© 2014 Olga López
© 2014 Urantia Association of Spain
(Presentation given at the Urantia Association of Brazil virtual meeting room on April 20, 2014)
The theme of this exposition arose when I thought about the day for which it was planned: Easter Sunday. On Sunday, April 9, 30 AD, a little over 1,984 years ago, Jesus kept his word and rose again on the third day. This event was magnified by his apostles and was one of the first cornerstones upon which the Christian church was built. It was (erroneously) believed that Jesus rose from the dead because of his power as the Son of God, when in reality we are all going to be resurrected, either on the third day or at the end of a dispensation. Jesus simply went through the same thing that all mortal beings go through sooner or later, only his morontia body became visible so that his former companions could see and speak with him in the so-called morontia appearances of Jesus.
In the face of the terrible fact of his death on the cross, Jesus’ resurrection offers us an optimistic message of hope. Over the centuries, too much emphasis has been placed on Jesus’ Calvary and subsequent death. And although Jesus provided a sublime example of how to act in the face of such a terrible situation and such an ignominious death, I prefer to focus on the positive message that the fact of his resurrection offers us.
I also believe that, along with the message of hope for a future life that the resurrection gives us, we must recover and spread the religion of Jesus, displaced for so many centuries by the religion about Jesus. And, to speak about the religion of Jesus, it seems to me we should delve a little deeper into a key concept within the message Jesus came to convey to us: the kingdom of heaven. And, since:
The true perspective of any reality problem—human or divine, terrestrial or cosmic—can be had only by the full and unprejudiced study and correlation of three phases of universe reality: origin, history, and destiny… UB 19:1.6
In my presentation, I will explore the origin, history, and destiny of this concept. That is, what was the origin of the concept of the kingdom, how it evolved during Jesus’ public life and in later Christianity, and what the future of its implementation might hold, in light of the teachings of The Urantia Book.
“The kingdom of God is within you” was probably the greatest pronouncement Jesus ever made, next to the declaration that his Father is a living and loving spirit. UB 195:10.4
The Urantia Book devotes an entire document, 170, to discussing the concept of the kingdom of heaven, based on a sermon the Master gave at Pella.
Regarding the expression “kingdom of heaven,” the first thing we might ask ourselves is: why a kingdom? Right now, we have a hard time aligning a human kingdom with the organization we believe operates up above.
We must keep in mind that the best way to present a new teaching is to offer it based on a previously established concept. Jesus does this very often during his preaching: for example, he uses texts from the Jewish scriptures that fit what he wants to convey, and on that basis, he offers a superior teaching. Similarly, his teaching had to be adapted to the place where he was and the time in which he lived. In first-century Palestine, the idea of a kingdom was very easy for everyone to understand, since both kings and emperors were part of the political organization of the peoples of that time.
The intermediaries who revealed this document tell us (p. 1858) that Jesus and the apostles taught the kingdom of heaven based on the presentation that the prophets had made of it, using a double concept:
But, in addition, this concept of the kingdom of heaven included other ideas contributed by Jews and Persians:
We see that the Kingdom of Heaven had, for the Jews of that time, an apocalyptic component in which, after the so-called “end of times,” a supernatural kingdom would be inaugurated where good would definitively triumph over evil. Jesus also based his teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven on these ideas.
But what was Jesus’ concept of the kingdom? This paragraph clearly indicates the fundamental idea behind that concept:
The Master made it clear that the kingdom of heaven must begin with, and be centered in, the dual concept of the truth of the fatherhood of God and the correlated fact of the brotherhood of man, and it must remain centered on this dual concept. UB 170:2.1
Considering the era in which the Master lived, let us consider what the proclamation that all men were brothers and children of God meant at that time for a people like the Jews, who saw themselves as a chosen people and who kept themselves separate from the rest of the peoples, the so-called “Gentiles,” with whom they shared the same territory in many places. The implications of this double concept were much more difficult for them to grasp than they are now. They were the children of God, not the rest of the peoples. They would have hegemony in the world when the Messiah came. This was partly why the apostles were unable to grasp the real meaning of Jesus’ statements about the kingdom (p. 1860).
From the concept of an earthly kingdom, Jesus sought to construct another, higher idea to convey his message. The Master sought to translate the concept of the kingdom of heaven to the ideal of doing God’s will, but he failed. He also wished to replace the idea of a kingdom, with the associated concepts of king and subjects, with the concept of a heavenly family, a family where the children of God, dedicated to joyful and voluntary service (not self-sacrificing and the fruit of obligation), would devote themselves to worshiping God in a sublime and intelligent manner.
