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11 - Some
Criticisms
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CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Consideration of
Some Criticisms of the Urantia
Book
by
Dr. William S. Sadler
Instructions on
Notes: Notes in this chapter are marked with
(1) Placing your mouse over these brackets will
change the color
(1) and the notes will
appear in the upper left hand corner of your screen in a
small window!
A Note: The document of the preceding
chapter included quotes from a list of
psychic or psychological phenomena which Sadler
claimed were not associated with
the origins of the Revelation. Those quotes came from this
paper. It was written by Sadler in
1958, later in his life. It was in response to a meeting
organized by Dr. Meredith Sprunger
between Sadler and a group of ministers from mainline
churches in Indiana. He read from
this paper to the group of ministers. Where appropriate I
make comments through endnotes.
Where Sadler makes statements particularly important
to denial of origins through psychic phenomena I show
them in bold letters. I follow his
text exactly, as it has been preserved in the files of the
Urantia Foundation in Chicago and
by Dr. Sprunger. (Numbers in parentheses refer to notes at
the end.)
******************************
A s
a general rule, I think the Urantia Book can defend itself
against all critics. But I thought
it might be both informative and profitable to present
to you some of the criticisms of the Urantia Book
made by three or four ministers.
Two of these critics belong to that high echelon of theology
that might be comparable to the
professors in our theological seminaries.
As you will observe, it is evident that these critics
had not very carefully read the
Urantia Book.
Before taking on these individual
criticisms, allow me to call to your attention
some admonitions given us in connection with the
mandate for the publication of the
Urantia Book. Among other things we were advised:
Your are called to a great work and yours is
to be a transcendent privilege to
present this revelation to the peoples of this strife-torn
world. Supercilious scientists
will ridicule you and some may even charge you
with collusion and fraud. Well-meaning religionists
will condemn you as enemies of the
Christian religion and accuse you of defaming Christ
himself.
Thousands of spiritually hungry souls will
bless you for the message you
bring, and thousands of others will condemn you for
disturbing their theologic
complacence.
Are you ready for your baptism of joys and
sorrows which will certainly
attend upon the early distribution of the Urantia
Revelation?(1)(2)
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The Birth of a Divine
Revelation
At the time of the formulation of these
remarks, the secretary of the Urantia
Foundation chanced to show me the following letter,
which I think represents the
comforting aspect of the forewarnings extended to us in the
communication just noted. Let me
read this letter(3):
Lampasas, Texas
Dec. 1, 1958
Dear Sir:
Please believe me when I say the Urantia
Book has made the biggest impression
in my life. Before I read this book I was not a very
religious person, but now through
this book, I have gained a very vivid insight into the
Kingdom of God.
If you could tell me something of the origin
of the material from which the actual
pages were printed, I would greatly appreciate it.
I would also like to have another book, for
a Christmas present to my mother,
who is deeply religious. Please find my check for the
purchase and mailing cost plus a
sum over, with which you may do as you see fit.
Anything I can do to help the Foundation further the
spread of this book, please let me
know.
Sincerely,
James R. C.
Criticism
#1: The top theologians and the seminary professors will
never
endorse the
Urantia Book.
Once upon a time the imprisoned John sent
messengers to Jesus to inquire
about the certainty of his teachings and his mission. Did
Jesus send word to John saying,
“Go tell John that the doctors of the Law and the professors
of the Rabbinic Academies of
Jerusalem are accepting the Gospel. The Leaders of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees are being baptized — even
some of the chief priests and
leading citizens of Jerusalem are flocking to our standard.”
No, he did not send any such message to
John. But he did say to John’s
messengers, “Go back and tell John that he is not forgotten.
Tell him what you have seen and
heard, that the poor have good tidings preached to them.”
Page
1626.►►►
And the New Testament bears record that the
common people heard him gladly.
Mark 12:37
It is true, near the end of his life work,
while the theologians continued to
reject his teachings, many leaders among the Jews did accept
the gospel message, seeing that
many members of the Sanhedrin joined the Kingdom. (See
Pages 1910, 1118, 1789, 2013.)
Spiritual pride and ecclesiastical loyalty have
always made it difficult for the
chief priests and topnotch theologians to accept new truth
and give recognition to new
religious movements.
.
11 - Some
Criticisms
~137~
Note
this passage from the Urantia Book,
Page
1128►►►
While personal religion precedes the
evolution of human morals, it is
regretfully recorded that institutional religion has
invariably lagged behind the
slowly changing mores of the human races. Organized religion
has proved to be conservatively
tardy. The prophets have usually led the people in religious
development; the theologians have usually held them
back. Religion, being a matter of
inner or personal experience, can never develop very far in
advance of the intellectual
evolution of the races.
Criticism #2: The Urantia Book
is a revival of Gnosticism — a heresy
the Christian
Church repudiated in the early years of its existence.
Gnosticism was a syncretism of Jewish, pagan, and Christian
teachings prevalent in the early
centuries of the Christian era. It was characterized by the
following teachings:
1. They had many secret and mystic slogans
and symbols.
2. You get to heaven by knowing the names of
demons and by means of secret
formulas.
3. They taught the Old Testament doctrine
that Deity created both good and
evil.
4. They revered seven planetary divinities:
the sun, moon, and five planets.
5. They taught that the soul wanders through
the cosmos and finally attains
heaven by means of magic formulas.
6. They had a dogma of the Grand Mother —
Sophia.
7. That primal man reappears as a succession
of prophets, finally as Christ.
8. Salvation was largely a myth.
9. They were ascetic — followed Paul’s ideas
of sex and marriage.
10. It embraced a lot of wild and
speculative Oriental superstitions.
11. Getting down to facts — Jesus was little
more than a phantom.
12. Salvation was by knowledge, not by
faith.
Now, I submit, that anyone who has even
superficially read the Urantia Book
could testify that at no point is the teaching of the
book in agreement with the dogmas
of Gnosticism. On every count, the doctrines(4)
of Urantia are a refutation of
Gnostic teachings.
Some have thought that Paul had reference to
the early teachings of Gnosticism
when he admonished the Colossians — “See to it that no one
makes a prey of you by philosophy
and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according
to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not
according to Christ.” Col 2:8.
Specifically,
The Urantia Papers
strike down all things as secrets, symbols,
slogans, ceremonies, and other magic techniques of
gaining divine favor. You get to
heaven by knowing God — not the secret names of intervening
demons — and by FAITH.
The book repudiates the teaching that God
creates both good and evil. It
disowns planetary deities and all things astrological.
To Urantians, the soul does not wander aimlessly
through the cosmos and attain
Paradise by magic formulas. The soul evolves on earth,
traverses the morontia
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The Birth of a Divine Revelation
spheres, attains spirit status, and is
mustered into the Mortal Corps of the Finality
— there awaiting the assignment to undisclosed
service in outer space.
The Urantia Papers
certainly do not countenance anything resembling Mother
worship, whether it be the Gnostic Sophia or the
Virgin Mary. The quasi-incarnation
concept of the primal man evolving through the prophets
to appear full bloom in Jesus Christ is not the
teaching of Urantia. The bestowal
of Michael is clear-cut and transcendent.
To us, salvation is not a myth; it is the
eternal purpose of God and the one
reality of the universe. It is the gift of God and we secure
it by FAITH. The book does not
teach asceticism. It does not endorse Paul’s ideas of sex
and marriage which are somewhat like those of
Gnosticism. Urantia ennobles sex
and glorifies marriage; the home is societies basic and
grandest institution.
The book gives recognition to none of the
wild and woolly oriental superstitious
embraced in Gnostic speculations.
