An Analysis of our Historical
Situation
Presented at the Summer Study Session, August 4th, 1968
by Meredith Sprunger
The most insightful students of human nature down through the centuries have repeatedly observed in many different ways that the most significant human urge was the growth and development of a creative personality, the actualization our potentialities, the fulfillment of our authentic self. Otto Rank, who is generally recognized as the most brilliant of the Viennese psychoanalysts, observed that this basic urge to creativity and self-actualization was inseparably linked with another fundamental human need – the urge to immortality. Man is a being whose consciousness transcends the present and projects itself into the future. To a considerable degree man has an eternity identification, a hunger for immortality, an awareness that he has a destiny. Rank believed the most basic reason that man begets children, builds a community and civilization, and creates works of art was not the more immediate drives which relate to these activities but that all of this activity is sustained because of man’s largely unconscious urge to immortality.
Whenever man’s daily activities become divorced from his eternal aspirations, his sense of being associated with some significant development and progress, with some eternal destiny he loses his interest and creative relationship with activities in the present. Without an adequate hope for the future, life becomes a route, stale, cynical, trying, and even despairing struggle for existence. We sense that we are living in a vacuum where nothing real is taking place. Dr. Charles Glock of the University of California in a recent survey discovered that nearly half of the people in our society have serious doubts about life after death. (“Will Ethics Be the Death of Christianity?” Trans-action, June 1968). This loss of a sense of destiny is part of the answer for contemporary man’s frustration, sense of futility, and awareness that he is living in an existential vacuum. Even those who maintain their faith in man’s eternal destiny find inadequate comfort and often even embarrassment in our Christian eschatology. In an age when men lived mainly in squalid huts bordering mud roads a heaven of golden streets and pearly gates was an inspiring destiny. Whenever educated men were seriously searching for magic formulas to turn common substances into gold and believed in the miraculous, spontaneous generation of life, the idea that death and resurrection suddenly turned imperfect material beings into perfect spiritual beings seemed reasonable. At a time when our most learned people saw the earth as the center of the universe, it was not difficult to believe that heaven was up beyond the rigid firmament, which divided heaven from earth. Today men of faith and learning have not only abandoned such a spiritual cosmology but in their embarrassment with the Biblical eschatology they have negated almost all specific traditional assumptions about the spiritual world. Everything from angels to heavenly harps tend to be regarded as anthropomorphisms which one does not take too seriously. Therefore, event he most constructive influences in our religious culture are undermining man’s true sense of destiny and along with it the meaningfulness of his present life.
At each step in the history of our planet when spiritual vision has grown dim, as man was in danger of losing his cosmic orientation and along with it his urge for spiritual growth – always at this point, in the fullness of time, new prophets have appeared; fresh revelatory encounters have restored a transcendental tension which has given a new meaning and high purpose to our common life. In our time the spiritual administrators of our planet have not forgotten us nor ignored our desperate plight. Into the wasteland of a decadent Christianity, which has announced its ultimate despair in the death of God theology, they have given birth to an enlarged spiritual cosmology of epochal significance. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to be introduced to The Urantia Book realize “it speaks to man’s deep spiritual yearnings and satisfies the intellect, fully harmonizing religion, philosophy, and today’s science through the fostering of a religion and a cosmology which are commensurate with man’s intellectual and cultural development. It opens new vistas of time and eternity, new concepts of man’s ever-ascending adventure of finding God the Father.” (Urantia Brotherhood Summary, 1968). Man now has an eschatology which challenges his most advanced physics and astronomy rather than being dwarfed by them. Here he has a spiritual destiny capable of inspiring his mortal life to its highest potentials. Here we have an understanding of universe dynamics, which fills our planetary life with the greatest significance. For the past two days we have been listening to the marvelous adventures, which await us, to the challenging achievements ahead, to the supernal destiny of lowly mortals.