Here are two paragraphs that also very clearly express the dual nature of the kingdom:
“First. The kingdom of God in this world, the supreme desire to do the will of God, the unselfish love of man which yields the good fruits of improved ethical and moral conduct.” UB 170:2.18
“Second. The kingdom of God in heaven, the goal of mortal believers, the estate wherein the love for God is perfected, and wherein the will of God is done more divinely.” UB 170:2.19
That is, the kingdom is, on the one hand, something we have within us as a desire to do God’s will, which is transformed into action by selflessly and altruistically serving our fellow human beings. And, on the other hand, the kingdom is our goal, something we should yearn to achieve one day: to do God’s will in an even more sublime way.
What is the key to entering the kingdom, regardless of which of the two aspects we are referring to? The unconditional faith of a little child who agrees to do the Father’s will without conditions, without ifs and buts, without prejudice, without questions, with the complete assurance that by surrendering to the Father, he is in the best of hands.
But Jesus doesn’t just refer to faith as essential for entering the kingdom. He also refers to a hunger for truth and “a thirst for righteousness, a change of mind, the acquisition of the motivation to be like God and to find God.” UB 170:2.22
And what is the act of God that accepts our faith as the price of admission into the kingdom? Forgiveness. Document 170 presents the four stages of the kingdom of inner righteousness, which shed considerable light on what forgiveness is really about and the spiritual implications it entails:
With these four points in mind, the revelators tell us that the true inner religion of the kingdom tends to manifest itself in social service. “Jesus taught a living religion that impelled its believers to engage in the doing of loving service.” Furthermore, they tell us that Jesus “taught religion as the cause, and ethics as the result” UB 170:3.8.
That is, ethics is not a solid foundation for service to others or a righteous life. It is an edifice whose foundation must be personal religion so that it does not collapse when the vicissitudes of life hit us hard. Obeying the law, acting out of fear of possible punishment, or intellectually assenting to the brotherhood of men are motives that lack transcendent value for eternal life.
Jesus taught that “the religion of the kingdom is a genuine personal experience which no man can contain within himself; that the consciousness of being a member of the family of believers leads inevitably to the practice of the precepts of the family conduct, the service of one’s brothers and sisters in the effort to enhance and enlarge the brotherhood” UB 170:3.9.
That is, the personal religion that Jesus preached inevitably has an impact on practice. “The religion of the kingdom is personal, individual; its fruits, its results, are familial, social.” UB 170:3.10 We develop as individuals through being immersed in the group; it is in that group that we must yield the fruits of the spirit.
Reading Paper 170, we can see that no unambiguous definition or description of the term “kingdom” is offered; rather, we are given kaleidoscopic definitions, like two sides of a single diamond. This is compounded by the fact that “Jesus never gave a precise definition of the kingdom” UB 170:4.1. Just after this paragraph, Jesus pointed out five phases of the kingdom:
And then we are told five points on which the Master emphasized, and which represent the essential characteristics of the gospel of the kingdom (UB 170:4.9-13):
Starting from the aforementioned ideas that Jesus tried to convey in his concept of the kingdom, the apostles and early Christians incorporated other elements foreign to the original message.
While Jesus was among them, the apostles considered the kingdom from a double point of view:
Although Jesus never said that the establishment of the kingdom would be linked to his return, they saw Jesus as the Messiah who would return shortly after death to establish the kingdom with power and glory, undoubtedly influenced by the concept of the Jewish Messiah and his supernatural reign. It is true that Jesus promised to return and that he placed a phase of the kingdom in the future, but he never said that both would happen simultaneously. Meanwhile, generations and generations of Christians have waited in vain for Christ’s second coming.
About 50 years after the death of Jesus, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, the concept of the kingdom was transformed, somewhat out of necessity, since the concept of the kingdom had generated suspicion among the Romans, who encouraged freedom of worship but did not allow any political power that could overshadow their hegemony (p.1861).
During the early centuries of Christianity, when the Greeks were the principal proponents of this religion throughout the Roman Empire, the idea of the kingdom was influenced by the concepts of Greek idealism, which viewed the natural as a shadow of the spiritual (p. 1864). The Greeks were instrumental in spreading Christianity, for they “later literally forced the Romans to accept this new religion, as modified, as part of Greek culture” UB 195:1.5. The combined thought of the Jewish and Greek people became “the driving force behind a new order of human society” UB 195:1.6
But undoubtedly the great change occurred when the Messiah of the kingdom became the redeemer of the church, a religious and social organization that grew out of the activities of Paul and his successors, and that primarily reflected Paul’s religious experience.
