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of the glorified Christ. 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." (2090)
Among the most powerful sayings of Jesus that are self-acting error-correcting concepts, (SEC's), are those that contrast the behavior of good earthly parents with what could be expected from a heavenly Father who is gracious, merciful, loving, and compassionate. These simple words come from the gospel of Luke: "If a son shall ask for bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg will he give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him?"
Would a good earthly father demand the sacrifice of one of his innocent children to pay for the sins of his other children? The Urantia Book makes us aware of what we must do to bring to life, the reality of Jesus' Fourth Epochal Revelation. But we need to do this by using the life and sayings of Jesus, as revealed in the gospel stories. Just as Jesus told the Pharisees that it was unnecessary for them to believe in him, but only that they should believe in the one who sent him, so it is both unnecessary and counter-productive to attempt to force The Urantia Book upon the churches. As yet they do not need it--they only need the instruction that is already in the biblical gospels. First the Fourth Epochal Revelation needs to be re-established. After that will come the time for the expanding truths of the Fifth. The task of John the Baptist was to prepare the way for Jesus and the Fourth Epochal Revelation. Prepare Ye the Way is a necessary precursor for introducing The Urantia Book to Christianity.
One of the means to do this is through secondary works. I have written two books, the first entitled "Christ or Chaos. The Evolution of a Revelation." It is already in print, published by Vantage Press, Inc. New York. It covers the life of Jesus prior to his baptism, much as is found in The Urantia Book, but written in a style that attempts to capture the interest of readers through the time-proven cliff-hanger formula. The second book is entitled, "Christ or Chaos. Abba Revealed." It, too, uses the cliff-hanger formula through a series of plots by which Annas and Caiaphas attempt to get rid of Jesus. It culminates with the crucifixion. A third book could be written to show how the young church eventually lost the plot, and buried Jesus' revelation of his God of love--and the way back.
Those who now wish to embark on taking on the challenge of the Divine Counselor through the written word are going to face the same obstacles as I have. The market for new books is in vast over-supply. Publishers do not want to know you. They do not want your manuscripts, in fact will not accept them. First you must write a letter outlining the plan for your book. Send them a manuscript and you will get it back unread--no matter whether it is worthy of a Nobel peace prize. In fact you will get most of your submissions back with a formal refusal letter, but only if you have had the forethought to include a stamped, addressed envelope. Otherwise you can expect no reply. These refusals will come from some junior clerk who has not bothered to read your submission. Then, even if you can get the book printed, you have to get it into the retail stores, and on the bookshelves. Australia's largest book retailer refuses to handle any more religious books. My publisher approached more than thirty book distributors in Australia to handle my book--without success. The quality of the work was not the problem. They are simply flooded with books and have no time to read more. Eventually my wife managed to line up a distributor and things are now moving.
All Urantia Book readers who want to use the written word to spread the message of the book will face this problem. What can be done about it? Assume you have managed to get a book printed and the books are now stacked in a warehouse waiting to be read. How do you get them to the retailer? The world-wide trend is towards a small number of large publishing houses tying up the system so that they print, distribute, and retail books that they themselves control. These publishers are scarcely approachable by unknown authors. Thinking of CD-ROM's? I read recently that it now takes an average of $500,000 to successfully produce and market one.
Getting a book printed is not a problem if you can pay for it. But getting it distributed is another matter. Nowadays most retailers put a high value on shelf space. They do not want to allocate space to an unknown book by an unknown author. They want books on the shelf that achieve rapid turnover. Here is one area that Urantia Book readers can do something. There are enough of us to help establish demand. Go to retailers and ask for a secondary work. If it is listed, there is no problem. If not, you can tell them the name of the book, author, publisher, and hopefully, a distributor. Then they can get it in. Recommend the book to your friends. Give it away as a birthday or Christmas present, anything to help get demand going. This has a snowballing effect, but it wont happen until someone makes a snowball. Do it for my book--you will be helping to spread that essential message on the true nature of God and you will be helping to build a fund to promote secondary works because all of my author's royalties go to a trust fund to assist in promoting The Urantia Book's message. You will also help us to learn what it is we must do to get access to the distribution system.
My publisher is Vantage Press Inc., an old established firm that, in its early days, dealt in printing academic works that had no chance of building a large demand. It used a subsidy system whereby authors contributed to the printing costs and hoped later to gain at least
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