Such dignity of destiny, once comprehended, endows our present life with eternal meaning and significance. We are therefore admonished to make this challenging adventure the supreme study of man. “Love of adventure, curiosity, and dread of monotony – these traits inherent in evolving human nature – were not put there just to aggravate or annoy you during your short sojourn on earth, but rather to suggest to you that death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery.” (P. 159)
I even suspect that the widespread interest among young people in fantasies like J. R. R. Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, is rooted in our unconscious awareness that there are other levels of reality and existence peopled with many different types of personalities and that such literary creations may be inspired and read as preparation, as a mortal psychological rehearsal, for the great ascendant adventure ahead. The spiritual supervisors of our planet have now judged us sufficiently mature to be given a synoptic view of the Universe of Universes in the Urantia Book. This, I believe, will mark one of the major cosmological-intellectual turning points in the history of our planet. One day the B.U. (Before Urantia) era will seem quite as immature cosmologically as the B.C. era now seems inadequate spiritually. Alvin Anna, Ruth, and Julia have given us a bird’s eye view of the long developmental-educational experience, which awaits us.
On the mansion worlds we resume our lives just where we left off when we are overtaken by death. Although the mansion worlds will probably more than measure up to our traditional concepts of heaven, the notion that all of our problems, deficiencies, and limitations will be instantly solved in “heaven” is a wishful illusion of immature religious thought. All intellectual, personal, and spiritual growth is an experiential, evolutionary achievement. On our inward ascent, however, we shall find that unlimited facilities and power have been provided to insure our ultimate attainment of the Paradise goal of divine perfection. The mansion worlds specialize in mortal deficiency ministry. They are the “head-start” schools of our system. Here our social limitations, mental disharmonies, and cultural deficiencies are improved. By the time we get to the fifth mansion world a genuine cosmic consciousness has evolved and we have a bona fide experiential enthusiasm for the Havona ascent. Shortly after this the typical individual fuses with his Thought Adjuster, receives his permanent universe name and, with guidance, chooses one of the optional routes to Havona along with differentia techniques to be used in Paradise attainment. Finally on the seventh mansion world those of us coming from isolated and retarded worlds will achieve full equality with those who have been educated on more enlightened planets. Here we will be purged of the last remnants of unfortunate heredity, unwholesome environment, and unspiritual planetary tendencies. At last our deficiency training is over and we become full-fledged citizens of our system capital, Jerusem.
As morontians our training continues with special emphasis on achieving the discipline necessary to harmonious and effective group activities. In due time we are promoted to our constellation headquarters, Edentia. Now we are ready to learn some of the more difficult aspects of socialization – how to live happily and work effectively with many diverse types of being. Our present problems of integration will no doubt seem rather simple and elemental when compared to Edentia challenges and achievements. We are now deep in the morontia aspect of the process of gaining “experiential knowledge of every step of the actuality and philosophy of the fullest possible life of intelligent existence.” (P. 348) We are being trained to the limits of our capacity regarding every detail of every divine principle of the just and efficient administration of the universal time-space creation. When our morontia training is complete, we graduate from our local universe of Nebadon receiving the loving approval and blessing of our Father-Creator, Christ Michael, and proceed as first stage spirits to begin our extensive spiritual education and growth in the superuniverse of Orvonton.
On the minor and major sectors of this vast superuniverse our spiritual development is fostered by experiences and activities, which are far beyond the level of our mortal conceptual imagination. Here we learn the principles and techniques by which universe justice prevails as it is tempered by understanding and mercy, how the power of reality eventually rules as it is exerted through the patience of evolution, why and how sacrifices of time are freely and joyously made to achieve the stabilized perfections of eternity. After long and thorough training we are graduated from the superuniverse schools and are transported to Havona, the central universe, where our graduate spiritual, intellectual, and experiential training begins. We shall be tremendously impressed by this perfect creation and such an overwhelming feeling of gratitude shall surge within us that one of our first acts will be to compose a message to Christ Michael expressing our gratitude and love to him for making this awe-inspiring adventure possible.