These were the two great tendencies that modified the concept of the kingdom that the Master had presented:
Regarding the church that emerged, the revelators tell us that the church, as a social consequence of the kingdom, would have been natural and even desirable. The problem was that it almost completely replaced the kingdom of heaven that Jesus had proclaimed.
Thus, “the kingdom became the concept of an age, the idea of a future visitation, and the ideal of the final redemption of the saints of the Most High” UB 170:5.15. With all these ideas and from his religious experience, “Paul set about building one of the most progressive human societies that has ever existed on Urantia” UB 170:5.15.
Yet, for all its good features, Christianity was not (and is not) exactly the religion of Jesus. Indeed, it was almost immediately presented not simply as a religion, “but as a new order of human society. And this claim as such quickly precipitated the socio-moral conflict of the ages.” UB 195:0.3.
Christian leaders evolved the church in ways that distorted the message of Jesus of Nazareth. On the one hand, they compromised with ancient religious practices, and on the other, they took a decisive stance on all areas of society: religious rites, education, art, politics, etc. This was precisely what Jesus avoided doing: making pronouncements on the social norms and political regimes of his time.
There is nothing incompatible between sonship in the spiritual kingdom and citizenship in the secular or civil government. It is the believer’s duty to render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and to God the things which are God’s. … You shall not render spiritual worship to earthly rulers; neither should you employ the physical forces of earthly governments, whose rulers may sometime become believers, in the work of furthering the mission of the spiritual kingdom. UB 178:1.3
The Romans, whose religion was part of the state, had no problem including Christianity as part of their moral culture, thereby helping to reduce the separation between church and state. Christianity became the official religion of the empire; unfortunately, it could not save the empire from collapse because of its moral decay and racial deterioration. Nevertheless, the Roman Empire was beneficial to Christianity, ensuring its survival even after its collapse (UB 195:3.6-11).
Within a few centuries, Christianity equated the kingdom of heaven with the church. Outside the church there was no salvation; there was no possibility of experiencing Jesus or God without the church as mediator. But “it is evident that membership in the church does not necessarily mean fellowship in the kingdom; the latter is spiritual, the former primarily social.” UB 170:5.18
In a short time the teaching of this story about Jesus nearly supplanted the preaching of Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom. In this way a historical religion displaced that teaching in which Jesus had blended man’s highest moral ideas and spiritual ideals with man’s most sublime hope for the future—eternal life. And that was the gospel of the kingdom. UB 170:5.19
During the Middle Ages, Christianity deepened its character as a secondhand religion and participated in the intellectual and spiritual decline of those dark years. This was a time when Christianity was in “hibernation” and when “saints” who were supposed to be able to intercede with God on behalf of men proliferated (UB 195:4.2).
Christianity survived the Dark Ages and, in the subsequent Renaissance, began its disintegration into a series of Christian churches, adapted to different types of human personalities. According to the Revelators, the fact that the gospel of Jesus presented so many different aspects caused his teachings to divide into so many cults and sects. This divisive aspect of Christianity (which continues to this day with no apparent resolution) is the consequence of believers’ failure to see that, above all these facets of the kingdom and all of Jesus’ teachings, there exists the divine unity of his life.
Christianity is seriously confronted with the doom embodied in one of its own slogans: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The non-Christian world will hardly capitulate to a sect-divided Christendom. The living Jesus is the only hope of a possible unification of Christianity… UB 195:10.11
However, the revelators are very clear in highlighting the positive aspects of the Christian religion:
The concept of Jesus is still alive in the advanced religions of the world. Paul’s Christian church is the socialized and humanized shadow of what Jesus intended the kingdom of heaven to be—and what it most certainly will yet become. Paul and his successors partly transferred the issues of eternal life from the individual to the church. Christ thus became the head of the church rather than the elder brother of each individual believer in the Father’s family of the kingdom… UB 170:5.17
Wisely or unwisely, these early leaders of Christianity deliberately compromised the ideals of Jesus in an effort to save and further many of his ideas. And they were eminently successful. But mistake not! these compromised ideals of the Master are still latent in his gospel, and they will eventually assert their full power upon the world. UB 195:0.12
[The record of Christianity] indicates an inherent vitality and the possession of immense resources of recovery… UB 195:4.4
At this point in the presentation, I would like to reflect on the kingdom in our time, two thousand years after the Master personally left his message on Earth. To do so, I will distinguish between the individual aspect of the kingdom (the kingdom within us) and the collective aspect of the kingdom (the kingdom as a community of believers in the religion of Jesus).
