© 1991 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
| The Urantia Book and Modern Science: Harmony or Discord? | Spring 1991 — First Issue — Index | Song of The Urantia Book |
This feature is written by ministers. Since The Urantia Book at this point in time is potentially controversial, names are sometimes withheld so as not to interfere with their rapport in ministry.
I have been in the parish ministry for a decade and am currently serving as a pastor in the United Church of Christ in the Midwest, which I intend to continue for Christ’s sake.
I first encountered The Urantia Book in seminary. The year was 1979 and I was a second year student. A student friend, a practicing disciple of Sri Chinmoy (a Hindu guru on the contemporary scene at the time), was instructed to quit seminary, two years after he had been told to enroll in the seminary. Mike was selling his library and I picked up his copy of The Urantia Book for 50 cents along with other books at bargain prices. I was a student of new religious movements and wanted someday to read it. On several occasions I thumbed through it and read a section or two, but for the most part it sat unread on my bookshelf through my seminary graduation and through my first stint as a local church pastor.
Two years into my second pastorate a kindly old man who worked every year at a community-wide used book sale came to me and asked, “Do you know anything about The Urantia Book?” He had discovered a used copy and after perusing the contents found it interesting. I said, “I really don’t. I own a copy and have read several sections of it, but I don’t really know anything about it.” As our conversation went back and forth I remember saying, “Although I’m not well acquainted with it, I have to say that it does not conflict with anything I know in terms of world history, philosophy, or Christianity.” I went back and perused it again, read a few more sections, and tried to confirm the appraisal I had made.
Upon reflection I have to say that I really became a Christian only after reading The Urantia Book.
I suppose it was hearing myself say those words that led me to make the commitment to read it from cover to cover. I began in the third year of that pastorate. It took me 15 months to read it, neglecting most other reading during that time. I have not been the same since.
Upon reflection I have to say that I really became a Christian only after reading The Urantia Book. It helped me to make intellectual sense of several fundamental Christian beliefs, such as the reality of eternal life and Jesus’ miracles. That is a strong statement, but for me, it is true. For you to understand this, it may be helpful to briefly recap my own spiritual development.
I was raised in the United Church of Christ, and like many United Church children, I pretty much dropped out of church after high school. After a brief marriage and a tour of Viet Nam, I entered into a period of alcohol and drug experimentation. Barely a day of those five years was I sober. During those years I studied for a degree in philosophy at the local university, which included a fair amount of study of eastern religions.
During those years I came to understand my Christianity in very “Hindu” terms, which I would sum up in two statements: (1) Jesus was a great guru; and (2) eternal life is a kind of personal absorption into the great nirvanic void.
After graduating from college I received a “call” to enter the seminary. My purpose for pursuing a seminary degree was to help build a bridge between the eastern religions and Christianity. I too became involved with a contemporary California guru, whom I truly believed I would serve after graduation from the seminary.
The very language of The Urantia Book filled me with utter awe and genuine respect for its level of spiritual articulation that would, I believe, stand up under the most rigorous contemporary philosophical and Christian theological analysis.
After my seminary graduation I “chanced” upon an opportunity to serve a United Church of Christ church as a pastor. I needed the work — service to the guru was not a paying proposition. A very significant thing happened at this point in my life. The senior minister of this large and influential church trusted me enough to encourage me to take a staff position. His trust changed my life, but not my theology.
Like a good mainline pastor, I continued to believe that Jesus was a great teacher and that eternal life was a kind of absorption into the great void. And that’s what I preached! In seminary I had found sufficient theological justification for holding such a belief.
I don’t know if my congregations just tolerated me or if they believed as I did. (I suspect the former.) But it was not until I completed reading The Urantia Book that I realized that those beliefs were not only not Christian but were simply not true. The Urantia Book had thoroughly convinced me that Jesus Christ was indeed God incarnate — in a sense that I clearly had not previously understood or believed.
The very language of The Urantia Book filled me with utter awe and genuine respect for its level of spiritual articulation that would, I believe, stand up under the most rigorous contemporary philosophical and Christian theological analysis. I was further convinced of the eternal nature of the soul and the continuity of individual personality after death. It presents a rational articulation of eternal life that sets before each person the responsibility for spiritual growth in this life and beyond.
It is difficult to condense into a pithy sentence or two the essence of 2,097 pages of the most comprehensive, complex, and complete articulation of the history of human spirituality ever compiled. I can only assure you that reading it is worth your time.
But, you may ask, “Is The Urantia Book true?” Again, I don’t know how to answer. That question has receded into obsolescence for me. After I read The Urantia Book, the issue of it’s “truth” seemed almost immaterial. To ask for objective verification is about like asking for proof of Jesus’ divinity! Its authenticity must be verified in the heart and mind of the individual. Such questions tend to side-track the usefulness and application of the message. The better question to ask (of Jesus or The Urantia Book) is, “Is it helpful for the growth and maturation of your spiritual life?” My reply on both accounts is a resounding “Yes!”
| The Urantia Book and Modern Science: Harmony or Discord? | Spring 1991 — First Issue — Index | Song of The Urantia Book |