There is nothing shadowy and fantastic about the
Jesus of The
Urantia Papers.
His past, present, and
future, his nature and universe status, are portrayed
in clear outline and his teachings are presented in
certitude of authenticity.
In the Urantia Book, salvation is not by
knowledge but by faith. Let the book
speak for itself, page 290.
Faith has won of the ascendant pilgrim a
perfection of purpose which admits
the children of time to the portals of eternity.
Page 1865 — Jesus ... taught that the
truth-loving soul, the one who
hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for God, is admitted
by faith to the spiritual kingdom.
Page 59►►►
— The consciousness of a victorious human life on earth is
born of that creature faith which dares to challenge
each recurring episode of
existence when confronted with the awful spectacle of human
limitations, by the unfailing
declaration: Even if I cannot do this, there lives in me one
who can and will do it, a part of
the Father-Absolute of the universe of universes.
And that is “the victory which overcomes the world,
even your faith.”
Page 1583 — The right to enter the kingdom
is conditioned by faith, personal
belief.
Page 1567►►►
— The door of eternal life is wide open to all; whosoever
will may come; there are no
restrictions or qualifications save the faith of the one
who comes.
Page 1733►►►
— Now, mistake not, my Father will ever respond to the
faintest flicker of faith. . . . But you who have
been called out of darkness into
the light are expected to believe with a whole heart.
Page 1619►►►
— But when you pray, you exercise so little faith. Genuine
faith will remove mountains of material difficulty
which may chance to lie in the
path of soul expansion and spiritual progress.
Page 1682►►►
— Salvation is the gift of the Father and is revealed by his
Sons. Acceptance by faith on your part makes you a
partaker of the divine nature, a
son or a daughter of God. By faith you are justified; by
faith are you saved; and by this
same faith are you eternally advanced in the way of
progressive and divine perfection.
11 - Some
Criticisms
~139~
Page 1118 — But such is not man’s end and
eternal destiny; such a vision is
but the cry of despair uttered by some wandering soul who
has become lost in spiritual
darkness, and who bravely struggles on in the face of
the mechanistic sophistries of a material philosophy,
blinded by the confusion and
distortion of a complex learning. And all this doom of
darkness and all this destiny of
despair are forever dispelled by one brave stretch of faith
on the part of the most humble and
unlearned of God’s children on earth.
Page 1118 — This saving faith has its birth
in the human heart when the moral
consciousness of man realizes that human values may be
translated in mortal experience
from the material to the spiritual, from the human to the
divine, from time to eternity.
And all of this is in full agreement with
the New Testament declaration that
the just shall live by faith. Heb 10:38, Gal 3:11.
Criticism #3: There seems to be
nothing new or original about the
cosmology, and
to me it seems to be rather mechanical.
The cosmology of the Urantia Book is not
only unique and original, but it is
the first time religionists have had a cosmology
worthy of the universal claims of
Christianity. Heretofore, the scientists have twitted the
religionist about his restricted
and earth-centric cosmology, but now we religionists can
face science with a majestic and
transcendent cosmology that even challenges the scientist to
invent better instruments in order to view the
teeming galaxies which are beyond
the reach of their present-day telescopes.
And now about the assertion that the Urantia
cosmology is mechanical, let the
book speak for itself.
Yes, we have marvelous energy mechanisms in
the universe but they are living
mechanisms. See pages 324, 328-9.
Page 481►►►
— In the evaluation and recognition of mind it should be
remembered that the universe is
neither mechanical nor magical; it is a creation
of mind and a mechanism of law. But while in
practical application the laws of
nature operate in what seems to be the dual realms of the
physical and the spiritual, in
reality they are one. The First Source and Center is the
primal cause of all materialization and at the same
time the first and final Father of
all spirits. The Paradise Father appears personally in the
extra-Havona universes only as pure energy and pure
spirit — as the Thought Adjusters
and other similar fragmentations.
Page 481 — Mechanisms do not absolutely
dominate the total creation; the
universe of universes in toto is mind planned, mind made,
and mind administered. But the
divine mechanism of the universe of universes is
altogether too perfect for the scientific methods of
the finite mind of man to discern
even a trace of the dominance of the infinite mind. For this
creating, controlling, and
upholding mind is neither material mind nor creature mind;
it is spirit-mind functioning on
and from creator levels of divine reality.
Page 482 — The ability to discern and
discover mind in universe mechanisms
depends entirely on the ability, scope, and capacity
of the investigating
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The Birth of a Divine
Revelation
mind engaged in such a task of observation.
Time-space minds, organized out of
the energies of time and space, are subject to the
mechanisms of time and space.
Page 482 — Since mind co-ordinates the
universe, fixity of mechanisms is
nonexistent. The phenomenon of progressive evolution
associated with cosmic
self-maintenance is universal. The evolutionary capacity of
the universe is inexhaustible in
the infinity of spontaneity. Progress towards harmonious
unity, a growing experiential synthesis superimposed
on an ever-increasing complexity
of relationships, could be effected only by a purposive
and dominant mind.
Page 482►►►
— The higher the universe mind associated with any universe
phenomenon, the more difficult it is for the lower
types of mind to discover it. And
since the mind of the universe mechanism is creative
spirit-mind (even the mindedness
of the Infinite), it can never be discovered or discerned by
the lower-level minds of the
universe, much less by the lowest mind of all, the
human. The evolving animal mind, while naturally
God-seeking, is not alone and of
itself inherently God-knowing.
Page 484 — The spirit is the creative
reality; the physical counterpart is
the time-space reflection of the spirit reality, the
physical repercussion of the
creative action of spirit-mind. Mind universally dominates
matter, even as it is in turn
responsive to the ultimate overcontrol of spirit. And with
mortal man, only that mind which
freely submits itself to the spirit direction can hope to
survive the mortal time-space existence as an
immortal child of the eternal
spirit world of the Supreme, the Ultimate, and the Absolute:
the Infinite.
Page 1303 — The grand universe is mechanism
as well as organism, mechanical
and living — a living mechanism activated by a Supreme Mind,
co-ordinating with a Supreme Spirit, and finding
expression on maximum levels of
power and personality unification as the Supreme Being. But
to deny the mechanism of the
finite creation is to deny fact and to disregard reality.
Mechanisms are the products of mind, creative mind
acting on and in cosmic
potentials. Mechanisms are the fixed crystallizations of
Creator thought, and they ever
function true to the volitional concept that gave them
origin. But the purposiveness of
any mechanism is in its origin, not in its function. These
mechanisms should not be thought of as limiting the
action of Deity; rather is it true
that in these very mechanics Deity has achieved one phase of
eternal expression. The basic
universe mechanisms have come into existence in response
to the absolute will of the First Source and Center,
and they will therefore eternally
function in perfect harmony with the plan of the Infinite;
they are, indeed, the
nonvolitional patterns of that very plan. We understand
something of how the mechanism of
Paradise is correlated with the personality of
the Eternal Son; this is the function of the Conjoint
Actor. And we have theories
regarding the operations of the Universal Absolute with
respect to the theoretical
mechanisms of the Unqualified and the potential person of
the Deity Absolute. But in the
evolving Deities of Supreme and Ultimate we observe
that certain impersonal phases are being actually
united with their volitional
counterparts, and thus there is evolving a new relationship
between pattern and person.
Page 1305 — Nevertheless, the Father as a
person may at any time interpose a
fatherly hand in the stream of cosmic events all in
accordance with the will of God
and in consonance with the wisdom of God and as motivated
11 - Some
Criticisms
~141~
by the love of God. But what man calls
providence is all too often the
product of his own imagination, the fortuitous juxtaposition
of the circumstances of chance.