It is clear that there is no point in making the kingdom known if it is not a reality within us.
… Neither make the fatal mistake, in looking for the age manifestation of the kingdom, of failing to effect its establishment within your own souls. UB 170:4.14
Entering the kingdom involves putting Jesus’ religion into practice. For this reason, and since we, the readers of this book, already know what Jesus’ religion consists of, we must first do some inner work to put into practice what it means to belong to the community of believers in the Master’s gospel.
Let’s briefly review the central ideas of the expression “kingdom of heaven,” focusing on this inner work that we all have to do (myself included, of course).
Jesus spoke about this dual concept many times. It’s a simple idea that anyone can understand. There’s nothing dense or difficult to grasp about it, unlike other concepts and ideas presented elsewhere in the book.
Yes, it’s a simple idea that we’ve read and heard many times, but… to what extent do we understand its implications? There are words, phrases, and ideas that, through repeated repetition, end up losing their meaning, and for that reason we need to stop for a moment to consider the meanings they hide. Because those seemingly innocent ideas that God is our
Father and we are all brothers have very uncomfortable implications for all of us.
What does this double concept really mean?
The question we might ask ourselves is whether we truly live this double concept in our lives. Do we see all men as our brothers? Because “all men” includes all those who despise us, those with whom we have nothing to do, those for whom we are indifferent. It’s easy to love our children, our biological siblings, our parents, our friends, those who love us. The truly difficult thing, the real test, is to love someone who is indifferent to us or even despises us.
For the kind of love that truly counts as such is not an ethereal, theoretical love fueled only by fine words. It is the love that seeks to understand the other, to see him or her as someone who also has a divine spark within them and as another fellow traveler on the long road to Paradise. “Love is the desire to do good to others” UB 56:10.21.
We said earlier that the key to entering the kingdom was the unconditional faith of the believer who accepts to do the Father’s will without conditions, with the full assurance that by surrendering to the Father he is in the best of hands.
Do we really understand what he’s trying to say? Let’s think of a family where parents love their children. Little children don’t worry about what they’ll eat or whether they have clothes and shoes. They know their parents will be there to give them what they need. They know their parents love them and trust them completely. That is the trust Jesus asked us to have in the Father.
But do we truly trust our heavenly Father? Without ifs and buts? Without conditions? Without wanting to correct Him? How often do we insist on imposing our will, on getting problems resolved the way we want them to? How many times do we persist in forcing the natural flow of things, in not listening to our inner voice, in ignoring our intuition?
We must feel the motivation to be like God, to progress spiritually, to be more than what we are. This impulse is what makes us “take off” from the ground and pursue more transcendental realities. We cannot reach God if we remain attached to material realities, to what our five senses perceive. To obey the Father’s command to be perfect as He is perfect, we must seek truth and righteousness and incorporate them into our lives as a part of us.
Here is another concept that I believe has not been understood in its true dimension, or has not been understood, also due to the uncomfortable implications it entails.
Jesus showed us a loving Father who has forgiven us in advance, just as the father of the prodigal son forgave his wayward son and celebrated his return with a party. God has forgiven us, but that forgiveness is neither more nor less than what we should apply when we forgive our fellow human beings. We will be forgiven to the same extent that we are capable of forgiving others. But are we capable of forgiving? Always?
I think we need to ask ourselves what forgiveness really means. It’s often thought that forgiveness involves forgetting the offense, but I disagree. We can (and should) remember the offense, but forgiveness is simply about moving on and committing to moving forward. Otherwise, resentment would be a hindrance that prevents us from moving forward.
We have seen that the fruits of religion, service to others, are social. It is not enough to intellectually assimilate Jesus’ message. It is essential to put it into practice, and putting it into practice involves service. This generic term actually encompasses many possibilities for helping others. Service has many avenues, and we don’t have to follow them all; it is enough to offer the best of ourselves to do good to others. That is precisely what love is all about.
On the other hand, I believe that as readers committed to spreading the teachings of The Urantia Book, we have a responsibility to make its transformative truths known to all truth seekers.
The heavenly beings who watch over us, in their wisdom, always have a plan B in case plan A fails. Jesus of Nazareth did not succeed in getting the entire Jewish people to embrace the gospel of the kingdom, but the Greek and Roman peoples did embrace the teachings of Christianity, which contained Jesus’s message, and from there it spread throughout the Roman Empire and, in the centuries to come, throughout the world. Perhaps it was not the true message, but it is also true that it is the most progressive religion ever to appear on Urantia.
