© 2022 Tom Allen
© 2022 The Urantia Book Fellowship
by Tom Allen
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. 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)
Even if there were such a person capable of spearheading a huge shift in the spiritual economy on the planet today, I believe that the times may not be ripe for it. Secularism, climate change threats, fossil fuel dependence, wars and rumors of wars, crumbling democracies, insufficient leadership, rise of autocracy, racial inequality, unequal distribution of wealth, deficient sex equality, economic upheavals, horrific natural disasters, declining Christianity, amusement madness, family decline, massive starvation, cyber warfare, sociologic riptides, paucity of public opinion education, rampant illiteracy, world-wide pandemic scourges, nationalism, lagging patriotism and cultural solidarity, and trending atheism all combine to create a very unstable and semi-barbaric world. These dangerous conditions together are possibly leading our planet to crises like we have not seen since World War II.
Our civilization is beginning to parallel the demise of the Roman Empire.
Even a good religion could not save a great empire from the sure results of lack of individual participation in the affairs of government, from overmuch paternalism, overtaxation and gross collection abuses, unbalanced trade with the Levant which drained away the gold, amusement madness, Roman standardization, the degradation of woman, slavery and race decadence, physical plagues, and a state church which became institutionalized nearly to the point of spiritual barrenness. UB 195:3.9
I don’t like to sound like either Jeremiah or Chicken Little, but our semi-barbaric civilization is materially and culturally advancing too rapidly without sufficient spirituality. Even the Urantia community from the beginning exhibited emphasis of the intellectual over the spiritual. We could be approaching an interregnumsignificant cultural retrogression-as noted in the next quotations:
For when culture advances overfast, when material achievement outruns the evolution of worship-wisdom, then does civilization contain within itself the seeds of retrogression; and unless buttressed by the swift augmentation of experiential wisdom, such human societies will recede from high but premature levels of attainment, and the “dark ages” of the interregnum of wisdom will bear witness to the inexorable restoration of the imbalance between selfliberty and self-control. (UB 118:8.6)
Civilizations are unstable because they are not cosmic; they are not innate in the individuals of the races. They must be nurtured by the combined contributions of the constitutive factors of man-science, morality, and religion. Civilizations come and go, but science, morality, and religion always survive the crash (UB 16:9.5).
No national civilization long endures unless its educational methods and religious ideals inspire a high type of intelligent patriotism and national devotion. Without this sort of intelligent patriotism and cultural solidarity, all nations tend to disintegrate as a result of provincial jealousies and local self-interests (UB 81:6.35).
All futurists are wrong, and so am I too, but in looking forward to the next few hundred years, I predict that Urantia will be a much different place than it is today because of serious adversity, just as the Roman Empire and Europe was drastically altered leading up to and after Rome’s fall.
A Most High observer is empowered, at his discretion, to seize the planetary government in times of grave planetary crises, and it is of record that this has happened thirty-three times in the history of Urantia (UB 114:4.4).
In the apocryphal “Publication Mandate” (see for more details) what does this quote mean? “The Book belongs to the era immediately to follow the conclusion of the present ideological struggle.” What was or is the present ideological struggle? Communism and Facism vs. Democracy? Liberalism versus Conservatism? The conclusion of the adjudication of Lucifer? The benign and beneficial ideological struggle between the Angels of Progress and the Angels of the Churches? Self-liberty versus Self-control? Nationalism versus internationalism? It is impossible authoritatively to ascribe any intended meaning to this quote. What good is it? This projected era did not materialize after the threats of Communism abated in the 1980s.
The current and near future turmoil on Urantia may create another such regency soon-maybe already has-although we humans would not be aware of its beneficent consequences. We may take comfort that the “Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men,” (which appears six time in The Urantia Book) especially when things get rough.
Melchizedeks are excellent futurists, as evidenced by the prophecy that Machiventa Melchizedek told Abraham about the future of Abraham’s progeny occupying Canaan after their sojourn in Egypt (cf. UB 93:6.3). That prediction took another eight-hundred years or so to come true. Perhaps they have a very good idea about the projected future of Urantia for the next one-thousand years.
Who are the “golden rulers” to whom the Melchizedek refers in this quote?
The appearance of genuine brotherhood signifies that a social order has arrived in which all men delight in bearing one another’s burdens; they actually desire to practice the golden rule. But such an ideal society cannot be realized when either the weak or the wicked lie in wait to take unfair and unholy advantage of those who are chiefly actuated by devotion to the service of truth, beauty, and goodness. In such a situation only one course is practical: The “golden rulers” may establish a progressive society in which they live according to their ideals while maintaining an adequate defense against their benighted fellows who might seek either to exploit their pacific predilections or to destroy their advancing civilization. (UB 71:4.16)
Was the Melchizedek author referring to a future age of genuine brotherhood? If we fall into an interregnum of a new “Dark Age,” civilization will retrogress. Over time the breakdown of society will lead to the gathering of “golden rulers” into progressive societies preserving science, morality, and religion. These golden rulers will come together to establish their progressive societies, but they must be wary of those uncontrolled bands of wicked and weak persons who wish to destroy their advancing civilization. How will these future communities need to defend themselves? What role will the Urantia papers play in our future gatherings? Will the times be right in these possible dark ages for the universal spiritual appeal of another and greater John (or Joan) the Baptist?
We hope and pray for the swift augmentation of experiential wisdom. Another and greater John (or Joan) the Baptist will certainly rise. Great spiritual leaders rise in times of crisis, so this prophecy is bound to happen. Like the early builders and planners of the first Garden, our lives will likely be over long before the ripening of the mission of a new epoch of enhanced global spirituality. We should not pin our hopes on seeing John or Joan during our lifetimes.
The troubles on Urantia have not yet burst for the possible slide into the interregnum. Do not be surprised if it will be another onehundred to onethousand years before such conditions ripen for the advent of a significant adoption of the gospel of Jesus and the global mission of the fifth revelation of epochal significance.
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 “quivering on the very brink” quote is written by secondary midwayers who have lived for over thirty-six thousand years, and possibly see one-thousand years as the quivering brink about which they prophesied. To them, onethousand years is not a long time. Were the Midwayers naïve to think that the 1960 s would begin the flowering of a new epoch? It possibly could have. John or Joan did not show up. Nor could they in hindsight. Too many things went wrong on Urantia, and we did not reach the levels of spirituality that would have inspired amazing spiritual leadership and created balance between the material and the spiritual. We must wait for another day to go past the epochal brink. The brink is like standing on the threshold of the very beginning of a new period in the Post-Bestowal Son Man epoch on Urantia. This period may extend for at least one -thousand years, and possibly many thousands more before we are ready for another emergency epochal revelation or the inauguration of the Post-Magisterial Son Man epoch. In the meantime, we are on our own in a dark world suffering from the dual catastrophe of rebellion and default.
Our children’s children’s children could well be in for a rough ride until the distant dawning of a new period within the Post-Bestowal Son Man epoch on Urantia, or until the distant inauguration of the Post-Magisterial Son Man epoch. Perhaps then or before, the world will be ripe for John or Joan to begin their amazing spiritual ministry. Even if all things earthly crash, at least we know that science, morality, and religion will survive.
We should now personally and institutionally do what we can to improve the spiritual economy of our planet. We may need to come together and plan for these coming days of adversity that will likely be far more difficult for the next several generations than what the world faces today.
We should not be disheartened. Eventual success is guaranteed. And we have work and adversity to overcome with the faith shield of bestowed love.
Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail (UB 196:3.33).
¶ References
- Article obtained from The Fellowship site