© 1993 Ron Cyr
© 1993 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
| The Teaching Mission. “If Not Actual Personalities, Then What?” | Vol 14 No 2 March 1993 — Index | The Australian Conference 1993 |
Ron Cyr, Blaine, USA
Having been a reader of The URANTIA Book for twenty years, and a conference ‘groupie’ for the last ten years, I have been aware, as are a lot of other readers, that the Fifth Epochal Revelation has not shown much progress since its infancy on Urantia almost forty years ago. A lot of blame has been put on the Grimsley affair, the split with the Foundation, the apathy of the readers, the restriction of the sale of the book or whatever. If I may, I would like to bring another point of view of why some of us, or should I say most of us, are groping in the dark for directions, never being certain if the decisions being taken are the right ones.
The common denominator in the five revelations is that each one has a spiritual origin. There is also a common denominator for the first three revelations in that spiritual vision came with the personalities charged with bringing them. For the fourth revelation, although the origin was spiritual, spiritual vision did not come ready-made with Jesus. In time, it was attained by the way he lived his life on Urantia.
The Fifth Revelation is unique. Though also of spiritual origin, no personality endowed with spiritual vision has come with it. The spiritual vision will have to be provided by those human beings who have searched the revelation and aspired to that vision.
No vision gives no results; human vision gives human results; spiritual vision gives spiritual results.
Can a human being, or a group, attain a spiritual vision by means of human vision? My answer is irrevocably — no. Human vision cannot give spiritual results any more than a child in kindergarten can teach quantum physics. Human vision originates from a material human brain ‘that thinks that it thinks’. Spiritual vision originates from a higher source. A human vision is from time and projected in time. A spiritual vision is from beyond time and extended in time.
Naturally the question is “what is it to have a spiritual vision?” To be honest I do not know. With the help of The URANTIA Book maybe we can find out what happens when the spiritual vision in a revelation is missing, ceases to be, or is not there. From there we might develop a glimpse of what it is, which will give us the light to follow it through. The more that a human being learns what God is not, the closer that human being gets to know God as He is. Analogously, knowing what a spiritual vision is not, or what happens when it is not present, may be the beginning of knowing what a spiritual vision is.
Human Vision Cannot Give Spiritual Results Any More Than A Child In kindergarten can teach quantum physics.
When the First Revelation arrived, since Caligastia and his entourage were spiritual beings, by the law of logic they had to have spiritual vision. When the rebellion struck Caligastia and his acolytes, they replaced in their minds the spiritual vision they had brought with them with the teachings of Lucifer. Their vision was now Lucifer’s vision. By replacing spiritual vision with Lucifer’s vision, the whole plan came to a screeching halt. But Van and Amadon kept the original spiritual vision alive until Adam and Eve arrived.
The Second Revelation also came with a spiritual vision. Adam and Eve kept it alive even after they defaulted. But when they died that was the end of it. We are told that the default of Adam and Eve was more disastrous than the Caligastia upheaval (UB 34:7.6). The Caligastia upheaval precipitated world-wide confusion and robbed all subsequent generations of the moral assistance which a well-ordered society would have provided. But even more disastrous was the Adamic default in that it deprived the races of that superior type of physical nature which would have been more consonant with spiritual aspirations.
I believe that another reason that compounded the problems was that, for the first time, Urantia had nobody with a spiritual vision. So from then on it was all downhill.
After the default the ‘light of life’ almost vanished. It was getting so serious that an emergency revelation appeared under the direction of Melchizedek (UB 35:4.1). He volunteered to incarnate in the likeness of mortal flesh and did so with the approval of the Melchizedek receivers of the planet who feared that the ‘light of life’ would become extinguished during that period of increasing spiritual darkness. And he did foster the truth of his day and safely pass it on to Abraham and his associates.
For 94 years we were again blessed with spiritual vision and that was enough to carry the ball until the appearance of Jesus. But the Fourth Epochal Revelation did not come endowed with spiritual vision. It had to be attained by the way Jesus lived his life on Urantia.
As much as he tried, Jesus could not get the apostles to elevate themselves to his level of thinking. We are told in The URANTIA Book that the apostles did, in a way, fail in their mission to carry the vision that Jesus was trying to extend to them. In fact, the Spirit of Truth gave the apostles more spiritual vision than they obtained during all the time that they spent with Jesus. But they could not entirely let go of their human vision of what they thought the Christ (Messiah) should have been. So they ended up with a spiritual vision mixed with a human vision which, in return, gave a lot of spiritual results mixed with human results.
Would The URANTIA Book have been given to us if the apostles had not failed in their mission? I do believe that one reason why the book has been given to us is “to remedy where the apostles failed”. We readers of The URANTIA Book must provide the missing link if this revelation is to succeed.
Personally I am not conscious of having a spiritual vision but in all of us there can reside the Spirit of Truth which does have it. I firmly believe that, to attain spiritual vision, the first thing for me to do is to recognize my most vital need to have it. In time, if I keep that desire uppermost in my thoughts, then I might be blessed with it. Even if I never gain consciousness of it, just because of the fact that I want it above anything else, my actions will tend to harmonize with that vision — and the Spirit of Truth will coordinate my actions with those of other people involved in the same search and with the same goal. Whether such people are cognizant of one another is irrelevant.
The Movers and Shakers of this beautiful revelation will be the ones who are unafraid to act with enthusiastic dedication. But being known as a Mover and Shaker is immaterial, the Spirit of Truth is the hero.
I hope that I have been able to show that a spiritual revelation can only be led, run, or directed with a spiritual vision if it is to go anywhere. The lack of it will entail a lack of spiritual results. A company can be run with a human vision — but not a revelation.
Be of good cheer and the Vision be with us all.
| The Teaching Mission. “If Not Actual Personalities, Then What?” | Vol 14 No 2 March 1993 — Index | The Australian Conference 1993 |