There is, however, a real and emerging providence in the
finite realm of universe existence, a true and
actualizing correlation of the
energies of space, the motions of time, the thoughts of
intellect, the ideals of
character, the desires of spiritual natures, and the
purposive volitional acts of
evolving personalities. The circumstances of the material
realms find final finite
integration in the interlocking presences of the Supreme and
the Ultimate.
Page 2077 — If men were only machines, they
would react more or less uniformly
to a material universe. Individuality, much less
personality, would be nonexistent.
The fact of the absolute mechanism of Paradise at the
center of the universe of
universes, in the presence of the unqualified volition of
the Second Source and Center,
makes forever certain that determiners are not the
exclusive law of the cosmos. Materialism is there,
but it is not exclusive; mechanism
is there, but it is not unqualified; determinism is there,
but it is not alone.
Page 2078 — The finite universe of matter
would eventually become uniform
and deterministic but for the combined presence of mind and
spirit. The influence of the
cosmic mind constantly injects spontaneity into even the
material worlds. The
inconsistency of the modern mechanist is: If this were
merely a material universe and man
only a machine, such a man would be wholly
unable to recognize himself as such a machine, and
likewise would such a machine-man
be wholly unconscious of the fact of the existence of such a
material universe. The materialistic dismay and
despair of a mechanistic science
has failed to recognize the fact of the spirit-indwelt mind
of the scientist whose very
supermaterial insight formulates these mistaken and
self-contradictory concepts of a materialistic
universe.
Page 2079 — If this were only a material
universe, material man would never
be able to arrive at the concept of the mechanistic
character of such an exclusively
material existence. This very mechanistic concept of the
universe is in itself a
nonmaterial phenomenon of mind, and all mind is of
nonmaterial origin, no matter how
thoroughly it may appear to be materially conditioned
and mechanistically controlled.
If the universe were only material and man
only a machine, there would be no
science to embolden the scientist to postulate this
mechanization of the universe.
Machines cannot measure, classify, nor evaluate themselves.
Such a scientific piece of work
could be executed only by some entity of
supermachine status.
If universe reality is only one vast
machine, then man must be outside
of the universe and apart from it in order to recognize such
a fact and become conscious of the
insight of such an evaluation.
If man is only a machine, by what technique
does this man come to believe or
claim to know that he is only a machine? The experience of
self-conscious evaluation of one’s self is never an
attribute of a mere machine. A
self-conscious and avowed mechanist is the best possible
answer to mechanism. If
materialism were a fact, there could be no self-conscious
mechanist. It is also true that one must first be a
moral person before one can
perform immoral acts.
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The Birth of a Divine
Revelation
Page 2080 — How foolish to presume that an
automaton could conceive a
philosophy of automatism, and how ridiculous that it should
presume to form such a concept of
other and fellow automatons! The
universe is not like the laws, mechanisms, and the
uniformities which the scientist
discovers, and which he comes to regard as science, but
rather like the curious, thinking, choosing,
creative, combining, and discriminating
scientist who thus observes universe phenomena and
classifies the mathematical facts
inherent in the mechanistic phases of the material side of
creation. Neither is the universe like the art of the
artist, but rather like the
striving, dreaming, aspiring, and advancing artist who seeks
to transcend the world of material
things in an effort to achieve a spiritual goal.
And so our clerical critic not only failed
to envision the magnificent cosmos
of the Urantia Book, but he so superficially read the text
that he thought it presented a
mechanical cosmos. How mistaken even a learned theologian
can be when his mind is not open
to the reception of new truth!
Criticism #4: Urantia
completely ignores the Biblical teachings about
man. For
Urantia man is finite, ignorant, and enslaved by matter. In
the
Bible man is
anxious, guilty, fallen, and spiritually perverse. There is
just
no common
ground between these two views.
This is a criticism difficult to analyze.
The criticism presents only a partial
view of man as presented in
The Urantia Papers.
And we think that this concept of
the Biblical view of man is also somewhat incomplete and a
bit distorted. Since both pictures
of man are hardly truly representative of either the Urantia
Book or the Bible, it is hardly
profitable to undertake a detailed discussion of this
criticism.
But I would call attention to the full and
comprehensive manner in which the
book does present the story of man’s origin, nature,
history, and destiny.
The Urantia Papers
tell us about the origin of life on this planet. Then
follows the story of prehuman life
and the appearance of Andon and Fonta, the first
human beings. The arrival of the six colored races is
depicted. Humanity is carried down
through the ages, through the planetary rebellion,
the Adamic default, on down to the times of Jesus’
bestowal in the flesh.
There is an elaborate and profound doctrine
of man presented in the Urantia
Book: Man created in the image of God, endowed with a
provisional free will, indwelt by
a fragment of God, by faith fellowshipped as a son of God in
the brotherhood — the kingdom of
heaven.
Human personality is a divine gift. Survival
is a gift of grace which man
secures by faith. Never in all the world’s history has there
been presented such a complete
account of man’s origin, history, and destiny.
A minister, with a doctor’s degree, recently
said to me, The Urantia concept of
man is in harmony with the best Christian thought of today.
11 - Some
Criticisms
~143~
Criticism #5: Why should not
the person who put
The
Urantia Papers
in written English be known?
The authors of the Books of the Bible
are known.
The book itself tells how
The Urantia Papers
came to be. (See citations on the
back of the dust jacket of the Urantia Book.) The reason
given us for not disclosing the
identity of the subject employed in this transaction was: We
do not want future generations to
be concerned with the adoration of a Saint Peter or
Saint Paul, a Luther, Calvin, or Wesley. We want no
individual to be exalted by
The Urantia Papers.
The book should stand on its own nature and worth.
We all tend to revere
our religious leaders. Remember how the Edenites
wanted to fall down and worship Adam and Eve.
Speaking of the resident governor
general, on Page 1252 of the Urantia Book, it says, The name
of the current planetary
supervisor is withheld from you only because mortal man is
so prone to worship, even to
deify, his extraordinary compatriots and superhuman
superiors.
As for the books of the Bible, we do not
know the real authors of many of
these sacred writings. We are just as much edified by their
reverential perusal. We can enjoy
a good symphony even if we do not know the name of the
composer.
The Urantia Book does not aim to contribute
to the creation of a new galaxy of
saints or to the organization of a new church.
But keeping important information secret is nothing
new. Look at the New Testament
record of Jesus’ dealing with his apostles. After healing
the leper, Jesus said, “See that
you say nothing to anyone.” Matt 8:4. Following Peter’s
confession of his divinity, Jesus
strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was
the Christ.(5)
Matt 16:20. Regarding their experience on the Mount of
Transfiguration,
Jesus said, “Tell no one the vision, until
the Son of Man is raised from the
dead.” Matt 17:9. After curing the deaf and dumb man, the
Master charged them to tell no one
what had happened. Luke 8:56.
Remember: when we are asked, “Just how did
you get the Urantia Book?,” if
each of us told everything we know about the origin of
The Urantia Papers,
such a narrative would not fully
satisfy the inquirer, for there is too much concerning
the transmittal of
The Urantia Papers
that none of us fully understands. If you
knew all we know, you would still be ignorant of much
concerning the phenomena of
factualizing these documents.
No
living person fully understands just
how The
Urantia Papers
got translated into the English
manuscript which was authorized
for publication.(6)
One thing should be made clear to all. No
person or persons are in any way
desirous of gaining any advantage or notoriety out of their
connection with the Urantia
revelation.