Within the seven circuits of Havona there is a definite task to be achieved on each of these billion worlds. “Not only will you find undreamed-of changes confronting you as you advance from circuit to circuit in Havona, but your astonishment will be inexpressible as you progress from planet to planet within each circuit. Each of these billion study worlds is a veritable university of surprises.” (P. 159) The ability to comprehend, to perceive ultimate spiritual reality is the passport to Paradise. This is the supreme test of the ascendant career. Perceiving the Infinite Spirit, the Eternal Son, and the Universal Father is so difficult for even such well developed spirit personalities as we shall then possess that were it not for the help of the ministering spirits of the central universe the task would be impossible. “But long before reaching Havona, these ascendant children of time have learned to feast upon uncertainty, to fatten upon disappointment, to enthuse over apparent defeat, to invigorate in the presence of difficulties, to exhibit indomitable courage in the face of immensity, and to exercise unconquerable faith when confronted with the challenge of the inexplicable. Long since, the battle cry of these pilgrims became: ‘In liaison with God, nothing – absolutely nothing is impossible.” (P. 291) Following the recognition of the Universal Father on the third Havona circuit our graduate spirit training is nearly complete and soon our post-graduate course will begin. “The test of time is almost over; the race for eternity has been al but run. The days of uncertainty are ending; the temptation to doubt is vanishing; the injunction to be perfect has been obeyed.
From the very bottom of intelligent existence the creature of time and material personality has ascended the evolutionary spheres of space, thus proving the feasibility of the ascension plan while forever demonstrating the justice and righteousness of the command of the Universal Father to his lowly creatures of the worlds: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” Step by step, life by life, world by world the ascendant career has been mastered, and the goal of Deity has been attained.” (P.295) Soon we are ready to be inducted into the terminal sleep of time to awaken on Paradise not as a visitor but as a resident of this Eternal Isle. Here we shall take the oath of the Paradise Trinity, which musters us forever into the Corps of the Finality. As Finaliters we are the evolutionary we are the evolutionary salt of the universe, forever proof against evil and secure against sin. Now the adventures of eternity begin in which we will no doubt be given unrevealed assignments of service o the creations now actualizing in the outer-space levels of the Master Universe.
Even high spiritual personalities are amazed at the thoroughness of our training and they ask themselves, “Why should the Gods be so concerned in so thoroughly training surviving mortals in the technique of universe management?” (P. 348). “What dignity of destiny and glory of attainment await every one of you! Do you fully appreciate what has been done for you? Do you comprehend the grandeur of the heights of eternal achievement, which are spread out before you? – even you who now trudge on in the lowly path of life through your so-called ‘veil of tears?’ “ (P. 449) The great mass of humanity does not have a vision of man’s noble destiny; they do not understand the nature or meaning of the historical process in which they are involved; they, therefore, lack appreciation, joy, and zest for life which a larger intellectual-spiritual vision would give them. But even now the spiritual administrators of our planet have provided an unparalleled answer to contemporary man’s searching questions. The open-minded, spiritual searchers of humanity are presently discovering the Urantia Book with its enlightening message. But the vast majority of mankind must be prepared to receive it. All of the vast evolutionary resources of our planet are now engaged in this preparation and it is already at an advanced stage. In the next section of this presentation I should like to survey this condition of growing readiness for the Urantia message.
II.
Change is the central characteristic of our times. We are told that more knowledge has been discovered in the last twenty-five years than man had accumulated in all previous history, that knowledge is doubling every ten years, that 90% of all of the scientists who have ever lived are still alive. In the 1967 Summer Edition of Deadalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Herman Kahn and Anthony Wiener list one hundred technical innovations likely to come into our society in the next thirty-three years. Reading the list one has the feeling that they are not talking about our world but about some more advanced planet.
