© 1994 The Brotherhood of Man Library
The Sunshine Coast Study Group, Qld., Australia
Among Urantia Book readers, an idea is widespread that condemns the introduction of the teachings of the book into Christianity by any other means than a direct frontal attack using, the book itself as the assault weapon. To attempt to introduce these teachings through “the back door” by means of secondary works is categorized, in a derogatory manner, as “bootlegging.” The Foundation itself is on record as stating, there is no need for secondary works and appears to have pursued a policy for their suppression. When confronted by ourselves three years ago, trustees proved to be unaware of the following, quotation from the book written by a Divine Counselor:
The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. . . . UB 2:7.10
Can we have any doubt whatsoever that the reference to “exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth etc.” is a self-referential statement, for where can we find a modern exposition of divine truth that equals or surpasses the revelatory truth of The Urantia Book?
If we take our revelation seriously, this means that readers with some God-given or learned gift for writing or speaking, no matter how small, must feel challenged to participate in the construction of these “new and appealing philosophies of living” that will touch and transform the hearts of mankind by utilizing the cosmic truths that have been revealed to us—in other words to construct suitable secondary works. Note too that the revelator (a Divine Counselor) is asking us to construct new works from the cosmic truths of the book, not to just use the book itself. This, and other references that follow, imply that secondary works derived from The Urantia Book are to be a major means to spiritually unite the planet.
In view of the prior track record, can authors of secondary works expect to receive Foundation blessing, approval, and cooperation? If not, whom do they obey—the humanly appointed trustees, or the Divine Counselor?
Perhaps our own experience offers hope. As authors of a secondary work entitled “The Apprentice Apostleship Papers,” and co-authors of a program for computer interactive instruction on the teachings of The Urantia Book we took the problem to visiting trustees and were encouraged to first do the work and afterwards submit it to the Foundation. Both during preparation and after completion, copies of these works were forwarded to two trustees and an emeritus trustee. Receipt was acknowledged in writing but with no other comment, hence we assumed there were no objections and both projects have been widely circulated. Four years have passed since the first project was forwarded and about three for the second with no reaction, indicating the possibility that our Foundation Trustees are heeding the content of the Divine Counselor’s challenge.
Many potential authors of secondary works are probably as ignorant as we were, until recently, of the regulations concerning copyrights. These current instructions to authors come from a major U.S. publishing house: “You must have permission from the copyright owner to quote (a) more than 500 words from any prose work (consecutive lines or otherwise) or (b) more than four lines of poetry.”
Ideas and concepts cannot be copyrighted. You can take these and re-state them in your own words without necessarily acknowledging the original source. The authors of the Urantia Papers have done this quite extensively in accordance with their mandate that, “we shall, in all our efforts to reveal truth and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give preference to the highest existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects to be presented.”UB 0:12.11
The quoted statement by the Divine Counselor on UB 2:7.10 to “those farseeing and forward-looking men and women” is not the sole plea contained in The Urantia Book for the production of secondary works that are firmly based on the truths contained therein. Others are:
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. . . . UB 195:9.2
Note the use of the indefinite article “a” in this quotation: “a new and fuller revelation” not “this new and fuller revelation.” This usage is repeated in the next two quotations, hence cannot have been fortuitous.
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
. . . Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus’ life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation. . . . UB 195:10.1
There is an enormous latent potential in the congregations of mainstream Christianity waiting to be awakened to the new revelation. But the sole method of its introduction cannot be restricted to a direct acceptance of The Urantia Book per se, a fact admitted in the above references that refer to “a new revelation” in a manner that is not self-referential. Then, in the next quotation that specifically states “this revelation” (i.e. The Urantia Book) the presentation of the living Jesus to the Christian churches is to be through the revelation and not necessarily by it.
. . . What a transcendent service if, through this revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered from the tomb of traditional theology and be presented as the living Jesus to the church that bears his name, and to all other religions! . . . UB 196:1.2
The means and the method? - elsewhere we are told:
. . . And this was his (Jesus) method of instruction: Never once did he attack their errors or even mention the flaws in their teachings. In each case he would select the truth in what they taught and then proceed so to embellish and illuminate this truth in their minds that in a very short time this enhancement of the truth effectively crowded out the associated error; . . . UB 132:0.4
Confrontation is useless, and not the way of Jesus. There is no gain to be made in, for example, attacking “the creation theory” of the fundamentalists—and there is no need. There are far more important things that should concern us; for example, the truth that the spirits of the Father and the Son indwell us to lead us to ardently seek the perfection of God as revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus. Reference is made to this information in the gospel of John (Jn 14:16,23) and the letters of Paul (Ro 8:14-16; Ga 4:6), but interpretation has become confused and its relative importance has been submerged in traditional theology. The Urantia Book clarifies this for us and gives us the task of restoring the proper priority for such teachings.