Even after we attain Paradise, we encounter
secrets in connection with the
seven sacred worlds of the Father which revolve about
Paradise. On each of these Father
worlds there is to be found a domain of knowledge and
experience which is confidential
to a certain group of beings. All others are denied access
to this secret domain.
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The Birth of a Divine
Revelation
Divinington — the abode of Thought Adjusters
— is open only to the
Father-fragment entities. All orders of intelligent beings
are forbidden to land on
Divinington. In a military
organization the higher officers are often in possession of
information which it is not wise
to transmit to the rank and file of the army.
Criticism #6: There is no
doctrine of sin in the Urantia Book. Neither
is there a
plan of salvation for lost man.
Again, our critic has failed to read the
Urantia Book which presents a clear-cut
doctrine of sin. True, it does re-define sin so as to
forever separate it from the
errors of partial understanding and the potential evil of
finite imperfection. Urantia
doctrine of sin also separates this state from the ordinary
guilty feeling which a mistaught
conscience (supposedly the voice of God to the soul) imposes
upon otherwise well-meaning
individuals who are conscious of having violated the mores
— failed to live up to some ethical ideal or some
social regulation or other
man-made dogmas.
Let the Urantia Book tell its own story
about sin.
First, there is the background and cosmic
setting of all sin as portrayed in
the Lucifer rebellion — the attack upon the personality of
God, the divine rule of his
Creator Sons, and the whole scheme of Paradise ascension of
mortal creatures of the Corps of
the Finality. Then follows the story of the Caligastia
betrayal of this world and the
devastating consequences of the planetary rebellion.
Now as to sin as a personal experience.
Page 52: The possibility of mistaken
judgment (evil) becomes sin only
when the human will consciously endorses and knowingly
embraces a deliberate immoral
judgment.
Page 63 — Sin is potential in all realms
where imperfect beings are endowed
with the ability to choose between good and evil.
It is true, the Urantia Book does reject the whole concept
of original sin. Jesus recognized
that sin was according to one’s light. Said he, “Before I
came you had no sin, but now you have no excuse.,”
John 15:22.
Read again on page 754:
But sin is a purposeful resistance to divine
reality — a conscious choosing to
oppose spiritual progress — while iniquity consists in an
open and persistent defiance of
recognized reality and signifies such a degree of
personality disintegration as to
border on cosmic insanity.
Page 41 — The love of God saves the sinner;
the law of God destroys the sin.
Page 984 — The sense or feeling of guilt is
the consciousness of the violation
of the mores; it is not necessarily sin. There is no real
sin in the absence of conscious
disloyalty to Deity.
Page 2016 — Sin is the act of conscious and
deliberate rebellion against the
Father’s will and the Sons’ laws by an individual will
creature.
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As regards the plan of salvation, the
teachings of the Urantia Book are clear
and replete. Salvation is
based on the love of God and not on the atonement doctrine.
Even Peter taught this in his Pentecostal
sermon, saying, “Truly I perceive that
God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone
who fears him and does what is
right is acceptable to him,” Acts 10:34,35.
The plan of saving mortals is part of the eternal
purpose of God. (See page 364.)
Page 365 — The goal of eternity is ahead!
The adventure of divinity
attainment lies before you! The race for perfection is on!
Whosoever will may enter, and
certain victory will crown the efforts of every human being
who will run the race of faith and
trust, depending every step of the way on the leading
of the indwelling Adjuster and on the guidance of
that good spirit of the Universe
Son, which so freely has been poured out upon all flesh.
The plan of salvation is presented in the
Urantia Book as:
1. The Plan of Perfection Attainment. Pages
54, 85, 645.
2. The Bestowal Plan. Pages 85, 454.
3. The Plan of Mercy Ministry. Pages 85, 95.
4. The Salvage Plan. Pages 39, 85.
Concerning the Paradise ascension, read on
Page 383:
Having started out on the way of life
everlasting, having accepted the
assignment and received your orders to advance, do not fear
the dangers of human forgetfulness
and mortal inconstancy, do not be troubled with doubts
of failure or by perplexing confusion, do not falter
and question your status and
standing, for in every dark hour, at every crossroad in the
forward struggle, the Spirit of
Truth will always speak, saying, This is the way.
(Read on) Page 1194 — You humans have begun
an endless unfolding of an almost
infinite panorama, a limitless expanding of never-ending,
ever-widening spheres of opportunity for exhilarating
service, matchless adventure,
sublime uncertainty, and boundless attainment.
(Again on) Page 1194 — When the clouds
gather overhead, your faith should
accept the fact of the presence of the indwelling Adjuster,
and thus you should be able to
look beyond the mists of mortal uncertainty into the
clear shining of the sun of eternal righteousness on
the beckoning heights of the
mansion worlds of Satania.
And all
of this is also good New Testament teaching. Read I John
5:4: “For whatever is born of God
overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes
the world, our faith.”
In the Urantia Book the doctrines of sin and
salvation make sense. They are
consistent with our knowledge of science (psychology) on the
one hand and the teachings of
Jesus on the other.
The Urantia Papers deny
both original sin and universal and unconditioned
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The Birth of a Divine
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salvation. To be sure, “we have all sinned
and come short of the glory of God.”
Rom 3:23. But only those who choose survival will go
on to find God and become more and
more like him.
Criticism #7: The goal of
salvation represents a prolonged scheme
of training
and even then is indefinite and uncertain.
Yes, the Urantia Book does present a vast
scheme of universe education as a
part of the survival plan for mortal ascenders. Others have
found fault with this scheme of
Paradise ascension. The most notable of all such critics was
Lucifer himself. One of the three
major criticisms of the rebellious Lucifer had to do with
the prolonged training given mortal creatures.
Salvation is not magical — falling asleep in death as
a material creature and waking up
in heaven as full-fledged spirit being. The Paradise
ascension is evolutional not
magical. Salvation is real — not a fantasy.
Mortal survivors are being educated and
trained for some magnificent destiny.
And all of this practical education is in itself a
transcendent destiny.
Criticism #8: The loving, kind,
and tolerant heavenly Father presented
in the Urantia
Book is not a God of Exodus and the God who saves
sinners. The
Bible does not encourage us to look for new truth — its
injunction is
Remember and Obey.
Our critic wants us to go back to the
jealous and angry God of the times of
Samuel and Elijah. In a way this criticism is valid.
The Urantia Book does present the
portrait of an affectionate heavenly Father such as that
presented by the Second Isaiah and
exemplified in the life and teachings of Jesus.
The whole concept of the bestowal of the
Spirit of Truth is contrary to the
idea of a closed revelation — The Faith delivered to the
saints. Jesus promised a
progressive religious experience, a spirit guide who should
lead us into all truth.
This critic certainly failed to read Paper
97, Evolution of the God Concept
Among the Hebrews. Deity concepts progressively changed from
Samuel to Isaiah.
The whole plan of salvation signifies
growth. We are admonished to grow in
grace and a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2
Peter 3:18.
The Urantia Book pictures God as Jesus
presented him — a loving heavenly
Father. The idea of a closed revelation — the preservation
of the Faith once delivered to the
saints was what led to this downfall of the Jewish people.
While defending their faith they
rejected the very gift of God which their own prophets
had foreshadowed.
The God of the Urantia Book is a God who
save sinners — from cover to cover
the book proclaims: Whosoever will may come and partake
freely of the water of life.
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~147~
Criticism #9: The Urantia Book
almost completely ignores the prophets
of the Old
Testament. The reason for this is clear — the teaching of
the prophets
flatly contradict the scheme of the Urantia Book.