Obviously, we are living in one of the great rise periods of history. When we take a long and somewhat over-simplified view of the past we see that it falls into a series of rise-plateau phases. The heart of the rise periods characteristically is concentrated in time periods of about a hundred years; the developing and integrating plateau periods which follow may extend into thousands of years. The most recent rise period occurred around 1,500, which marks the renaissance, the reformation, and the rise of Sikhism. Then we go to the first century, which is associated with the development of the Roman Empire and the birth of Christianity. The next break-through period takes us to the third century B.C., the age of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and the birth of the great philosophical systems of Western Civilization. Finally, the sixth century B.C. was a dynamic period, which produced six of the world’s living religions. In these four cultural-spiritual explosions of the past we have the roots of almost everything basic in our world today. If we examine the more recent rise periods we find a characteristic development. The first phase is brought about by a break-through in scientific knowledge, a new understanding and adjustment to our physical universe. In the renaissance period this was the age of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. On the heels of scientific development come the formulations o f a new philosophy and an enlarged theology. This phase is represented by the advent of the empiricists in England and the rationalists in Europe whose antagonistic philosophies were synthesized b Immanuel Kant. In the field of religion this era is represented by the reformation and the counter reformation. The culminating phase of the new age is the flowering of the arts, which give expression to the enlarged and enhanced values of the new culture. This stage is represented by the contributions of Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, and Bach. The renaissance rise period marks the close of the Christian philosophic age and the beginning of the modern philosophic age. Science and reason have been the philosophic touchstones of the modern era and have dominated the plateau period since the renaissance. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, however, prophetic minds could see that something new was stirring, that we were on the threshold of a new age.
During the early part of the twentieth century our confidence in science and reason was shaken. World War I and the rise of the dictators convinced most thinkers that the old frames of reference were no longer adequate. While the old philosophical-cultural patterns were thus being undermined, the foundations of a revolutionary science and technology were being laid. This revolution is now entering its mature phase. Newtonian physics has culminated in nuclear and relativity physics. Our understanding of matter has gone through three levels in the microcosmos and we are now searching for such exclusive particles as quarks and may well be on the trail of the ultimaton. During the last fifty years our astronomical view of the universe has literally exploded. We now visualize a universe so vast that it staggers human imagination. The discovery of quasars has permitted us to look back nine billion light-years in our stellar history and appears to be giving us information supporting the pulsating or expansion-contraction theory of the universe. The scientific assumption that there are millions of inhabited planets has been so widely publicized that it doesn’t even shock the religious fundamentalist today. We are on the threshold of revolutionary applications of atomic power. We are now in the process of making the transition from human memory and control systems to computerized and automated systems. This new technology will transform our planet from a general state of material need to a general condition of material abundance. While it is doing this it will also free man from a great deal of work and give him a considerable amount of leisure time which he must learn to use constructively in such activities as education, research, creative development, and service. These activities will be greatly facilitated by tremendous advances in communication and transportation. Very soon we will have worldwide television via satellite transmission and not long after this we will have documentary programs, which the entire world will watch. Computerized libraries will enable high school students to do work, which college students are now doing and college students will be doing research now done on the graduate level.
Building on the foundations and using the tools of the physical sciences the biological sciences and medicine are experiencing revolutionary developments. Not only are basic problems in the control and cure of disease and degeneracy being solved by the so-called miracle drugs and advanced surgical techniques but molecular biology is discovering the basic bio-chemical structure of life in the DNA and RNA nucleic acids. The biological sciences are now giving us the tools for the quantitative control of world population and laying the foundations for its qualitative control. Geneticist Theodosius Dabzhansky observes that man now had the knowledge to control his own evolution “he may choose”, says Dabzhansky, “to direct his evolution toward the attainment of the purposes he regards as good, or which he believes to represent the will of the Creator.” (Science and Religion – Ian G. Barbour, (P. 315).
Although more immature than the physical sciences, the social sciences are developing at an amazing rate and are on the threshold of major applications in our society. Educational goals, standards, and procedures are undergoing radical examination and ambitious plans are being formulated, which will profoundly alter our society. A genuine humanistic psychology and sociology have evolved which are making pronouncements, which only the church dared to make in the past. Men like Abraham Maslow, president of the American Psychological Association, are dedicated to the task of bringing into science all the problems that nonscientists have been handling – art, poetry, values, philosophy and religion. His famous theory of meta-motivation is actually a treatise on the psychological evidence of the influence of the Thought Adjuster. Of these “Being-values” he says, “They are perceived not invented. They are trans-human and trans-individual…They can be conceived to be a kind of perfection…They command adoration, reverence, celebration, sacrifice. They are worth living for and dying for. Contemplating them or fusing with them gives the greatest joy that a human being is capable of.” (Psychology today), July 1968, P. 61) The social sciences are now beginning to face our pressing human problems of peach and violence, of ghettos and poverty, of race and human understanding, of alienation and brotherhood. The advent of enlightened social engineering is waiting in the wings of history to make its entrance and transform our chaotic social milieu into a symphony of evolutionary progress.
The foregoing illustrations point quite clearly to the fact that we are now in the mature stage of the initial or scientific phase of a new break-through period of history. The beginning of the second of Philosophic-religious phase has already made its appearance. It is generally recognized by contemporary philosophers that we have come to the end of a philosophic age, the modern age. Intellectual historians will probably date its demise at the mid-twentieth century concomitant with the utilization of atomic power and our first adventures into space. (Publication of U.B..) Numerous obituaries have been written for the death of philosophy as well as for the death of God. In an article entitled “American Philosophy is Dead”, published in the April 24th, 1966 issue of the New York Times Magazine Professor Lewis S. Feuer, of the University of California, says that philosophers at professional meetings spend most of their time telling each other what a waste of time it all is that nothing significant is being said, and that they don’t know what it’s all about. “Bereft of a sense that they have something to say”, Professor Feuer observes, “a curious style of writing has developed among academic philosophers. They seem to delight in conspicuous boredom; they multiply pages to explain what it is they are not going to discuss; they convey the sense of having endless time to say what they feel is not really worth saying. As content declines, the preciosity of their style increases.”
At one time philosophers like Socrates and Giordano Bruno were put to death because their ideas were so vital and so disturbing people were afraid they would turn the world upside down. Will Durant has noted that no one would think of doing that today – “Not because men are more delicate about killing, but because there is no need to kill that which is already dead.” (Time, January 7th, 1966, P. 24)
The Time essay of January 7th, 1966 entitled “What (If Anything) to Expect from Today’s Philosophers” concludes, “Will philosophy ever again address the heavens? Will it contribute anything to man’s vision, rather than merely clarifying it? Caution and confusion are not necessarily signs of disaster, and even Hegel remarked that ‘The Owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.’ But the shadows are deep and the time for an awakening is at hand.”
There are indeed signs that we are entering a new philosophic age. In a Post article entitled, “The Revolution in Western Thought”, (August 26th, 1961) Professor Huston Smith says, “Quietly, irrevocably, something enormous has happened to Western man. His outlook on life and the world has changed so radically that in the perspective of history the twentieth century is likely to rank – with the fourth – the century which witnessed the triumph of Christianity, and the seventeenth, which signaled the dawn of modern science – as one of the very few that have instigated genuinely new epochs in human thought. In this change, which is still in process, we of the current generation are playing a critical but as yet not widely recognized part.” This new philosophic age is factualizing not only in negative preparation such as the accelerated deterioration of the influence of the church, the astonishing exodus from both the Protestant and Catholic ministry of the more progressive pastors and theologians, and the widening generation gap but in sporadic break-throughs of constructive thinking which reflect the enlarged insights of the new age. In a recent issue of Look (May 28th, 1968) senior editor, George B. Leonard, presents “A New Liberal Manifesto” in which he points out the old-line liberals are so limited, distorted, and behind the times that they are actually one type of conservative who are blocking real change. The new liberal, he says, will not do things to or for people, but will help create conditions in which people can do things for themselves. The new liberal will tackle issues now largely ignored. Allied with science and technology, he will welcome the responsibilities of creation and of rebuilding the institutions of society. In order to keep abreast of the new age business, academic, and government leaders are currently being offered “The Marshal LcLuhan Newsletter” at $50.00 per year by the human Development Corporation. The prospectus of the topics which McLuhan promises to discuss ranges from “How the Computer Data-bank Will Do Away with Private Life” to “Why the Prayer-mat Shall Replace the Cadillac.”