Similarly, there is no point (and no need) to argue against the doctrines of original sin or atonement through the cross. If we just teach that, for Jesus, reality was a gracious and compassionate God, the profound truths implied fly this apparently simple statement of fact will eventually crowd out such error. We must realize that the revelators are not so much concerned with how we get their message through as with the requirement that ue do get it through. Acceptance of the revelatory nature of the book is not paramount. It will come in its own good time.
There are many basic teachings contained in the gospels the importance of which is clarified for us in The Urantia Book. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel (Mt 5:1 - 7:28) is very close to the version given in the Ordination Sermon in Part 4 of the book (UB 140). The true meaning of some parts of the gospel account that may be misinterpreted or perhaps partially overlooked are reinterpreted more explicitly in the book. Also the book provides an expanded explanation of the meaning and significance of the gospel accounts of the parables.
Of the parables, among the most important are the three that Jesus was very partial to recounting together (UB 169:1.14-16). These were the parable of “the lost sheep”, “the lost coin”, and “the prodigal son” that illustrate the Father’s willingness to receive all who seek entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
In the parable of “the prodigal son” (Lk 15), when the son returns with the aim of throwing himself at his father’s feet to plead for forgiveness, the father does not wait for the prodigal to do this but rushes out to meet him and welcome him home—even before the son can ask for forgiveness. Here, we are touchingly reminded of the true nature of our heavenly Father, a nature that is totally incompatible with the notion that the forgiving of our sinfulness was ever conditional upon the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus, on a cross.
Together these three parables provide an excellent example of truths that, of their own accord, have the potential to painlessly displace error—if repeated well enough and often enough. But the truth about forgiveness should have always been obvious to theologians since the New Testament gospels tell us that Jesus often forgave sin before he was crucified. Our personal opinion is that one of the most effective ways to introduce Christianity to the living Jesus depicted in The Urantia Book is through children’s stories. There are many ways to restate Jesus’ parables, as expanded or explained in the book. in a manner that is consistent with the gospel versions and, when read by parents to young children, will not only hold the attention of the children, but will also rub off painlessly on the parents. And besides the traditional bedtime story, modern technology presents vast new opportunities by use of electronic media, interactive computer programs, virtual reality, etc.
Many other examples could be given but this is really the task of those “farseeing and forward-looking” individuals referred to by the Divine Counselor in our first quotation from the book. One of the subsequent quotations requires that we present the truth of the living Jesus, not only to the Christian churches but also to all other religions! If you think fundamentalist and some fringe group Christians present a formidable task, give thought to presenting the truth about the living Jesus to Islam.
The book informs us that slow evolution is usually more practical than revolution, so perhaps we first need to introduce the non-Christian world to the nature of God portrayed in Part I of The Urantia Book as preparatory to the task of introducing the personal revelation of the Universal Father provided by the actual life and teachings of Jesus. The task will be made easier if we can convey to the world the incredible love of God, remembering that:
. . . Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man.UB 100:4.6
To date, the Urantia movement has made little progress on this aspect of the book’s teachings.
To those individuals who feel that they should respond to the challenge to produce secondary works, we make one plea. If you have not had extensive experience and contact with mainstream Christianity and, like many Urantia Book readers, equate all church teachings to such as those of the Jehova’s Witnesses, extremist protestanism, pre-Vatican 2 Roman Catholicism, some of the views of the present Pope, etc., then at least read some of the literature at the other end of the spectrum. That by Marcus J. Borg’,[1] or the account of Christianity provided in “The Religions of Man” by Huston Smith[2] make profitable reading. The latter is also an excellent introduction to that which is best in other major, present-day religions.
Part of the task to be accomplished needs to be done without direct reference to The Urantia Book. That can be achieved without infringing the present copyright situation and without Foundation approval. In view of the Divine Counselor’s exhortation and perhaps the tolerance recently displayed by the Foundation, we do not believe it is necessary to be excessively restrained.