Again this critic has failed to read the
book. There are hundreds of references
to the Old Testament in the Urantia Book. Papers
73-76, 93-96 are devoted wholly to
the consideration of Old Testament persons, peoples, and
religions.
The Urantia Papers
validate both the Old and the New Testament Scriptures.
They also recognize the basic truths of the leading
oriental religions. The Urantia
Book portrays the continuous evolutionary growth of religion
as augmented by periodic
revelation from the dawn of civilization to the present
hour. Divine truth is living and expanding; always
growing and increasingly illuminating
the pathways of human development.
Criticism #10: The Urantia Book
is a commonplace hodge-podge of
verbiage, just
such as numerous automatic writers have produced.
I can testify that
The Urantia Papers
were not the product of automatic
writing or any other technique of psychic legerdemain known
to me.(7)
While we are not at liberty to tell you even
the little we know about the technique of the production of
The Urantia Papers,
we are not forbidden to tell you how we did not get
these documents. Let me call your attention to the following
outline of present-day psychologic and psychic phenomena.
UNUSUAL ACTIVITIES OF THE MARGINAL
CONSCIOUSNESS. (The subconscious mind.)
1. Automatic Writing.
2. Automatic Talking.
a. Speaking with tongues.
b. Trance Mediums.
c. Spirit Mediums.
d. Catalepsy.
3. Automatic Hearing — Clairaudience:
hearing voices.
4. Automatic Seeing.
a. Dream States — Twilight Mentation
b. Visions — Automatic Dramatization.
c. Hallucinations. (Shifty Reality
Feelings.)
5. Automatic Thinking.
a. Automatic Fearing — Anxiety Neurosis.
b. Automatic Ideation — Mental Compulsions.
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c. Automatic Judgments —
Intuition, Hunches.
d. Automatic Association of
Ideas — Precognitions.
e. Automatic Guessing —
E.S.P.: Extra-Sensory Perception.
f. Automatic Deductions —
Delusions — Paranoia.
g. Dominance of Marginal
Consciousness — Dreams and
Hypnosis.
6. Automatic Remembering.
a. Clairvoyance — Automatic
Memory Associations.
b. Telepathy — Mind Reading
(?)
c. Fortune Telling (Largely
Fraudulent.)
d. Musical and Mathematical
Marvels.
7. Automatic Acting.
a. Automatic Behavior —
(Major Hysteria. Witchcraft.)
b. Automatic Motion — Motor
Compulsions.
c. Automatic Overdrives —
Manic Episodes.
d. Automatic Walking —
Somnambulism.
8. Automatic Personalization.
a. Automatic Forgetting —
Amnesia.
b. Automatic Dissociation —
Double and Multiple Personality.
c. Schizophrenia — Split
Personality.
9. Combined and Associated Psychic States.
Note: The technique of the reception of the
Urantia Book in English in no way
parallels or impinges upon any of the above phenomena
of the marginal consciousness.(8)
Criticism #11: The atonement has vanished
from the Urantia Book. So has the
majestic and jealous God who punishes his people when
they go whoring after other gods.
This is a valid criticism. In the Urantia
Book the atonement has vanished.
Read on page 41:
Righteousness implies that God is the source
of the moral law of the universe.
Truth exhibits God as a revealer, as a teacher. But love
gives and craves affection, seeks
understanding fellowship such as exists between parent
and child. Righteousness may be the divine thought,
but love is a father’s attitude.
The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was
irreconcilable with the selfless
love of the heavenly Father, presupposed absence
of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to
the elaboration of the atonement
doctrine, which is a philosophic assault upon both the unity
and the free-willness of God.
The Urantia Book goes so far as to declare
that the atonement doctrine is an
insult to Deity.
There is penalty for those who forsake God and abandon
the pursuit of
11 - Some
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~149~
survival. And that penalty is loss of being
— annihilation. They shall become as
though they had not been.
Criticism #12: While there are
to be found some new ideas in the
Urantia Book,
there is not revealed any startling new institution.
Jesus was the greatest of all revelations —
incarnation — he preached a simple
gospel: the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. He
appealed much to the Old
Testament. Much of his preaching was to the common people.
The Urantia Book is an attempt to unify
present-day scientific knowledge
and religious truth. The main purpose of
The Urantia Papers
is
to help the average person to
better understanding of Jesus’ religion. This means an
emphasis on the religion of Jesus
as contrasted to the religion about Jesus.
The Urantia Book, while presenting many new
concepts, devotes much attention
to the exaltation of much that is old — the home, education,
and social equity.
Remember, it is not the purpose of the
Urantia Book to start a new church.
The book condemns sectarian religions. The book is a
gift to all religions, including
Christianity.
The mission of the book is well told on page
2090:
The time is ripe to witness the
figurative resurrection of the human Jesus
from his burial tomb amidst the
theological traditions and the religious dogmas
of nineteen centuries. Jesus of
Nazareth must not be longer sacrificed to
even the splendid concept of the
glorified Christ
(9). 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! Surely the Christian
fellowship of believers will not
hesitate to make such adjustments of faith and
of practices of living as will
enable it to follow after the Master in the demonstration
of his real life of religious
devotion to the doing of his Father’s will and
of consecration to the unselfish
service of man.
Do professed Christians fear the
exposure of a self-sufficient and unconsecrated
fellowship of social respectability
and selfish economic maladjustment?
Does institutional Christianity fear
the possible jeopardy, or even the overthrow, of
traditional ecclesiastical authority
if the Jesus of Galilee is reinstated in the minds
and souls of mortal men as the ideal
of personal religious living? Indeed, the
social readjustments, the economic
transformations, the moral rejuvenations,
and the religious revisions of
Christian civilization would be drastic and revolutionary
if the living religion of Jesus
should suddenly supplant the theologic religion
about Jesus.
Criticism #13: The Urantia Book
takes away the centrality of Christ
in the
Christian faith.
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The Birth of a Divine
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While the Urantia Book places God at the
center of the master universe as
well as at the center of the Christian faith, the bestowal
Son shares this place with his
Father.
The Urantia teaching greatly enlarges the
mission of Jesus to this world. In
addition to the concept of Savior, he becomes our Creator
and Sovereign Lord.
The statement — “No one comes to the Father
except by me” becomes much more
absolute in its significance.
In the religion of Jesus, the bestowal Son
of God becomes the real center of
the gospel of the kingdom. The religion about Jesus may give
a large place to Peter at
Pentecost, to Paul and his Epistles, and to the early church
fathers. But in the Urantia
version of the gospel of the kingdom, Jesus of Nazareth —
the Son of God and the Son of Man
— is forever at the center of the good news about the
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
The Urantia Book recognizes the supremacy of
Christ
(10) in all things religious,
when it validates his many titles on Page 1965:
I am the bread of life. I am the living
water. I am the light of the world. I
am the desire of all ages. I am the open door to
eternal salvation. I am the
reality of endless life. I am the good shepherd. I am the
pathway to infinite perfection I
am the secret of eternal survival. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. I am the infinite
Father of my finite children. I am the true vine; you are
the branches. I am the hope of all who know the
truth. I am the living bridge from
one world to another. I am the living link between time and
eternity.
Criticism #14: I asked a friend
of mine, a professor of physics in a
near-by
university, for an opinion on the scientific aspects of the
Urantia
Book. After
going over the book, he said, As regards science, this book
is dated. It
presents a very good picture of the way we looked at the
cosmos ten
years ago.(11)
On the whole, I think this is a valid
criticism of the Urantia Book. Let me
read from the Urantia Book, page 1109:
Because your world is generally ignorant of
origins, even of physical origins,
it has appeared to be wise from time to time to provide
instruction in cosmology. And
always has this made trouble for the future. The laws of
revelation hamper us greatly by their proscription of
the impartation of unearned or
premature knowledge. Any cosmology presented as a part of
revealed religion is destined to
be outgrown in a very short time. Accordingly,
future students of such a revelation are tempted to
discard any element of genuine
religious truth it may contain because they discover errors
on the face of the associated
cosmologies therein presented.