The Midwayers, who are in charge of the content of Part Four, say: “We have often conjectured what would have happened in Rome and throughout the world if the gospel of the kingdom had been accepted instead of Greek Christianity.” UB 195:3.11. It would certainly be a good exercise to try to imagine what would have happened. But history turned out differently, and now we have another revelation, which I understand to be a second opportunity to recover the true message of Jesus of Nazareth.
As I read the fourth part, I can’t help but think that many of the things the revelators tell us, and much of what Jesus said, were actually directed at other people of other times. Not only is there the fact that Jesus lived his seventh bestowal to serve as a living example to all his creatures in Nebadon. Although the revelators don’t say it explicitly, I get the impression that they are showing us the true teachings of Jesus with the intention that we rediscover them, not only to apply them in our daily lives, but also to make them known to the truth-hungry souls of our time.
By teaching that the kingdom is within, by exalting the individual, Jesus struck the deathblow of the old society in that he ushered in the new dispensation of true social righteousness. This new order of society the world has little known because it has refused to practice the principles of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. And when this kingdom of spiritual pre-eminence does come upon the earth, it will not be manifested in mere improved social and material conditions, but rather in the glories of those enhanced and enriched spiritual values which are characteristic of the approaching age of improved human relations and advancing spiritual attainments. UB 170:3.11
The fact that the revelators assume that the kingdom will be a future reality should give us hope. But it is also true that we must work, within ourselves and those around us, to contribute to the establishment of the kingdom.
This world has never seriously or sincerely or honestly tried out these dynamic ideas and divine ideals of Jesus’ doctrine of the kingdom of heaven. But you should not become discouraged by the apparently slow progress of the kingdom idea on Urantia. Remember that the order of progressive evolution is subjected to sudden and unexpected periodical changes in both the material and the spiritual worlds. The bestowal of Jesus as an incarnated Son was just such a strange and unexpected event in the spiritual life of the world. Neither make the fatal mistake, in looking for the age manifestation of the kingdom, of failing to effect its establishment within your own souls… UB 170:4.14
The coming of our Creator Son to fulfill his seventh bestowal was, indeed, one of those sudden changes destined to accelerate the evolution of humanity. His bestowal corresponds to the fourth epochal revelation. As we all know, each of the previous epochal revelations has represented a leap forward in human evolution, both on the physical and the intellectual and spiritual levels. Why should the fifth revelation be any less so? Doesn’t the fifth revelation portend some kind of more or less sudden change?
But doubt not, this same kingdom of heaven which the Master taught exists in the hearts of believers will be proclaimed even to this Christian church, as well as to all other religions, races, and nations of the earth—and even to each individual. UB 170:5.8
We, who have had the privilege of knowing the fifth epochal revelation, know what the religion of Jesus is, that religion that the world has not yet fully understood. My question is: are we going to keep it to ourselves, or are we going to share it with other seekers of the truth?
In this regard, I believe we have a great responsibility, as readers of the book, to spread the good news of the true message of Jesus. I believe the life and teachings of Jesus were included in the fifth revelation so that the world would know who Jesus really was and what he came to this world to do. You may already know that the fourth part was not included in the revelators’ initial plans. It was at the insistence of the Urantia midwayers that the life and teachings of Jesus were incorporated into this revelation. And we can never thank the midwayers enough for this invaluable contribution!
Among the paragraphs that discuss the future of Jesus’ religion, I’ve selected this one, as it makes you wonder what the evolution of religion will be like in this 21st century, which has only been going for a few years.
Sooner or later another and greater John the Baptist is due to arise proclaiming “the kingdom of God is at hand”—meaning a return to the high spiritual concept of Jesus, who proclaimed that the kingdom is the will of his heavenly Father dominant and transcendent in the heart of the believer—and doing all this without in any way referring either to the visible church on earth or to the anticipated second coming of Christ. There must come a revival of the actual teachings of Jesus, such a restatement as will undo the work of his early followers who went about to create a sociophilosophical system of belief regarding the fact of Michael’s sojourn on earth. UB 170:5.19
I’ve always been intrigued by the allusion to this “other John the Baptist” and the fact that he won’t be referring to the visible church or the second coming of Christ. This paragraph leads me to believe that the Christian church today will not play a fundamental role in recovering Jesus’ message. However, we must not underestimate the role that a united Christian church can play in spreading Jesus’ message.
