The Urantia Book, the fifth epochal revelation and a restatement of the life of Jesus, the fourth epochal revelation, is an extensive, profound and complex work. Its complexity challenges any earnest student to find his understanding of the true message of the revelation and then determine his personal approach thereto. This is my view:
The Urantia Book, the 50th anniversary of whose first printing we are celebrating today, is a revelation of truth; but this statement needs to be qualified with another statement of what it is not. Even if a revelation of truth, The Urantia Book is not a revelation of absolute truth. [N]o revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. [1008:2]. Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." [242:3]. He did not say that the holy books of this or that religion are the truth, or that The Urantia Book or any creeds and dogmas are the truth. Existence and reality are only partially in time and space. We are time-bound and space-conditioned beings. This means that we are incapable of fathoming existence in its entirety and immensity. Consequently, any revelation of what existence is has to be only partial and laden with paradoxes.
This 50-year-old book is a revelation of truth. Jesus said: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” [1594:0; 1796:4] (1112:6). Freedom is joyous; it is imbued with joy and delight. This book then is a joyful and delightful work, a book about the joy of life; the joy of existence. It is a book about the joy of learning answers to the question, what the purpose of life is; questions about our origin and the reasons for our existence; the joy of finding God and ultimately becoming like him. The joy of learning the liberating truths that God is great, that he is not a petty, old and wily man whose fatherly heart in all its austere coldness and hardness was so untouched by the misfortunes and sorrows of his creatures that his tender mercies were not forthcoming until he saw his blameless Son bleeding and dying upon the cross of Calvary [60:5]. The joy of the realisation that the Universal Father is not a narrow-minded, cruel and punishing god decreeing arbitrary rules and laws and then making damaging entries in his books about those who fail to live up to his rules, and then, in due time pushing me and other sinners into an everlastingly burning hell.
This revelation is the story of existence. Existence is God, the I AM. “In Him we live and move and have our being." [35:4, 29:6] (139:1, 1155:4, 1283:1). The I AM – God – is personal, and much more than that. He is the Original, he is the Absolute, he is the Ultimate, he is the Supreme, he is God the Sevenfold, he is the Thought Adjuster. He is both existential and experiential. The Original, the I AM, has diversified existence, his existence. He has caused the myriads of divine and celestial beings to be; has caused time and space to be; he has caused supertime and transcended space to be; he has caused the diversification of existence into absolute, absonite and finite; into material, mindal and spiritual; into imperfect, perfecting and perfect. Finally, he has caused the human being to be and created a universe path for his mortal creatures to follow, so to find him and become like him: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” [21:3, 22:3, 86:1, 290:2, 295:1, 449:2, 637:1] (86:2, 297:1, 348:3, 411:1, 1574:8)
His is a nature of absolute truth, perfect beauty, eternal goodness and everlasting love. It is his will that all of his mortal beings have a free will, and that nobody is forced to be or to do anything against his will. It is God’s will that mortals make a free-will choice to do his will and accept the ministry extended to them by myriads of celestial beings and become like him and continue to exist eternally; that no one would choose to become non-existent. It is his will that all human beings view him as their Heavenly Father and that they relate to their fellow mortals as children of this same Father, as their brothers and sisters; and that they treat their fellow men with the same love as the Father bestows upon them. We are to understand that it is a joy to do the Father’s will, to become, by faith, a faith-son of the Father and to join the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Urantia Book reveals the nature of true and genuine religion. And it is a matter of rejoicing to realise that true religion is always personal; genuine religion is a grateful and worshipful personal relationship with the Father. True religion is free from creeds, dogma, doctrines, traditions, rituals and standardisation. Instead its fruits are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance [381:7]. It is a joy to do the Father’s will. It is not an obligation. Jesus said: “when the Father's will is your law, you are hardly in the kingdom. But when the Father's will becomes truly your will, then are you in very truth in the kingdom ... When God's will is your law, you are noble slave subjects; but when you believe in this new gospel of divine sonship, my Father's will becomes your will, and you are elevated to the high position of the free children of God, liberated sons of the kingdom." [1589:0].
It is a matter of much reassurance, relief and joy to learn that evil in the world is only relative, is not God-created, is a transient feature in our imperfect, but perfecting, existence. What, instead, is true is progress and growth. Can you not advance in your concept of God's dealing with man to that level where you recognize that the watchword of the universe is progress? [Divine Counsellor 54:5]. What is true is goodness and love, the desire to do good to others [648:4]. Jesus was not anxiously bothered by the evil in the world [1594:5]. But it is comforting to learn that at a moment of anxiety over the evil in the world, [w]hen the flood tides of human adversity, selfishness, cruelty, hate, malice, and jealousy beat about the mortal soul, you may rest in the assurance that there is one inner bastion, the citadel of the spirit, which is absolutely unassailable [1096:4].
We who so believe and are united in our desire to love the Father, to do the Father’s will, to be the faith-sons of God, to love and to serve our brothers and sisters have already begun to discern the lights of eternal life as they glimmer on the faraway shores of another world [381:7].
During the short human history of this Revelation, the first generations of readers have been understandably occupied with finding God personally and building a new spiritual brotherhood. As our reader community matures, it’s only natural that our attentions expand from the wonders of personal growth to the spiritual upbringing of future generations of God loving people. Your posts about parenting makes me feel reassured knowing my wife and I are among many Urantia Book readers attempting the daunting task of raising good children and hoping the revelation becomes the guiding text of their lives.
Life would have been much easier if our children had arrived with a manual titled "how to raise this child to become a God conscious and loving person". Fortunately we were blessed with revelatory standards that clearly articulate our unseen friend’s high expectations about the value of raising a good family. The revelators elevate the importance of being a good parent when they state:
A. “The family is man's greatest purely human achievement”; B. “While religious, social, and educational institutions are all essential to the survival of cultural civilization, the family is the master civilizer.”; C. “Almost everything of lasting value in civilization has its roots in the family.”; D. “The family is the fundamental unit of fraternity in which parents and children learn those lessons of patience, altruism, tolerance, and forbearance which are so essential to the realization of brotherhood among all men.”; and E. “The family is the channel through which the river of culture and knowledge flows from one generation to another.”.
So I am telling you my tale of two families in hopes of stimulating conversation and sharing of personal experiences that will make us better parents and grand parents. I'm the father of 5 children and grandpa of 4. My children’s ages range from 34 to 14. The kids came in two groups; the first three are now 30, 32, and 34. The last two are 14 and 16. To keep the record straight, all five of the kids are productive, kind, and very good people. But I have strong regrets about how I religiously trained the first three children and think things have gone much better with the last two.
With the first three kids, we consciously decided that we should not impose our religion on them. As I see it now, I completely misunderstood some of the Urantia Book’s guiding principles in raising children. The first misunderstanding came in applying this quote, “Give every developing child a chance to grow his own religious experience; do not force a ready-made adult experience upon him”. Somehow I took that to mean we should not actively teach the kids from The Urantia Book. We talked about its teachings especially if they asked, we read on holidays, but the first three kids did not have formal Urantia Book weekly religious education. With the last two kids, we started them in a kid Urantia Book study group at age 5. Both of these kids have now read hundreds of pages of the book. We didn’t impose an adult experience upon them because my wife built a study group around their level of understanding and their needs. As I look back, my conduct with my older kids could be interpreted as “I don’t care enough about your religious education to spend the time with you, on your level, to share these vital teachings.” Net, net, the younger two are both very religious children, having read much of the book, resulting in a deep appreciation of the revelation and other religions. The older three are much less active and interested in religion. A footnote: My wife is the hero of this story. She teaches the kids class every week. While the adults bask in intellectual and spiritual discussions at the adult group, Jen has spent years entertaining kids with spiritually illustrative arts and craft projects to dramatize or spice up their evening while reading from the Urantia Book.
In the hands off experiment, I occasionally prayed with the older kids but it was not a constant and vital part of our lives. With the younger two, we pray together almost every night. As they have gotten older I don’t force prayers upon them but ask if they want to say prayers tonight. Even at 14 and 16, they almost always say yes. This prayer time is not an adult ready-made experience because each one of us says our prayers out loud and in our own way. Luke loves to pray for the needy and sick, Kate prays for immediate family members and friends.
Next I stumbled at practicing this teaching; “Children are permanently impressed only by the loyalties of their adult associates; precept or even example is not lastingly influential.” Our practice of that quote intertwined with the first mistake. Because we had taken a hands-off approach to teaching the Urantia Book and religion, we assumed our kids would naturally come to the book because of our loyalties. And I have heard from some parents that this actually occurred with their kids. This didn’t happen in our case and didn’t happen to most of my friends who took the hands-off approach. Even though my first three kids knew readers, occasionally went to conferences, and understood my deep love and loyalty to the Urantia Book, they really don’t know much about the teachings. To them, it was “dad’s thing”, not their living experience or educational training. Over time this might change but for now, only one of the first three kids has any interest in being a reader/believer. With the second two, both are readers and believers. The first three kids would have been much better off seeing our loyally as well as actively participating in kids study group. This is not to say that if you don’t read the Urantia Book you can’t know God. But given the choice of having read the book or not, kids are much better off having read some or all of the revelation.
Moving on, the first time around I totally misunderstood the following two passages. “The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth-co-coordinated life.” and “The measure wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness.” With my first set of kids I thought my “righteous life and love saturated conduct” would draw the kids directly to the Revelation. Problem was that lots of my conduct wasn’t saturated with love. Scolding them for keeping filthy rooms didn’t translate to them as a love saturated calling. As to being “truth seekers”, that characteristic generally first appears in the late teens, not as a child. Unless a child is a religious prodigy, without religious education, children aren’t naturally religious truth seekers. Religion is something children learn from their parent’s loyalty, early education, experience, from like minded peers, and by mom and dad investing ample time for an active and disciplined religious life within the family. And if the kids don’t get that type of training at an early age, the lures of computers, cell phones, instant messages, sports, dating, work, pizza, school and a hundred other distractions may keep the kids from finding God until later in life or worse, not at all. The revelation gives us a sobering understanding of the permanent impact parents have upon their children, “A human being’s entire afterlife is enormously influenced by what happens during the first few years of existence.”
With our second set of kids, religion is a big part of their lives. Luke goes to study group and is actively involved with the First Presbyterian kids program. Kate, age 16, asked to be taken out of public school and sent to a Catholic High School. She said she wanted religion in the class room. She loves her religion classes at school and the Urantia Book has dramatically expanded her ability to see the best in Christianity. My wife constantly frames many of their social complexities with the question “What would Jesus do”. With Jesus of the Urantia Book in mind, they are working their way through sticky social issues but with the extra tools provided by the Revelation.
What have I learned through all this? I would like to think this conversation has been about altruism and benevolence but there’s survival of the individual and of the community in the learning. The message of salvation explained in the Urantia Book needs future generations to read and believe in it. You and I are the ones to make sure that happens. “But the security of civilization itself still rests on the growing willingness of one generation to invest in the welfare of the next and future generations.”
On a personal and practical basis, you and I want, more than anything else, for our own children to find God, feel his love, love him in return, and live forever. If not this outcome as parents, than why else have we lived? After all, it's every parent’s prayer and responsibility to help their children cross over the great bridge and enter the clearing on the other side.
Xerpi