Mankind should understand that we who
participate in the revelation of
truth are very rigorously limited by the instructions of our
superiors. We are not at liberty
to anticipate the scientific discoveries of a thousand
years. Revelators must act in
accordance with the instructions which form a part of the
revelation mandate. We see no way of overcoming this
difficulty, either now
11 - Some
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~151~
or at any future time. We full well know
that, while the historic facts and
religious truths of this series of revelatory presentations
will stand on the records of the
ages to come, within a few short years many of our
statements regarding the physical
sciences will stand in need of revision in consequence
of additional scientific developments and new
discoveries. These new developments
we even now foresee, but we are forbidden to include
such humanly undiscovered facts in
the revelatory records. Let it be made clear that
revelations are not necessarily
inspired. The cosmology of these revelations is not
inspired. It is limited by our permission for the
co-ordination and sorting of
present-day knowledge. While divine or spiritual insight is
a gift, human wisdom must evolve.
The science of
The Urantia Papers
bears the closing date of A.D. 1934. Even
if it is now regarded as ten years out of date, it
was 15 or 20 years ahead of the
times first presented to us. But even now, the fact of the
ultimaton has not yet been
discovered, even though there have been several hints along
this line in the scientific papers
of the last few years.
Criticism #15: The teachings of
Jesus as presented in the Urantia
Book can be
found in a thousand different books, especially in writings
prior to 1930.
You notice that our critics fail to cite the
books which portray the teachings
of Jesus as found in the Urantia Book. It is comforting to
be told that the Urantia teachings
have such far-flung support among Christian authors. But I
find much in Jesus’ Urantia
teachings which I have not here-to-fore encountered
(12).
I can cite dozens of discourses, talks,
conferences, and question-and-answer
periods — which I challenge anyone to find already on
record in present-day Christian
literature.
Criticism #16: The narrative of
the earlier years of Jesus’ life — silent
years of the
Gospels — impressed me as being very ordinary, even
sophomoric.
Nothing extraordinary happened. I could sit down any day
and dictate
just as good, or better, a story in three or four hours.
I am glad that in the main the rhetoric of
the narrative of Jesus’ life is easily
comprehensible by sophomores, even freshman, of high
school as well as on the
collegiate level. Just the other day a college sophomore
related to me how much he had been
helped by this story of Jesus’ early life.
But as I review these years, there is
impressed on my mind many discussions
that could easily engage the deep thinking of men and
women many grades above the
sophomore level. Let me call your attention to a few:
-
His assumption of responsibility and
management of family affairs after
his father’s death.
-
His wise dealing with the conflicts
between patriotism and religious loyalties.
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The Birth of a Divine
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-
Dealings with the affairs of his
brothers and sisters, not to mention his
mother.
-
The story of his personal work on the
Rome trip and how it later worked
out in the beginnings of the Christian religion
as it spread in the Roman Empire.
-
Jesus’ discourse on Reality.
-
The Carthage discourse on Time and
Space.
-
The editing of the Hindu lad’s
selections of comparative religions.
-
His discussion with the religious
leaders at Rome on True Values, Truth
and Faith, Good and Evil
-
The counsel on Wealth.
-
The wisdom of his personal ministry
to Ganid.
-
The sagacious dealing with the
courtesans.
-
The Athenian discourse on science.
-
The Ephesian discourse on the soul.
-
The discussion of mind at Cyprus.
-
The unique story of his experience at
Lake Urmia.
-
The Mount of Hermon sojourn.
Yes, in a way, nothing out of the ordinary
happened. That was also the great
stumbling block to Mary. As Mary tried to bolster her faith,
doubts would creep in because
nothing out of the ordinary ever happened.
Our friend thinks he could dictate a narrative of
Jesus’ life from the twelfth year
to his baptism in the Jordan in three or four hours any day.
I doubt it. At least in nineteen
hundred years it has not been done.
This reminds me of an agnostic patient I had
several years ago. He complained
that Jesus’ sermons were very ordinary — that his teachings
consisted largely of commonplace
stories — parables. Said he could write out a dozen
parables any evening.
I said to this man, “I’ll pay a good price
for every parable which you bring me
which will be at all comparable with the leading
parables of Jesus.” He promised to
undertake the job. I did not hear from him for three months.
Then he said, “Well, I guess that
Jesus told most of the parables. I did not think up many
that seemed to be as good as those
found in his sermons.”
There are so many features of this story of
Jesus’ early life that can be
checked and rechecked. There is a consistency about the
narrative that would not be found
in a piece of pure fiction.
Don’t forget: during these years he was
living the truly human life — as man
among men — as contrasted with the more divine
features which appeared ever and
anon after the occasion of his baptism.
The Apostle Paul had some troubles like
this. Some of his critics complained
that his gospel was pedestrian — even sophomoric —
that it was lacking in erudition
and deficient in learned philosophy. This is Paul’s answer
to these critics as found in the
first chapter of First Corinthians, verses 18-27.
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~153~
For the word of the cross is folly to
those who are perishing, but to us
who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is
written, ‘I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will
thwart.’ Where is the wise man?
Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has
not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For
since, in the wisdom of God, the
world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God
through the folly of what we
preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs
and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to
Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
stronger than men. For consider
your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according
to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not
many were of noble birth; but God
chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God
chose what is weak in the world to
shame the strong. (Again) 1 Cor
2:14: The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the
Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is
not able to understand them
because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Cor 3:19: For the wisdom of this world
is folly with God.
Criticism #17: In my opinion,
the Urantia Book is a fraud — a hoax.
Those who
perpetrated this book are criminals.
Any one who would call
The Urantia Papers
a
fraud does not know much about the
people who were concerned with the factualization of this
unique book.
My wife and I had considerable experience
with the exposure of mediumistic
frauds and psychic humbugs during our earlier years and some
forty years ago I wrote a book
depicting our experiences in dealing with these
practitioners of the occult.
There was nothing questionable, much less
fraudulent, connected with the
origin of the Urantia Book. At the first glimpse of such, my
associates and I would have
forsaken the whole affair. We never detected anything
fraudulent in the phenomena spread
out over twenty-five years. True, we encountered much we
could not explain, cannot explain
even today. But there was no deception or other questionable
practices.
Neither did the Forum — more than one
hundred and fifty persons who
supplied the questions which brought forth
The Urantia Papers
—
ever detect any evidences of
fraud.
No one has ever found a contradiction in the
Urantia Book of more than one
million words. If your story is fictitious, you just can’t
go on the witness stand for more
than twenty-five years to be examined and cross-examined by
more than one hundred and fifty
people, and never make a single slip-up. To pass such a test
you have to be telling the truth.
It is now more than three years since the
book was published; several thousand
copies have been distributed which have been read by
more than thousands of people, and
yet no one has discovered a contradiction; not even the
severest critic has brought forth
such as accusation.
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The Birth of a Divine
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When my son came home on furlough from the
Marine Corps to read
The Urantia Papers,
the first question he asked me was, “Dad, is there any one
making money out of this
thing?” I answered, “No, son, but there are a number of us
who are putting money into it.”
By the time the book was published we had, in
time and money, put in over one hundred thousand
dollars. Except for professional
proof reading, no one was paid one cent during all the years
of the production and publication
of the Urantia Book.
