© 2003 Meredith Sprunger
© 2003 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
It appears that the Urantia movement is emerging from its initial struggle for identity and is now in a posture that will continue for some time. Virtually gone are the flurry of lawsuits over the right to control the use and publication of The Urantia Book with the Appeals Court affirming that the book is now in the public domain (pending the Foundation’s attempt to have the case heard in the Supreme Court).
The Urantia Book Fellowship and the International Urantia Association are the products of the Foundation and Brotherhood schism and will continue their separate agendas of fellowship and promotion of The Urantia Book. Since both of these organizations claim not to minister to the spiritual needs of people as do Christian churches, The Spiritual Fellowship (TSF) is in the process of organizing to serve such spiritual needs from birth to death. TSF is probably the first of many such religious organizations that will be inspired by the Fifth Epochal Revelation. It is probably good that these different types of organizations are evolving in the Urantia movement as this establishes different foundations for outreach activities. Although historically new spiritual paradigms have always been carried to the grass roots of society by some kind of religious organization, the Fifth Epochal Revelation may also use educational-social organizations to make its way in our world.
My guess is that we will see very slow progress in the acceptance of the teachings of the Urantia Papers for decades. Spiritual progress is measured more by centuries than by generations. Someday in future centuries people will look back to those of us living in the first generation of the Fifth Epochal Revelation and shake their heads at the blindness and indifference of our generation much as we now wonder about the leaders of Judaism in Jesus’ day.
We are most fortunate to be living at a time and in a nation where freedom of speech and opinion is recognized. It is a joy to be planting seed-concepts that will eventually transform our society. We are on our way to initiating thousands of study groups and religious organizations that will bring the Fifth Epochal Revelation to our spiritually handicapped planet.
Providence functions to assure the welfare of our total civilization and culture. Our world is in danger when it is dominated either by spiritual stagnation (the lack of evolutionary growth) or when it is catapulted into over rapid, nonevolutionary growth. Spiritual stagnation is stimulated by prophetic insight and new epochal revelation. Over rapid growth is guarded against by the tenacity of traditional power structures and the restraints of universe mechanisms.
Some of us that have been inspired by the Fifth Epochal Revelation have been motivated to initiate vigorous outreach programs. Over forty years of experience suggests that providence may be operating through both universe mechanisms and traditional religious power structures to assure an evolutionary growth into the new spiritual paradigm of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. Evolutionary growth is measured in centuries.
The Urantia Papers will probably make their way into our culture over the decades largely by the promotion of ordinary lay people. This slow evolutionary outreach may be stimulated by traditional religious fundamentalists denouncing the Papers and the development of new religious organizations.
Eventually, the leaders of Christianity and the various other world religions will discover the theocentric cosmology of the universe of universes and gradually a world wide ecumenical religious vision will enrich our planet with the unique contributions of all religions and people.
Official charges of heresy have been filed against C. Joseph Sprague, United Methodist bishop of Chicago accusing him of abandoning some Christian doctrines. On the basis of a speech he gave at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and in a book, Affirmations of a Dissenter, Bishop Sprague is asked to renounce his views or resign his office.
Sprague does not accept the virgin birth of Jesus. Noting that this doctrine is not found in the gospels of Mark and John, he says, “this powerful myth was not intended as historical fact, but was employed by Matthew and Luke in different ways to point poetically to the truth about Jesus as experienced in the emerging church.” Regarding the resurrection of Jesus, he says, “I believe in the resurrection of Jesus, but I cannot affirm that his resurrection involved the resurrection of his physical body.”
Bishop Sprague does not believe in the exclusive role of Jesus in salvation. He declares, “God was uniquely and normatively revealed in Jesus of Nazareth … [but] I must dissent from Christocentric exclusiveness which holds that Jesus is the only way to God’s gift of salvation. Such an arrogant claim … limits God in ways that humans cannot.” He also rejects the blood atonement theory of salvation. Sprague views “the concept of blood sacrifice to appease God as superstition at best.”
These views of Bishop Sprague are harmonious with those of the Urantia Papers. This theological position along with views of others like John Selby Spong of the Episcopal Church may help to create a background of Christian theology that will someday help Christian leaders accept the teachings of The Urantia Book.
The Urantia Papers, I believe, have established a conceptual view of religion that is basically compatible with practically all of the living religions of the world. The religion of Jesus, the Fatherhood of God and the brother/sisterhood of all people, is affirmed by the majority view of all of the people of the world.
There are signs that we are moving in this direction. The major obstacles to harmonious relationships among religions are the fundamentalist positions of some of the leaders of world religions. Professor Charles Kimball in his book, When Religions Become Evil, presents evidence that religion loses authentic spirituality when religion claims: (1) Absolute truth, (2) Demands absolute obedience, (3) Establishes time predictions and outcomes, (4) Believes the end justifies the means, and (5) When it declares a holy war.
Gradually, the people of the world will learn to recognize and reject these forms of fundamentalism. The insightful and balanced leaders of the world’s religions are beginning to dialogue with each other. More and more theologians are viewing the pluralistic foundations of religion. John Hick calls for a Copernican revolution in theological thinking and develops a theocentric position in his book God Has Many Names. Wilfred C. Smith in Toward a World Theology and Harvey Cox in Many Mansions call for an ecumenical, pluralistic approach to religion. Diana L. Eck in her book A New Religious America points out that the United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world. The beginnings of this movement toward a world religion could begin here in the “melting pot” of racial, ethnic, and religious peoples of the world.
Dr. Meredith J. Sprunger is Chairman of The Spiritual Fellowship and is > Founder and Editor Emeritus of The Spiritual Fellowship Journal. He lives > in Fort Wayne, Indiana with his wife, Irene. Dr. Sprunger can be reached > at: