© 2003 Meredith Sprunger
© 2003 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
When The Urantia Book was published in 1955 many of the people in the Forum expected that it would bring dramatic events in our society. After nearly a half century of experience, we realize that the Fifth Epochal Revelation will follow the slow dynamics of evolutionary change very similar to the influence of the Life and Teachings of Jesus. Rodney Stark in The Rise of Christianity observes that there was a very small Christian population in the first two centuries. Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions documents this same slow development of scientific change.
There are many signs of preparation for religious change. Lonnie D. Kliever in The Shattered Spectrum observes that there is no unity in contemporary theology and suggests there will be radical changes in the future. Bishop John Shelby Spong declares that “Christianity must change or die.” Diana Eck describes A New Religious America and numerous theologians are observing that Christianity in the future will be radically different than it is today.
The Spiritual Fellowship appears to be the first of what will no doubt be many religious organizations stemming out of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. But these new religious organizations will be decades in developing and probably a century before they become a major influence in our society. For the foreseeable future our activity will be a minor influence at the grass roots of society. We do have the opportunity to contribute to the form and direction of the religious institutions of the future.
The major responsibility in the Urantia movement, in my judgment, is disseminating the unique spiritual-cosmological paradigm of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. No major value system of religion in the history of our world has acculturated society without being institutionalized. The authors of The Urantia Book observe that the institutionalization of religion increases the potential for evil, but they go on to say, religion cannot survive in society without being institutionalized.
The Spiritual Fellowship is a religious organization whose mission is to bring the spiritual teachings of the Urantia Papers to the grass roots of society. The teachings of the Fifth Epochal Revelation must, sooner or later, be institutionalized to acculturate and transform our civilization. The task of forming fellowships will be slow and difficult. The pioneering leaders who develop these fellowships must be dedicated and bi-vocational people. Just as Paul made his living as a tentmaker, so must those who build fellowships make their living by some alternate financial resource.
It took nearly 1800 years of evolutionary development to precipitate Reformed Judaism that is very close to the reforms that Jesus sought to contribute to the spiritual understanding of the Judaism of his day. I believe that in time the Fifth Epochal Revelation will upstep Christianity and all of the religions of the world. On an evolutionary world it takes a great deal of time for a new spiritual paradigm to make its way into the culture. Fortunately, however, new religious institutions, such as The Spiritual Fellowship hopes to establish, can lay the foundations for this later evolutionary transformation.
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: