© 2000 Neal Waldrop III
© 2000 International Urantia Association (IUA)
| The Importance of Worship and Prayer | Journal — December 2000 — Index | Revelation as spiritual inspiration |
Neil Waldrop
Geneva, Switzerland
Presented in October 2000, at a meeting of the Mathieu working group, held in Chicago, United States
No one would dream of putting solid fuel for sidereal rockets into the furnace of a steam locomotive, setting it on fire and pushing the throttle all the way on a train overloaded with minerals and designed for reduced speed. … At the first curve, the locomotive and the wagons would roll into the precipice and, after hitting the rock covering the bottom of the abyss, would explode into a multitude of fragments that could not be put back together.
No one would dream of doing such a thing. And yet some readers of the Fifth Revelation, entangled in the Judeo-Christian tradition, attempt to introduce the new ideals within organizational and social models that have evolved over the last two millennia — as if a modest improvement of the container could offer us the ability to practice and promote these radical teachings that we and our successors will eventually have to absorb, integrate and live by.
No, it won’t work that way. Over a long period of time, readers will have to discover fundamentally new methods and approaches. We must integrate these innovations and these inspirations into the totality of human experience by closing these two fractures which have fragmented society over the last centuries: this exaggerated and abusive confrontation between religion and science; and, what is even more harmful, these poisonous quarrels between traditional religions and between the many trends of contemporary culture.
The mission I describe contains a preliminary step, which is the firm intention of helping our planet return to that original plan of growth and evolution, as intended by the Father. Once this objective is established, we can view the work to be done as a concerted effort to offset the long-term consequences of Caligastia’s rebellion and the defection of Adam and Eve.
Like the governance of the Planetary Prince and of Adam and Eve, the enterprise that we set up must clearly refer to a spiritual perspective that will integrate and unify all aspects of human life. We - and those who come after us - must seek to create the conditions which will allow the imminent arrival of a Son of Paradise, while keeping in mind the fact that the elements of this global project relating directly to religion will not dominate or replace others. (To better explore this aspect, re-read booklet 52: Planetary Epochs of Mortals.)
Nevertheless, the challenges that confront us depend largely on the previous role and status of religion in human civilizations. Since the third and fourth revelations focused almost exclusively on religious aspects, readers of The Urantia Book tend to consider themselves religious. Many of the activities of Urantia Association International (UIA) and Fellowship show a predominant concern for religious issues — even if these concerns are not addressed exclusively there. In any case, observers from around the world would be inclined to designate these two associations as being of a religious nature or as being religious mutual aid groups.
Regardless, readers and students of revelation cannot correspond to the ideals and intentions of the revelators by confining themselves to religious observance. Likewise, we cannot adequately express our gratitude and joy if we limit our response to an inner attitude. Since we know that humans in the third millennium will not respond to the trumpets of the Middle Ages, we need to do something concrete — not just meditate or contemplate.
When we respond to aspects of the teachings that are spiritual, perhaps we can consider ourselves religionists, even though The Urantia Book is a revelation, not a religion. But if we find relevant ways to respond to the intellectual and cultural aspects of the revelation (notably, to the teachings relating to the social, economic and political dimensions of life on Urantia), it is not obvious what label we should bear.
The teachings of the revelators are spiritual, intellectual, and cultural—they are not just spiritual. They challenge our thirst for growth and progression, both as individuals and as groups — they do not only address our desire to be saved. They harmonize the experiential totality of every human being and all civilizations. They cannot be summed up in intellectual dogmas, moral codes or empty rituals. The teachings result in this new Alliance: God the Father and God the Mother have a plan for each of us and for the entire planet.
I do not question the promotion of an individual quest for spiritual values, I do not question any of the activities of the Foundation, neither the AUI, nor the Fellowship. But our overall perspectives should not be limited. On the contrary, we must tackle additional tasks, accepting to fulfill the entirety of our responsibilities as heirs of revelation.
At the same time as we develop these new approaches, we will have to ask ourselves: whether the same organizations can effectively move towards different objectives, requiring not divergent, but parallel approaches - requiring different characters as leaders and actors and radically different working methods - namely, whether it would not be preferable to opt for completely new structures, approaching what we could call a non-organization. An important factor to consider is: how can we, as individuals, best join forces with those in society who have similar goals and aspirations?
If, as individuals, we continue to seek solitary attainment of a form of spiritual life; if, consequently, we consider our spiritual impulses as belonging to a jealously deprived sphere of self-glorification, which keeps us away from social activities and concerns and, even, distances us from them to a certain point, by their very nature, we maintain an attitude which promotes and maintains this harmful distinction which creates dissension: namely, this opposition between the sacred and the profane.
The revelators of the Fifth Revelation would qualify this gap, acquired or innate, as an impossibility for the subject to integrate the visions of the transcendent God and the immanent God. Because we must keep in mind that in Him we all live, we move and have our existence. (UB 1:5.16; UB 2:1.11; UB 105:2.11)
Another observation that we could draw from this is that we are not sufficiently open and attentive to the projects and programs of God the Supreme — or God the Mother. For it is also one of our great privileges to collaborate in the evolutionary growth of God the Supreme, who is the effective incorporation and personal summary of all the evolution, progression and spiritualization of creatures. [UB 117:3.4]: and whose evolving divine nature becomes a faithful portrait of the incomparable experience of all creatures and all Creators in the great universe. [UB 117:1.6], as a Solitary Messenger teaches us. But in booklet 115, the same Solitary Messenger draws our attention to a crucial difference: With God the Father, the great relationship is filiation. With God the Supreme, achievement is the prerequisite for status — one must do something as well as be something. [UB 115:0.1]
Undertaking innovations in the spiritual and intellectual domains are adventures that involve considerable risks and perils. Imaginative individuals, who possess enough energy and determination to pursue their projects despite the lack of confidence of others — and sometimes their disguised contempt — are driven by such zeal that they could be described as zealots. They are likely not to recognize the potential of their contemporaries, nor their intimate and sincere needs. They work madly to promote ideals that are unattainable; they place beacons on peaks and hills beyond what their companions can see at the moment. Enthusiasm is certainly a necessary virtue, but balanced judgment is crucial.
The revelators were obviously well aware that social and cultural revolutions are both inevitable and necessary on our planet. We, our children and grandchildren — and their own descendants — must do our best to participate positively in these changes, drawing on the teachings and ideals that the authors of The Urantia Book have presented and emphasized with energy and efficiency. Inside the booklet The Social Problems of Religion, a Melchizedek from Nebadon warns us:
Mechanical inventions and the dissemination of knowledge are modifying civilization; certain economic adjustments and social changes are imperative if cultural disaster is to be avoided. This new and oncoming social order will not settle down complacently for a millennium. The human race must become reconciled to a procession of changes, adjustments, and readjustments. Mankind is on the march toward a new and unrevealed planetary destiny. (UB 99:1.1)
We serve not only the readers of The Urantia Book, but all of humanity. We must promote multiple projects and methods that are linked to each other, in the same way that the regime of the Planetary Prince took into account all the activities and particularities inherent in human nature. (See on this subject the explanations of a Melchizedek on pages 749, 750.)
As we carry out the versatile tasks entrusted to us by the revelators - or more accurately our duties to the spiritual government of the Sons for the Father and to God the Mother, God the Supreme, the totality and synthesis of all perfection of the finite in emergence — we will need to carefully avoid the temptation to develop systems of thought that would create diversion, that would cause us to diverge and avoid the primary call: to become perfect as the Father is perfect and to love others as the Father loves us. Even the work of developing a new and attractive philosophy of life will inevitably have to be done in action, in interaction and within an evolutionary approach - the development of this philosophy cannot serve as a pretext for futile daydreams, nor be the fruit of abstract theorizations based on symbols, paradigms or complex conceptual relationships.
A Melchizedek tells us that the planetary Prince and his staff arrived on Urantia about five hundred thousand years ago, and concurrently with the appearance of the six colored races or Sangik races (…). [UB 66:0.2]. Their arrival marked the beginning of the visible sojourn of the physical representatives of the universal government—a standard practice that the deaths of Adam and Eve would interrupt. Long before their death, 75% of their children had been transported to Edentia, where they would become the wards of the Most High - as Solonia tells us on page UB 75:6.3.
On page UB 55:7.3, a Mighty Messenger declares: on Jerusem, it has long been assumed that (…) a son and daughter of the Adam and Eve of Urantia who are presently held on Edentia as wards of the Most Highs of Norlatiadek, will accompany Machiventa Melchizedek when he comes to occupy the function of Sovereign Prince in the morontia temple when this planet enters the era of Light and Life. It might also seem plausible to imagine that this son and this daughter returned to the planet of their birth well before this date, but this is a hypothesis which is ours - and which is more in the nature of questioning than the answer. (If we hypothesize about a possibility, which has not been confirmed by any authority and is in fact a rumor circulating about Jerusalem, the farthest we can go is to support its plausibility and consistency.)
We therefore have every reason to hope that representatives of the universal government will eventually re-establish a visible presence on Urantia. Part of our job is to begin to prepare accordingly—just as Van and Amadon prepared for millennia for the arrival of Adam and Eve. Although our plans and goals differ, we too must overcome the negative and lasting results of defections from the divine plan.
At UB 52:4.1, a Mighty Messenger declares that, on normal and lawful planets, during the era following the coming of a Master Son, mortal races are mixed and biologically adapted. There are no race or color problems; literally all nations and races are of one blood. The brotherhood of man flourishes, and the nations are learning to live on earth in peace and tranquillity. Such a world stands on the eve of a great and culminating intellectual development.
A few paragraphs later, he tells us: the races will soon begin their economic liberation. The daily work required for each man to ensure his independence would take two and a half hours of your time. [UB 52:4.5]
The Mighty Messenger later suggests that on normal worlds the Son of bestowal does not appear in incarnation until the races have risen to the highest levels of intelligence and ethical achievement. [UB 52:5.1] And he adds: During this stage, the whole world seeks moral culture and spiritual truth. Mortals of this dispensation have a passion to penetrate cosmic reality and commune with spiritual reality. UB 52:5.3
During this era the problems of disease and delinquency are virtually solved. Degeneracy has already been largely eliminated by selective reproduction. Disease has been practically mastered through the high resistant qualities of the Adamic strains and by the intelligent and world-wide application of the discoveries of the physical sciences of preceding ages. The average length of life, during this period, climbs well above the equivalent of three hundred years of Urantia time. (UB 52:5.9)
We certainly have work ahead of us; but compelling arguments give us confidence and energy for the task:
With all of these references in mind, I believe we should do everything in our power to collaborate with the Seraphic Planetary Government in its program of improving the gene pool of the human species.
Isn’t that your opinion? If so, what concrete things are you going to do?
Let me be completely candid. By raising this question insistently, I am drawing a line in the sand. And having done so, I challenge at least a few of you to cross it and join me.
Allow me to review our obligations.
In March 1999, after a long day of work dealing with organizational and financial matters, I stood up and read aloud Article 2 of the original document that gave birth to the Foundation. I then emphasized that during its fifty years of existence the efforts of the members had been concentrated on the following objectives: to preserve the entire text and to disseminate the principles, teachings and doctrines of the Urantia Book. I then asked: could we not begin to pay attention to the main objective of the Foundation, that is to say the insertion into our personal lives and into the affairs of this world of the teachings offered by the revealing?
In October of that year, again at the end of a long day’s work dealing with administrative problems, I distributed copies of Ideals and Intentions, a document which deals in depth with the higher issues raised.
In March 2000, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Foundation, I presented more extensively the complex issues and dilemmas that we will encounter as we attempt to implement the revealed teachings in our personal lives and in the global community. First, I predicted that each and every one of the inhabitants of Urantia, acting by free choice, based on their own convictions and their individual positions, would eventually enlist in the planetary crusade with the objective of ‘to erase the last traces of Caligasta’s betrayal - but at a later stage in our evolution: during this very era or during another which will follow. At the same time, I have argued that we — and all those who support the revelators’ project and strive to establish their ideals — may well find ourselves on overwhelming paths that will seem unbearably slow.
In this article, I return to these same questions, but I have tried to approach them from another perspective. Even if my advances have been rather conceptual and outlined, perhaps they will contribute to a broader understanding of the challenges and needs of Urantian civilizations and societies. Above all, I hope that my comments have provided you with at least partial insights into the aims and methods of God the Father and God the Mother in coming to meet these same challenges and satisfy these same needs.
All of this, of course, brings us back to the same provocative question: what exactly should we do? This question underlies my argument — or, if you prefer, its answer constitutes our primary duty. I have spoken on this subject many times and have done everything I can to refine and clarify this issue. We have now completed the stage of preliminary clarifications and discussions, and at least some of us need to get down to business.
Where will all this take us? I only have a confused vision of it. But the challenge is all the more intriguing and attractive. After all, we and all our brothers and sisters on this planet will eventually have to put into practice this lesson from those whom a Melchizedek calls the Spirits of Trust:
In the more advanced planetary ages these seraphim enhance man’s appreciation of the truth that uncertainty is the secret of contented continuity. They help the mortal philosophers to realize that, when ignorance is essential to success, it would be a colossal blunder for the creature to know the future. They heighten man’s taste for the sweetness of uncertainty, for the romance and charm of the indefinite and unknown future. (UB 39:5.9)
Certainly Urantia’s past demonstrates a aptitude for colossal misjudgments of reality. But the resulting delays have brought us a tremendous supply of ignorance — that ingredient which the Melchizedek considers essential to success!
I also find it comforting that this same Melchizedek gives his approval to romance and flirtation, another enterprise where ignorance is essential. And this irony, this paradox, leads me quite naturally to one of my favorite extracts:
I am a Mighty Messenger, and it may interest Urantians to know that the companion and associate of my mortal experience was also triumphant in the great test, and that, though we were many times and for long periods separated in the agelong inward ascent to Havona, we were embraced in the same seven-hundred-thousand group, and that we spent our time passing through Vicegerington in close and loving association. We were finally commissioned and together assigned to Uversa of Orvonton, and we are often dispatched in company for the execution of assignments requiring the services of two Messengers. (UB 22:2.6)
I am aware that the task described above may not be completed in our lifetime. If this is so, it will be a reproach for us - and perhaps an even more stimulating challenge for those who come and succeed us.
It should also be added that our active collaboration here and now can very well continue on higher planes of existence, and that this also has its share of dreams and charm. At least that’s what it seems to me today.
| The Importance of Worship and Prayer | Journal — December 2000 — Index | Revelation as spiritual inspiration |