David:

I am deeply thankful for your thoughtful and articulate response to my paper, not because I found your arguments convincing, but because it helps further elevate the search for understanding of these issues to that level on which we seek to be informed by the revelation itself and not political, legal, or personal exigencies.

While I am tempted to respond to each and every one of your points, I will not do so here, but instead will choose a few and then, hopefully broaden the discussion.

1. I was pleasantly surprised that you used one of the claimed communications from the revelators to support your argument that we humans now have sole responsibility to plot our future course ("You are on your own.")  With the assumption that your use of same suggests a fair-minded acceptance of other claimed communications, I am sure you are aware that there were directions given with regard to the publishing of the book, protection of the text, and keeping it whole.  Though I did not use any of these in my paper, and will not do so here, your opening of this door provides an opportunity for any who are interested to speak with people much closer to those events to gain some insight into those instructions (e.g. Carolyn Kendall, John Hales, etc.).  I know you would agree that we can't both debunk and use these communiqués to suit our purposes.   Further research in this area might well provide you with additional evidence of the "exclusionary choice" made by the revelators you feel I did not provide in my paper.

2. Though your personal experience confirms to you that the life and teachings of Jesus "to be the most comprehensive revelation of the nature of these realities (the ones you mentioned in your response) I have ever encountered," I do not for a minute believe that you would argue that the totality of the fifth epochal revelation does not add to the revelation of truth contained in the fourth revelation.   It is surely evident from the book's presentation of the universal nature of serial revelations of expanded truth and knowledge on evolutionary worlds that epochal revelation is simply part of the Father's evolutionary plan.  It is also apparent that failed revelations are not re-done; rather they are encompassed and expanded by the next, planned revelation of truth.  And, as I noted in my paper, each successive revelation contains the best of the previous revelations.  As for you comment about the fourth revelation containing a discussion of Supremacy, I would suggest that all revelations contain elements of Supremacy since we are told quite pointedly that "man's intellectual comprehension capacity is exhausted by the maximum conception of the Supreme Being." (page 1262:1)  I hope I am correct in assuming that your comment was not meant to suggest that what Jesus communicated about the Supreme was sufficient in itself.

3. As for your comments regarding appropriate methods of propagation, rather than respond directly, I would instead like to draw your attention to a couple of other pointers in the book which I believe add to the evidence suggesting the best way forward.  There is one assumption here with which you may not agree: I believe that consistent with the pattern of the Father's and his agents' evolutionary plans for individuals, social groupings, worlds, and universes, there is a "best way" which is planned out in advance (the Son does only that which he sees the Father do; our Adjusters come to indwell us with a plan for our ascension career, etc.). Of course that plan for the best way does not mean that the Father and his agents do not adjust when the plan fails or is diverted; however, the fact that the Father brings good out of even sin and iniquity (e.g. the Lucifer Rebellion) does not free us from the responsibility to always seek the Father's way in every choice we make (every decision, every decision, either facilitates or impedes the work of the Adjuster!).  With that assumption stated, I would draw your attention to two areas in the book which I believe pertain to this issue:

a. We are told how and why the book (revelation) was constructed as it was which I suggest points not only to the need to focus on the whole that is certainly more than the sum of its parts but also on the way in which ultimately we and others must deal with it (Paper-19 Section-1 Para-4through Paper-19 Section 1 Para-8):

"In this connection, however, it may be noted that Teacher Sons are the supreme coordinating personalities of Trinity origin. In such a far-flung universe of universes there is always great danger of succumbing to the error of the circumscribed viewpoint, to the evil inherent in a segmentalized conception of reality and divinity. For example: The human mind would ordinarily crave to approach the cosmic philosophy portrayed in these revelations by proceeding from the simple and the finite to the complex and the infinite, from human origins to divine destinies. But that path does not lead to spiritual wisdom. Such a procedure is the easiest path to a certain form of genetic knowledge, but at best it can only reveal man's origin; it reveals little or nothing about his divine destiny.

"Even in the study of man's biologic evolution on Urantia, there are grave objections to the exclusive historic approach to his present-day status and his current problems. The true perspective of any reality problem--human or divine, terrestrial or cosmic--can be had only by the full and unprejudiced study and correlation of three phases of universe reality: origin, history, and destiny. The proper understanding of these three experiential realities affords the basis for a wise estimate of the current status.

"When the human mind undertakes to follow the philosophic technique of starting from the lower to approach the higher, whether in biology or theology, it is always in danger of committing four errors of reasoning:

1. It may utterly fail to perceive the final and completed evolutionary goal of either personal attainment or cosmic destiny.
2. It may commit the supreme philosophical blunder by oversimplifying cosmic evolutionary (experiential) reality, thus leading to the distortion of facts, to the perversion of truth, and to the misconception of destinies.
3. The study of causation is the perusal of history But the knowledge of how a being becomes does not necessarily provide an intelligent understanding of the present status and true character of such a being.
4. History alone fails adequately to reveal future development--destiny. Finite origins are helpful, but only divine causes reveal final effects.Eternal ends are not shown in time beginnings. The present can be truly interpreted only in the light of the correlated past and future.

"Therefore, because of these and for still other reasons, do we employ the technique of approaching man and his planetary problems by embarkation on the time-space journey from the infinite, eternal, and divine Paradise Source and Center of all personality reality and all cosmic existence."

This might at least partially explain why the book has been assembled as it has, why it is in the order it is in, and why the story of Jesus' life and teachings has been included, and included not as Part I, but as Part IV. Though you and others might argue rightly that most of our fellow mortals would not yet be able to deal with it this way, that fact alone should not be allowed to negate or ignore what we are told in this quote.  Rather, it may suggest that we need to build a teaching approach that would support people in dealing with this revelation in this way and/or that the initial purpose of the book itself is other than its immediate and universal acceptance on our planet, by fragmentation if we fail in delivering it whole.  Perhaps it is here to assemble a world-wide corps of humans committed to the fifth epochal revelation (not the fourth) whose purpose it might be to prepare the garden of the mind for the coming of a new order of sonship (Trinity Teacher Sons) and the re-connection of the circuits, either or both of which would surely impact all the peoples of the world in a way the printed word cannot.

b. Even though we might assume that the story of Eve's default is background and has nothing to do with us beyond explaining the lack of violet blood and the consequences thereof, I would suggest that the lessons highlighted therein have application in our own lives and decisions.  Might it be that premature dilution of the initial source of this revelation (the book itself) is the mindal equivalent of the premature dilution of the violet blood, especially if our initial job is to assemble the corps of humans as suggested above?  Some of the sincere arguments made by Serapatatia at that time seem eerily to have their echo in the justifications we hear today: "...it occurred to Serapatatia that that it would be very helpful if, while awaiting the recruiting of large numbers of the violet race, something could be done in the meantime immediately to advance the needy waiting tribes...And all of this was soberly and honestly considered to be for the good of the world, since this child, to be reared and educated in the Garden, would exert a great influence for good over his father's people." (Paper 75, Section 3, Paragraph 5)

I would note also that when the argument is made that we need to bring truth to the hungry of the world, it would be useful to understand that injunction in the context of the way in which the Father and the Father's evolutionary plan deals with that apparent problem.   Though of course we are graced with the opportunity to serve our fellows in that way, I believe that anxiety as a motivating factor in this regard is misplaced.  During the long ages of the evolution of a planet, millions and billions of human mortals on the finite worlds die physically without ever hearing the word of truth or entering "the kingdom."  Universal Adjuster indwelling does not take place until a Bestowal Son arrives in a Local Universe and pours out his Spirit of Truth.  

Are these delays a failure of the Father's plan or a lack of concern for his children, or suggestive of other dynamics-that this is simply the way the evolutionary plan was designed and is compensated by the existence of the morontia regime?  Serapatatia made his argument sincerely, but we know that despite the existence of needy waiting tribes, the plan called for patience and the buildup of the violet race before the up-stepping was to begin.  Considering our book in this context, since it is almost certain that it will be fragmented when the copyright runs out in a short 30 years, those who support such fragmentation would get their wish in slightly more than a single generation anyway.  My hope is that we build a human corps dedicated to the total revelation to serve as emissaries of this fifth epoch of growth on our world, notwithstanding whatever else we might choose to do now or when the copyright expires.

David, though there is still more to discuss and understand, I will leave it here for now.  I look forward to your response and that of any other interested colleagues.  At the least, we will all come to know each other and perhaps our beloved revelation better.

With warmest personal regards and respect,

Dave