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About eighty five years ago, the events began that would culminate in the presentation of the fifth epochal revelation of truth to the mortals of this planet. In the years which have passed, that revelation has been defined, indited, published, and, to a significant degree, distributed to much of the world. About forty years ago, the processes began that would lay the foundation for the socialization of the fifth epochal revelation throughout humankind. We now stand at the threshold of a new phase in that socialization and a new era in the realization of the Supreme on Urantia.

For the past two days, we have examined some of the foundations of this growing socialization personal relationships between people and with their God, as well as the social structures of religion by which the realities of these relationships enter the stream of cultural history and shape planetary development. Today, at last, we come to the heart of our own association—the fact of revelation. For we have not assembled here and committed our lives to this work simply to better know man and God or to better the spiritual fabric of our planet. No, there are many hands, minds, and spirits worldwide dedicated to such work. Rather, we are united here by our service to a unique revelation of truth, the Urantia Papers.

While there are many paths to the discovery of truth, it is this revelation that has spoken to our souls, enabling our new-found spirit awareness. It is this revelation that will transform the consciousness of our civilization to bring about the unification of our religion, our philosophy, and our science. It is this revelation that will uplift our grasp of supreme values, without displacing or devaluing the hard-won legacy of ages past. It is this revelation that will usher in a new dispensation of truth to our planet. And, it is for this revelation that we, the readers of the Urantia Papers, stand before the world as the sole advocates.

We know that transformed individuals make a transformed world and that love is the desire to do good to others. We know that the study of your religion is theology, and that the study of another’s is psychology. We know of the factual reality of the Isle of Paradise and the Paradise Trinity. We know that Jesus was the incarnate creator of our universe and that, though his death on the cross did not save us from our sins, his life as a man of the realm did, in fact, make possible the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, our sure salvation from planetary spiritual darkness. And we know that we know these things because of our revelation, and not from mortal philosophy, science, or religion.

Now we, as readers of the Urantia Papers, have come to a major time of rededication to our purpose in service to the revelation. I challenge us today to understand the obligations that come from knowledge of a revelatory reality and to rededicate ourselves to the planetary service of that revelation. For if we do not do this, there is no one who will. Of all the ministries available to religionists, this one arena, this one responsibility, this one destiny is uniquely ours. On the way to this rededication, we shall briefly consider the qualities of the revelation, its essential reality, its central message, and its mechanism of action. And from this we shall, at last, find the means for our rededication to a living fellowship of revelatory service.

The Urantia Papers tell us their genesis is from a mandate issued by the Ancients of Days of Uversa directing a high commission consisting of twenty-four Orvonton administrators to reveal the nature of Deity, the reality of Paradise, the organization and working of the central and superuniverses, the personalities of the grand universe, and the high destiny of evolutionary mortals on Urantia

The papers also tell us that, on a normal planet, the revelation of truth is extended to the central universe and to Paradise at the time of a Trinity Teacher Son mission. The Teacher Sons are especially well-qualified as revelators, for they are the supreme co-ordinating 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. And, the goal of their revelatory ministry is "to effect the transition from the evolutionary ages to the era of light and life" Through the Urantia Papers, we have been given knowledge of such cosmic realities well in advance of our normal time, while other long-lost truths are recalled for us.

As an example, we are told that "Not since the times of Jesus has the factual identity of the Paradise Trinity been known on Urantia (except by a few individuals to whom it was especially revealed) until its presentation in these revelatory disclosures." Although none of the Urantia Papers come to us officially from a Trinity Teacher Son, there are a number which are no less authoritative.

Consider the Perfector of Wisdom, one member of the high commission from Uversa: "Wherever and whenever a Perfector of Wisdom functions, there and then divine wisdom functions. There is actuality of presence and perfection of manifestation in the knowledge and wisdom represented in the doings of these mighty and majestic personalities. They do not reflect the wisdom of the Paradise Trinity; they are that wisdom. They are the sources of wisdom for all teachers in the application of universe knowledge; they are the fountains of discretion and the wellsprings of discrimination to the institutions of learning and discernment in all universes."

