or less satisfied, I inadvertently fell into the second reading, the search for values, behaviors, ethics and morals, faith, choices, decisions, etc.
¶ References
- Article of the Magazine Light and Life Online: https://aue.urantia-association.org/2021/10/29/cuestionario-urantiano-antonio-moya