But the cry of fraud is an old one. They
charged Jesus with being a fraud —
“Are you not Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son?” And
they went on to charge that he was
in league with devils. Said one minister critic of the
Urantia Book, “It unfolds the
melodramatic shotgun wedding of secondhand neoplatonized
Gnosticism and slipshod Protestant
rationalism to sanctified science-fiction and sheer
damn foolishness. The bastard offspring of this union
is called Urantia. There is no
place for it in the house of the Lord.”
Criticism #18: The Urantia Book
contains no new and original concepts.
There is
really nothing new in its presentation of cosmology,
philosophy,
and religion.
In reply to this criticism, I submit 74
concepts and doctrines which are new
and original as presented in the Urantia Book, not to
mention more than one hundred
additional narratives which represent the enlargement,
amplification, and clarification
of existing knowledge.
-
1. The Eternal Son of
Paradise. For the first time in human records clearly
designated and personally identified.
-
2. The unique Conjoint
Actor. The concept of the Third Person of Deity is
both unique and original in
The Urantia Papers.
3. The Paradise Trinity. In
the Urantia Book the Paradise Trinity finds its only
present-day identification
and recognition.
4. The Central Geographic
Residence of Deity. For the first time the world
knows exactly where God lives.
5. The Absolute Isle of
Paradise. The original concept of Paradise as the
absolute of non-deity reality.
6. Multiple Creator Sons.
Recognition of more than 700,000 Creator Paradise
Sons.
7. Concept of the
Absolutes. The concept of the Unqualified, Universal,
and Deity Absolutes is
original with the Urantia Book.
8. Doctrine of
Evolutionary Deity. While I saw an intimation of finite
Deity in one of Pratt’s books
about the time of the coming of
The Urantia Papers,
I am sure that the concepts of
the Supreme Being and God the Ultimate are original.
9. Concept of the
Triunities. The Triunities are an original Urantia
concept.
10. Havona Universe and
Natives. The billion world picture of Havona and its
inhabitants is a wholly new and original concept.
11. The Concept of Space.
Notwithstanding the theory of an exploding cosmos,
the space concept of the Urantia Book is new and
original.
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~155~
-
12. The Grand and Master Universes. The
overall concept of the Master cosmos is not only original, but it far transcends all
previous ideas.
-
13. The Seven Order of Trinity-Created
Days. While one of these seven orders,
the Ancient of Days is mentioned in the Bible,
the whole presentation is both
new and original.
-
14. The Paradise Sons of God. The story
of Magisterial and Trinity Teacher
Sons in addition to Creator Sons is entirely
original with the Urantia Book.
-
15.Trinitized Sons of God. The story and
techniques of the trinitization of
divine Sons is unique and original in
The Urantia Papers.
16. The Seven
Master Spirits. While the Bible makes mention of seven
Spirits of God, it is only in
the Urantia Book that these Spirits are identified and
their work fully described.
17. The Vast Family of the Conjoint
Actor. The vast and far-flung family of
the Infinite Spirit — supernaphim, seconaphim,
Solitary Messengers — are but briefly foreshadowed by the Biblical narrative of
seraphim and cherubim.
18. The Universal Circuits. The gravity,
personality, spirit, and mind circuits
are original teachings of the Urantia Book.
19. Universal Reflectivity — Majeston.
The amazing story of universal reflectivity
is a wholly new and original presentation of the
Urantia revelation.
20. Power Directors — Force Organizers.
The whole concept of intelligent
and purposive control of cosmic energy is
original with the Urantia Book.
21. Evolution of Energy-Matter. While
some phases of the Urantia story of
the evolution of energy may have been
foreshadowed by scientific discovery, nevertheless,
the concept as a whole is new as presented in
The Urantia
Papers.
22. The Ultimaton.
At the time of the suggestion of the ultimaton in
The Urantia Papers,
I had never heard of such a concept in scientific
literature. During the past
five or six years, I have noted several different
intimations of the possible existence of some physical factor analogous to the
ultimaton concept.
23. Origin of the Solar System. While the
Urantia narrative of the origin of
the solar system includes some features of the
Moulton-Chamberlain theory, the
whole story is so complete and unique as to make
it practically an original presentation.
24. The Architectural Worlds. Worlds made
to order of specifications is original
with the Urantia Book.
25. Universe Administrators. From the
inhabited world to the management
of the grand universe the administrative scheme
of the Urantia Book is entirely
new.
26. The Life Carriers. Nothing like the
concept of the Life Carriers has ever
been suggested to humankind in all of past
history.
27. Origin of the Human Race. While the
Urantia story of the origin of the
human race validates the doctrine of evolution,
nevertheless, it presents such a
detailed and unique narrative as to constitute an
all but original presentation of
human origins.
28. Origin of the Colored Races. The
Urantia story of the origin of the Sangik
races is the only such narrative in existence.
~156~
The Birth of a Divine
Revelation
-
29. Source and Nature of Personality.
While the Urantia Book, like science,
fails to define personality, it does designate
its origin and gratifyingly portrays its
magnificent destiny.
-
30. The Concept of Thought Adjusters.
While the Bible talks about the true
light which lighteth every man coming into the
world, the story of Thought Adjusters
as revealed in The Urantia Papers
is so replete and unique as to
constitute a new and original
story.
31. Evolution of the Soul. The concept of
the origin, nature and evolution of
the soul is original with the Urantia Book.
32. Identification of the Holy Spirit.
Pointing out the Holy Spirit as the presence
of the Local Universe Mother Spirit is altogether
new and original in
The Urantia Papers.
33. The Seven
Adjutant Spirits. While the Bible makes mention of seven
spirits and in Isaiah partially identifies them,
the Urantia narrative is so full and
unique as to make it an original presentation.
34. Local Universe Sons of God. The whole
story of the Local Universe Sons
is new and original.
35. The Ascension Plan: Be You Perfect.
While Jesus propounded the mandate
Be you perfect, etc., the unfoldment of the
Paradise ascension plan in the Urantia Book is an all but new and original concept.
36. The Seven Mansion Worlds. While the
Master alluded to the mansion worlds, the replete story of their nature and province
is both new and original.
37. The Morontia Concept. The whole
morontia concept — the stage between
the material and the spiritual — is new and
original.
38. Celestial Artisans and Reversion
Directors. Both of these concepts are
new in the Urantia Book. The concept of celestial
play and spiritual humor is all
but new.
39. Concept of Permanent Citizenship.
This is wholly original with the Urantia
Book.
40. The Urantia Midwayers. While the Old
Testament does refer to the Nephilim the citation is so indefinite as to constitute
the Urantia story of the midwayers as a new and original narrative.
41. The Superhuman Planetary Government.
The story of the planetary functions
of the Most Highs, the Reserve Corps, and the
planetary seraphim is original,
notwithstanding the allusion to the work of the
Most Highs in the Bible.
42. The Billions of Inhabited Worlds. At
the time of the arrival of
The Urantia
Papers,
there was no literature dealing with inhabited worlds
other than our world. The idea
was new. In recent years we frequently run across
speculations regarding other
inhabited planets(13).
43. Clarification of Sin and Rebellion.
The unique clarification of sin and
rebellion is original with the Urantia Book.
44. Clarification of Adam and Eve. The
factual narrative of the legendary
story of Adam and Eve is original.
45. Clarification of Melchizedek. The
Melchizedek story as clarified in the
Urantia narrative is really a new and original
concept.
11 - Some
Criticisms
~157~
-
46. Concept of the Ages of Light and
Life. The fruition of mortal evolution as
portrayed in the concept of the ages of light and
life is altogether new and original.