There are but eight among the 197 Urantia Papers indited by the Perfector of Wisdom. Among the most challenging of all the materials, they seem key to the extension of revelation to Paradise and the central universe, for they are: The Eternal Isle of Paradise, The Universe of Universes, The Sacred Spheres of Paradise, The Central and Divine Universe, The Paradise Sons of God, The Paradise Creator Sons, Ministering Spirits of the Central Universe, and Ministry of the Primary Supernaphim. But if these eight papers are the wisdom core of the entire revelation, what are we to make of the near-endless explanation of the orders of universe personalities and their functions, the extensive presentation of local universe and planetary history, and the detailed retelling of the life of Jesus? What is, in fact, the planned message of the fifth epochal revelation that requires such a vast exposition? Or is this other material simply filling in the details of the interaction of Absolute Deity with finite reality?

To me, the revelation of the factual reality of the Isle of Paradise and the associated reality and central functions of the Paradise Trinity and the central universe is the foundation on which the reality of the remainder of the revelation rests. For if all reality, all manifestation emanates from, and is ever obedient to the purposes of Paradise and the Paradise Trinity, then the purposeful unification of all realities on finite, ultimate, and absolute levels is certain. This affirms to us finite creatures the essential unity of the cosmos in spite of all appearances to the contrary. This shows us that there is a pattern of harmony in disparate events that unifies all reality. In terms of our immediate, finite concerns, this discloses our experience to reflect the evolution of the Supreme, the finite God of time and space, the co-ordinator of finite reality.

It is instructive to examine previous revelatory messages in the light of this new understanding, for we can see how the fifth epochal revelation upsteps these prior understandings without undermining them. Of Melchizedek we are told, The cardinal precepts of his teachings were trust and faith. He taught trust in the omnipotent beneficence of God and proclaimed that faith was the act by which men earned God's favor. And of Jesus the papers say, “…The essence of his teaching was love and service, the loving worship which a creature son voluntarily gives in recognition of, and response to, the loving ministry of God his Father; the freewill service which such creature sons bestow upon their brethren in the joyous realization that in this service they are likewise serving God the Father.

The author of these comments, a Melchizedek of Nebadon himself, does not comment on the essential concepts of the Urantia Papers. Yet, if one reads the entire revelation it becomes clear that the ideas informing all parts are the notions of absolute unity and cosmic harmony—a universe friendly to mortal will creatures evolving in and evolving the Supreme. Melchizedek taught trust in the goodness of God and faith to act on that trust. Jesus provided a fuller understanding by teaching love between God and man and service of each for the other as an expression of that love.

Now the Urantia Papers carry our understanding still deeper by revealing the perfect unity and universal impulse of harmony—the universal Deity co-ordination that integrates the vast mechanism of the universe of universes and makes possible the creature attainment of Paradise perfection. At the same time, the portrayal in the Urantia Papers of the life of Jesus shows us how the love-comprehension of Deity by a finite man can find spiritual expression in the fruits of divinity: intellectual peace, social progress, moral satisfaction, spiritual joy, and cosmic wisdom.

With this revelation we move beyond mere belief in Jesus to believing and living as the Master believed and lived. Although the Urantia Papers upstep the prior revelations of truth to the planet, without undermining their essential truths, the same cannot be said for the impact of the revelation on the evolutionary beliefs and practices with which prior revelatory truth has become almost indistinguishably commingled. It is in this area that the greatest challenge to the ministry of our new revelation lies, for in purifying the old truth by the transfusion of the new, higher truth many cherished social arrangements, usages, and beliefs will be overturned. It is to be hoped that the guardians of social tradition have, after two thousand years’ ministry of the Spirit of Truth, advanced spiritually to the point that a spiritual reformation of human civilization can occur without great temporal tragedy. It is also to be hoped that we messengers of the new revelation, ourselves heirs to the same work of the Spirit of Truth, will possess those qualities of wit, patience, grace, and charm so necessary to lead a planetary culture from a spiritual dawning into the full daylight of a new age.

And all this without triggering a social backlash that brings our own speedy demise while plunging the planet into a new age of cultural darkness. “Transition is always accompanied by confusion, and there will be little tranquillity in the religious world until the great struggle between the three contending philosophies of religion is ended: The spiritistic belief (in a providential Deity) of many religions. The humanistic and idealistic belief of many philosophies. The mechanistic and naturalistic conceptions of many sciences.” “And these three partial approaches to the reality of the cosmos must eventually become harmonized by the revelatory presentation of religion, philosophy, and cosmology which portrays the triune existence of spirit, mind, and energy proceeding from the Trinity of Paradise and attaining time-space unification within the Deity of the Supreme.

I am confident that we will find it possible to meet this challenge, if we will but adopt the approach to understanding reality presented in the Urantia Papers themselves. 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. 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.”

While the Urantia Papers enlighten us concerning these matters, they do much more. For within the revelation we also find the keys to the dynamic process by which we can, as true sons, participate in the actualization of finite potentials, even in the eventuation of transfinite realities. “What the true son desires and the infinite Father wills IS. But this power of the individual in partnership with God is not sufficient for a group of diverse personalities. If we, as a community of faith, are to grow beyond belief in Jesus or belief in the Urantia Papers to believe as Jesus believed and to live as he lived, with total faith in the unity, harmony, and goodness of the universe, there must be a way to reconcile the conflicts of multiple self-seeking egos and to forge a social institution able to change the world.

Knowing this need, and knowing the Supreme power to be conferred upon him at the conclusion of his mortal bestowal, on the night before his death Jesus established for his mortal children the sacrament of the Remembrance Supper. By this he undertook personally, as a Supreme Creator Son, to realize the hope of the faithful through the ages direct communion with the person of God. This supper of remembrance, when it is partaken of by those who are Son-believing and God-knowing, does not need to have associated with its symbolism any of man’s puerile misinterpretations regarding the meaning of the divine presence, for upon all such occasions the Master is really present. The remembrance supper is the believer’s symbolic rendezvous with Michael. When you become thus spirit-conscious, the Son is actually present, and his spirit fraternizes with the indwelling fragment of his Father.

This is possible because, since his acension to the right hand of the Father, he and the local universe Mother Spirit have ever functioned as equals, co-operating in administrative union, enabling both to act independently of time and space throughout Nebadon. And through this supreme Deity power of ubiquity, Michael is now able to unify all occasions of mortal remembrance in service of a newly emergent reality the fellowship of all will creatures the first absonite to eventuate in Nebadon as its Supreme Creator Son begins to act on post-finite, even ultimate levels of reality. The characteristic difference between a social occasion and a religious gathering is that in contrast with the secular the religious is pervaded by the atmosphere of communion. In this way human association generates a feeling of fellowship with the divine, and this is the beginning of group worship. The atmosphere of the communion provides a refreshing and comforting period of truce in the conflict of the self-seeking ego with the altruistic urge of the indwelling spirit Monitor. And this is the prelude to true worship;the practice of the presence of God which eventuates in the emergence of the brotherhood of man.

Join with me now as we take yet another step on the revealed path towards Urantia’s unrevealed destiny.

Join with me as Michael of Nebadon exercises his supreme and unquestioned sovereignty to harmonize the confusion of our planet and build the evolving unity of the Supreme.

Join with me as we consciously welcome the Master Son, our own beloved Jesus, into our midst, to celebrate our unified dedication to his supreme work.

Join with me as we each enjoy the fellowship of his spirit with our indwelling Father fragment, as we recall his final words summarizing the range of his life’s teaching and promising to guide us ever onward into an infinite, eternal, friendly, harmonious universe. "Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that I am the resurrection and the life, but this will avail you nothing unless you are first born of the eternal spirit, thereby coming to possess, by faith, the gift of eternal life. If you are the faith sons of my Father, you shall never die; you shall not perish. The gospel of the kingdom has taught you that all men are the sons of God. And this good news concerning the love of the heavenly Father for his children on earth must be carried to all the world. The time has come when you worship God neither on Gerizim nor at Jerusalem, but where you are, as you are, in spirit and in truth. It is your faith that saves your souls. Salvation is the gift of God to all who believe they are his sons. But be not deceived; while salvation is the free gift of God and is bestowed upon all who accept it by faith, there follows the experience of bearing the fruits of this spirit life as it is lived in the flesh. The acceptance of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God implies that you also freely accept the associated truth of the brotherhood of man. And if man is your brother, he is even more than your neighbor, whom the Father requires you to love as yourself. Your brother, being of your own family, you will not only love with a family affection, but you will also serve as you would serve yourself. And you will thus love and serve your brother because you, being my brethren, have been thus loved and served by me. Go, then, into all the world telling this good news to all creatures of every race, tribe, and nation. My spirit shall go before you, and I will be with you always."