The religion of Jesus, which is conveyed throughout the book, the personal and non-transferable experience with God, faces the challenge in modern times of making its way in an environment unfavorable to religious thought.
Secularism took root during the twentieth century, and its impetus still endures today. And while it had positive consequences, such as keeping science separate from religion so that the former could flourish, it ended up identifying God with institutionalized religions and religion with superstition, which caused religion to gradually disappear from the public and social sphere. Many people profess their religion only for social events, but they are not truly religious.
Secularism emerged with the intention of liberating man from the oppression of institutionalized religion, but it has ended up plunging him into a new slavery, this time of a political and economic nature.
…And because the secularistic revolt went too far and lost sight of God and true religion, there also followed the unlooked-for harvest of world wars and international unsettledness. UB 195:8.7
In any case, the revelators tell us very clearly that materialism will eventually succumb to the religion of Jesus:
Religion is now confronted by the challenge of a new age of scientific minds and materialistic tendencies. In this gigantic struggle between the secular and the spiritual, the religion of Jesus will eventually triumph. UB 195:4.5
… When the materialistic-secular panic is over, the religion of Jesus will not be found bankrupt. The spiritual bank of the kingdom of heaven will be paying out faith, hope, and moral security to all who draw upon it “in His name.” UB 195:6.1
Whatever the apparent conflict between materialism and the teachings of Jesus, you may be assured that the Master’s teachings will fully triumph in the ages to come… UB 195:6.2
In fact, if we are to believe what the revelators tell us, the pendulum of history, which at the beginning of the 20th century reached the most materialistic extreme, began to swing back in the opposite direction years ago:
At the time of this writing [circa 1934], the worst of the materialistic age is over; the day of a better understanding is already beginning to dawn… But this age of physical realism is only a passing episode in man’s life on earth. Modern science has left true religion—the teachings of Jesus as translated in the lives of his believers—untouched. UB 195:6.4
Again, I want to emphasize the fact that, as believers in the gospel of Jesus, we have a great responsibility to spread the good news of the kingdom. We don’t have Jesus physically with us, as the apostles did, but we have His spiritual presence, the Spirit of Truth, to show us the way. Not only that: we have the guidance of our Adjuster and the ministry of many heavenly beings ready to lend a hand when we need it. Let us remember these words of the revelators:
…Nineteen hundred years ago, unlearned Galileans surveyed Jesus giving his life as a spiritual contribution to man’s inner experience and then went out and turned the whole Roman Empire upside down. UB 195:6.9
We are no worse than the apostles. Let us not underestimate our own power. Each of us has sufficient qualities to make a difference in the world with our service and ministry to others. Are we willing to bring about that change that will bring us a little closer to the triumph of Jesus’ religion in the world?
Of course, new times demand new styles:
But religious leaders are making a great mistake when they try to call modern man to spiritual battle with the trumpet blasts of the Middle Ages. Religion must provide itself with new and up-to-date slogans… UB 195:6.10
We cannot go out preaching as the apostles did throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. We cannot repeat the same mistakes of the Christian missionaries, who set out to evangelize with the cross in one hand and the sword in the other. We live in the 21st century, with highly developed science and technology, in which we must see opportunities to disseminate the teachings of Jesus and thus contribute to the development of spirituality in our troubled world.
In the last twenty years, with the rapid rise of the Internet, we have accessed information that would have been very difficult to obtain before. It has allowed us to meet people far removed from us geographically, whom we would otherwise have been unable to meet. Let us recall what the revelators tell us about Jesus:
… Jesus was a part of the personal experience of nearly a thousand human beings before finally taking leave of Urantia. UB 189:2.9
How many people can we reach today? How much good can we do with our service? How many people will benefit from putting the good news of the kingdom into practice, other than ourselves?
Do not overlook the value of your spiritual heritage, the river of truth that flows down through the centuries, even into the barren age of a materialistic, secular era. In all your worthy efforts to rid yourselves of the superstitious creeds of past ages, be sure that you hold fast to eternal truth. But be patient! When the present revolt against superstition is over, the truths of the gospel of Jesus will gloriously survive to light a new and better way. UB 195:9.1
Just as Jesus did not break completely with Jewish tradition, but rather drew on all that was good, true, and beautiful in that tradition, we would do well not to break completely with our Christian tradition and, from it, to transmit higher teachings.
But paganized and socialized Christianity stands in need of new contact with the uncompromised teachings of Jesus; it languishes for lack of a new vision of the Master’s life on earth. A new and fuller revelation of the religion of Jesus is destined to conquer an empire of materialistic secularism and to overthrow a world sway of mechanistic naturalism. Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment. UB 195:9.2
This new revelation must undoubtedly be the fifth revelation. And, as believers from the first decades of its dissemination throughout the world, we have a decisive role to play in social readjustment, moral revival, and spiritual enlightenment. We cannot evade this responsibility, for we cannot claim ignorance.
Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus’ religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world. UB 195:9.4
I find this paragraph extremely interesting, because it gives us the understanding that, while Christianity could lead spiritual growth in the coming years, other leaders, the new instructors of Jesus’ religion, will take over if Christian leaders fail to channel their mission. Again, we see here that, in the evolution of humanity, there is always a plan B if plan A fails.
And if we aren’t these new religious instructors… who are they? Where could they come from? What other source could they draw from than the fifth revelation?
The modern age will refuse to accept a religion which is inconsistent with facts and out of harmony with its highest conceptions of truth, beauty, and goodness. The hour is striking for a rediscovery of the true and original foundations of present-day distorted and compromised Christianity—the real life and teachings of Jesus. UB 195:9.5
The teachings of The Urantia Book integrate science, philosophy, and religion into a harmonious whole, which can make them enormously attractive to modern people who sincerely seek the truth. However, we must keep in mind that not all men and women are prepared to live the religion of Jesus. It is too powerful a challenge, too demanding, for many of them.
… Modern men and women of intelligence evade the religion of Jesus because of their fears of what it will do to them—and with them. And all such fears are well founded. The religion of Jesus does, indeed, dominate and transform its believers, demanding that men dedicate their lives to seeking for a knowledge of the will of the Father in heaven and requiring that the energies of living be consecrated to the unselfish service of the brotherhood of man. UB 195:9.6
This is precisely what the fifth revelation has done for us: to impel us to put its teachings into practice through selfless service to our fellow men:
…Only when man has become sufficiently disillusioned by the sorrowful disappointments attendant upon the foolish and deceptive pursuits of selfishness, and subsequent to the discovery of the barrenness of formalized religion, will he be disposed to turn wholeheartedly to the gospel of the kingdom, the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. UB 195:9.7
Sometimes you have to fall very low to regain momentum and rise to the highest peaks. But it’s only a matter of time before the “benign virus of love,” spreading thanks to the dissemination of the fifth revelation, does its work.
The world needs more firsthand religion. Even Christianity—the best of the religions of the twentieth century—…, but it is so largely one which men experience secondhand. … What an awakening the world would experience if it could only see Jesus as he really lived on earth and know, firsthand, his life-giving teachings! Descriptive words of things beautiful cannot thrill like the sight thereof, neither can creedal words inspire men’s souls like the experience of knowing the presence of God. But expectant faith will ever keep the hope-door of man’s soul open for the entrance of the eternal spiritual realities of the divine values of the worlds beyond. UB 195:9.8
The religion that appears in The Urantia Book is precisely a firsthand religion, a personal religious experience in which we and the Father are present. Therefore, we should not miss the opportunity to show others how we live religion, and allow them to discover God for themselves, to be the ones who discover the treasures of the temple instead of us explaining them what they are like.
Document 195 concludes with a very suggestive section titled “The Future,” in which the revelators offer many illuminating insights into what the coming years may hold. And there is one idea the revelators emphasize quite a bit:
…The world needs to see Jesus living again on Earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who reveal the Master effectively to all men… UB 195:10.1
And to do this, we don’t have to return to primitive Christianity, which had not yet been distorted by subsequent compromises when it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. As I said before, new times require new methods.
… It is futile to talk about a revival of primitive Christianity; you must go forward from where you find yourselves. Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus’ life… UB 195:10.1
And what is this new revelation, if not that which appears in the pages of The Urantia Book? The life and teachings of Jesus, as expounded therein, require no philosophy or old-fashioned theology to bind us once again to the spiritual slavery of authoritarian religions.
The beauty and sublimity, the humanity and divinity, the simplicity and uniqueness, of Jesus’ life on earth present such a striking and appealing picture of man-saving and God-revealing that the theologians and philosophers of all time should be effectively restrained from daring to form creeds or create theological systems of spiritual bondage out of such a transcendental bestowal of God in the form of man. … UB 195:10.2
Here is a paragraph that sublimely describes how a true believer in the gospel, a full member of the kingdom of heaven, should act:
In winning souls for the Master, it is not the first mile of compulsion, duty, or convention that will transform man and his world, but rather the second mile of free service and liberty-loving devotion that betokens the Jesusonian reaching forth to grasp his brother in love and sweep him on under spiritual guidance toward the higher and divine goal of mortal existence. Christianity even now willingly goes the first mile, but mankind languishes and stumbles along in moral darkness because there are so few genuine second-milers—so few professed followers of Jesus who really live and love as he taught his disciples to live and love and serve. UB 195:10.5
As readers committed to spreading revelation, we must go the second mile; we must serve with joy, without hesitation, without doing so out of obligation, self-denial, or fear of condemning ourselves to hell. We must live, love, and serve just as Jesus lived, loved, and served.
Right after, we can read these words that seem to me to be an invitation to believers in the kingdom:
The call to the adventure of building a new and transformed human society by means of the spiritual rebirth of Jesus’ brotherhood of the kingdom should thrill all who believe in him as men have not been stirred since the days when they walked about on earth as his companions in the flesh. UB 195:10.6
Shouldn’t we be excited and embark on the adventure of building a new and transformed society, knowing what we know? And, if we heed these words of the revelators, Christianity is not the solution, but the problem when it comes to undertaking the construction of this new society:
… Likewise, the Christian churches of the twentieth century stand as great, but wholly unconscious, obstacles to the immediate advance of the real gospel—the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. UB 195:10.8
How many people have turned away from religion because they associate it with the evil practices of those who call themselves representatives of Jesus on Earth? And yet, the revelators continue to insist on the idea that the Christian church has been the best representative of the Master’s life.
Many earnest persons who would gladly yield loyalty to the Christ of the gospel find it very difficult enthusiastically to support a church which exhibits so little of the spirit of his life and teachings, and which they have been erroneously taught he founded. Jesus did not found the so-called Christian church, but he has, in every manner consistent with his nature, fostered it as the best existent exponent of his lifework on earth. UB 195:10.9
If the Christian church were to adopt the religion of Jesus, rather than the religion about Jesus, there would be a spectacular improvement in the societies of the world within its orbit. First, thousands of young people would join Jesus’ cause. Therefore, I believe it is vitally important to involve young people in the dissemination of Jesus’ teachings. And, of course, we must always keep in mind these words of the revelators:
The true church—the Jesuit brotherhood—is invisible, spiritual, and characterized by unity, not necessarily by uniformity. UB 195:10-11
We don’t have to think the same way. What we must have is a common goal: to live the teachings of The Urantia Book and shine with our own light so we can offer our light to those who live in darkness. We are unique individuals with the common goal of making this world a better place. And for this, we don’t need institutionalized churches; that stage is over; it’s time to try something new: a dynamic and living fellowship where there are no ecclesiastical authorities or intermediaries between us and the Father.
…in this brotherhood of Jesus there is no place for sectarian rivalries, resentment between groups, or claims of moral superiority and spiritual infallibility. UB 195:10.14
At the end of Document 195, the word “hope” is used several times. Our world is isolated and plunged into darkness, but it is in our hands to ensure that this does not continue much longer:
The great hope of Urantia lies in the possibility of a new revelation of Jesus with a new and enlarged presentation of his saving message which would spiritually unite in loving service the numerous families of his present-day professed followers. UB 195:10.16
Once again, I insist on the idea that readers of the fifth revelation should respond to this call. We know this new revelation of Jesus; we have the opportunity to recover what Christianity hid within its body of doctrine. We don’t need churches, but we do need to do quiet, constant work that soaks in, like rainwater soaking the earth.
If we don’t do it, who will? If we don’t do it now, when will we?
And finally, I would like to quote the final words of Paper 170, beautiful words full of hope that give us much to think about regarding the future role of readers of The Urantia Book in rescuing the true message of Jesus:
Mistake not! there is in the teachings of Jesus an eternal nature which will not permit them forever to remain unfruitful in the hearts of thinking men. The kingdom as Jesus conceived it has to a large extent failed on earth; for the time being, an outward church has taken its place; but you should comprehend that this church is only the larval stage of the thwarted spiritual kingdom, which will carry it through this material age and over into a more spiritual dispensation where the Master’s teachings may enjoy a fuller opportunity for development. Thus does the so-called Christian church become the cocoon in which the kingdom of Jesus’ concept now slumbers. The kingdom of the divine brotherhood is still alive and will eventually and certainly come forth from this long submergence, just as surely as the butterfly eventually emerges as the beautiful unfolding of its less attractive creature of metamorphic development. UB 170:5.21