-
47. A Unified History of Urantia. Nowhere
else in all the world can you find a
consistent and unified history of our world. For
the first time we have a chronology
of human affairs.
-
48. Diseases. The Book presents a new and
original explanation of microbic
diseases.
-
49. Antigravity. The whole concept of
antigravity is unique and original with
The Urantia
Papers.
Only during the last year has any scientist promulgated
a theory of antigravity.
50. Jesus’ Birthday. For the first
time during the Christian era, we know the
real birthday of Jesus — August 21.
51. Experimental Planet. The fact that
Urantia was a decimal planet — that
the Life Carriers had permission to attempt new
features of biologic evolution.
This is information not heretofore known on the
planet.
52. The Evolution of Religion. While
you can read much about the evolution
of religion on Urantia, nevertheless, the
straightforward story told in
The Urantia
Papers
is unique and original.
53. The Unique Reason for Jesus’
Bestowal. The Urantia Book presents a
new, unique, and original reason for Jesus’ life
and death on our world.
54. A Chronological Story of Jesus’
Life. The book presents the only complete
story of Jesus’ life on this world.
55. Identification of the Twelve
Apostles. The Urantia story is the first time
the confusion of the 12 apostles has been
straightened out.
56. The Unique Story of Mary. The
story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is
unique and original.
57. The Water and the Wine. As far as
I know, the Urantia Book presents an
original explanation of this supposed miracle.
58. Explanation of Unintended
Miracles. The book presents a possible explanation
of numerous unintended miracles.
59. Jesus’ Attitude Toward Art and
Athletics. The Master’s attitude toward
art and athletics is nowhere else revealed.
60. The Sermon on the Mount. I am, of
course, not familiar with all the
literature on the Sermon on the Mount. But as far
as I know, the interpretation of
this address in the Urantia Book is new and
original.
61. The Women’s Evangelistic Corps.
This story is new, notwithstanding the
brief mention of this matter in the New
Testament.
62. Rodan of Alexandria. The whole
story is original with the Urantia Book.
63. The Story of Abner. The unique
story of the head of John the Baptist’s
apostles is original with
The Urantia Papers.
64. David Zebedee’s Intelligence
Corps. This entire story is exclusively found
in the Urantia Book.
65. The Keys of the Kingdom. The
explanation of the meaning of the keys of
the kingdom is new and original as found in the
Urantia Book.
~158~
The Birth of a Divine
Revelation
-
66. Clarification of the Kingdom Concept.
The kingdom concept is clarified.
The religion of Jesus and the religion about
Jesus is fully differentiated.
-
67. Clarification of the Second Advent.
The clarification of Matt 24 and the
second coming of Christ is complete and original
(14).
-
60. New Concept of the Lord’s Supper. The
significance of the Lord’s Supper
is new and original
-
69. Clarification of the Crucifixion.
While there is much in the New Testament
regarding the crucifixion, the Urantia story is
complete and in many phases wholly original.
-
70. Nature of the Resurrection. While the
New Testament authenticates the
resurrection, only the Urantia narrative presents
a new and original account of this transcendent event, including the actual disposal
of the material body of Jesus.
-
71. The Morontia Experience of Jesus. The
full and complete story of the morontia experience between the resurrection and the
ascension is found only in
The Urantia Papers.
72. The New Picture of Pentecost. The
Urantia picture of Pentecost is so
enlarged as to constitute a new portrayal of the
coming of the Spirit of Truth.
73. The Faith of Jesus. The final
chapter of the Urantia Book presents a new
concept of believing with Jesus rather than
believing on him.
74. The Corps of the Finality. The
actual destiny of mortal ascenders in the
Corps of the Finality is a new and original
concept of mortal destiny. And
last, but not least, the technique of receiving
The Urantia Papers
in answer to questions was an entirely new and unique
method of imparting information
on the part of superhuman intelligence. The very
book itself is original in origin and unique in impartation.(15)
END NOTES:
-
This is Sadler’s partial quote from
instructions given to him just prior to release
of The Urantia Papers.
-
In a letter to Martin Gardner
dated September 6, 1993, I showed why Sadler
was unaware of the manner in which the Revelators
used the word Christ. Refer to my
paper under
Studies in The Urantia Papers.
The word Christ originally was a title, the
Greek form of the Messiah. But Christianity made
the title into another name for Jesus.
Here the Revelators are using it in its familiar
Christian manner, to show how religionists
will respond to
The Urantia Papers.
Otherwise, the Revelators did not use the
word Christ as a name.
-
Sadler’s statement in the
preceding paragraph cannot be correct. The warnings
came prior to the publication of the Revelation
in 1955. This letter is dated 1958.
He was illustrating a point, not documenting
history.
-
The
Urantia Papers
never use the word doctrines as a
substitute for beliefs or
teachings. This is Sadler’s personal substitute. He
apparently was unaware, again, of
how the Papers distinguish the difference. Bill
Sadler, Jr. corrected his father on this
use in the History document.
11 - Some
Criticisms
~159~
-
The reason for this admonition by
Jesus was not necessarily because of a
policy of secrecy. Rather it was because he truly
was not the Christ as his apostles
thought of him. Refer to my paper on
Jesus and Melchizedek,
Creator and Messiah.
Also refer to the paper on the
Christ Names.
-
Such a statement could be said of
all the processes and mechanisms of life.
We do not fully or truly understand even the most
familiar activities of creation. But
Sadler could have publicly described the steps in
the process. He did not because he
was under instructions not to do so.
-
Here Sadler explicitly states that
The Urantia
Papers
did not come through
channeling or any other form of spiritualistic
phenomena.
-
Here Sadler reinforces his
statements that
The Urantia Papers
were not the
product of trance pronouncements, and that their
appearance did not resemble in any
fashion the productions of spiritualist
phenomena.
-
Here
The Urantia Papers
use the word Christ in its
traditional sense, in order to
reinforce emphasis on the Christian use of the word, not
on its use in the Papers.
-
One again, Sadler uses the word
Christ contrary to its use in
The Urantia
Papers.
He was totally unaware of that employment, and hence
could not have either written
or edited the Revelation. He continues such contrary use
throughout this discussion.
-
The science of
The Urantia Papers
presents an extraordinary
difficulty. This has been
examined by many individuals. It is not my purpose in
this work to engage in such
debate. Here I am presenting those materials which
affect our spiritual decisions,
not our material understanding.
-
Sadler was aware of a few cases
where the divine Revelators used human
sources to build their revelation. He does not
mention those. More importantly, he was
unaware of the multitude of such uses, from many
different human sources. Had he
been so aware he would have been more careful in
his statements. Refer to Appendix
E where this revelatory design is discussed in
depth.
-
Sadler and members of the Forum
were all apparently unaware of the
Book of
Oahspe,
and ancient writings, including the Hindu holy
literature, Chinese myth, and
the Egyptian
Book of the Dead,
all of which refer to the celestial realms, and
heavenly affairs.
-
Sadler again is unaware of deeper
studies which show the revelatory restrictions
placed on Jesus’ remarks about the end of the
age. Sadler fully expected
The
Urantia Papers
to effect a renovation in our
current world order, although he admitted
to many persons privately that he did not
understand the apocalyptic passages of the
Papers. For example, refer to page 1086 and the
discussion on Religion and Social
Reconstruction, and page 2081 and the discussion
on Secular Totalitarianism.
-
Here Sadler is noting that
celestial agencies did not arbitrarily throw a
revelation at us, but
attempted to work with us, at our conceptual level, in
order to provide a more useful
revelation.
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