In the field of religion the theme of religious renewal and innovation is being voiced everywhere. The Van Nostrand Insight Series has a volume entitled Psychology and Religion edited by Joseph Havens. The last chapter of this book is entitled “New Religion” in which there is a survey of developments in this field. Havens observes that Carl Jung as early as 1933 maintained that the psychic future of Western man depends on the emergence of new spiritual forms to give meaning to his life. One of the most ardent advocates of the need for new religious myths is Psychologist Henry A. Murry, founder of the Harvard University Center for Research in Personality. In his Myths and Myth-Making, (1960) he writes of the need for new vital myths to replace the senescence of traditional religion. Many literary excursions have been made in this direction in recent years. Strange Deity personalities of non-human rational beings appear regularly in the contemporary fantasy and science fiction magazines. The Christian writer, C. S. Lewis, has made use of this kind of imaginative thinking in his trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. Olaf Stapledon, an English moral philosopher has turned to spiritual cosmic dramas to grapple with the moral and spiritual dilemmas of our time. In his Darkness and light Stapledon says that within some of the “snowflake” universes a brief but dazzling blaze of light is seen to occur. This brilliant light, he says, is the result of a whole conscious cosmos of beings united in the most intimate spiritual communion. You will note the parallel to the Urantian picture of the three-fold fluctuation of light, which takes place when all of Paradise is engulfed in worship. (P. 304)
John Robinson in his challenging book, honest to God, (1963), and Joseph Fletcher in Situation on Hold, (1966), are examples of rigorous theological spadework which is preparing the seed bed from which fresh ideas will grow in the decades ahead. Even more daring are articles by Professor Charles K. Robinson entitled “The Space Age and Christology” in Theology Today, (January, 1963), and “Space Theology” by Dr. Geddes MacGregor in The Living Church, (October 21st, 1962), both of which postulate the reasonableness of every in habited planet receiving an incarnation bestowal mission from a specially sent Son of God. Professor W. Burnet Easton, Jr. has written a paper entitled “Life on Other Planets” which appears as the last chapter of a Harper Forum Book, Science and Religion published this year (1968). In this paper Professor Easton says, “If man is only one o f nobody knows how many intelligent beings on isolated planets scattered all over the universe – and perhaps a very inferior one at that – it suggests that Christianity may be only an immature and very parochial faith of a more or less primitive form of human development…If this is true, whatever the physical conditions of the intelligent beings on other worlds (the pictorial speculations o f the artist in Life magazine a few years ago were, from the human point of view, weird and repulsive), they would have to face the same ultimate problems we have to face. Therefore, if God be the God revealed in the Bible – a Creator who loves his creation, as Christians believe – he would ‘when the time had fully come’ (Gal. 4:4), incarnate himself in whatever form of life the intelligent beings on other worlds might have. The physical and even cultural forms in which that “Christ” would appear probably would be unrecognizable to us, but in principle and in salvific work it would be the same as the incarnation in Jesus Christ…The possibility of intelligent beings on other worlds does not affect the need nor the validity of Jesus as the Christ; it simply requires that God, as our understanding of him in Jesus Christ dictates, would have fulfilled his “Christly function” more often than we had heretofore realized.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus is reported to have said, “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (10:16). The early Church, with its limited understanding of the size and nature of the universe, probably interpreted that teaching to refer to other people on earth. With our expanded knowledge there is no reason why it cannot refer to other intelligent beings on other worlds.” (P. 321-23)
Not only are theologians broadening their cosmology of salvation but also there is some limited recognition that man needs a more realistic view of his probably post-mortal experience and education. Italian Jesuit Luigi Majocco has written a 590-page book entitled Heavenly Humanism published in May of this year, (1968), and is now in its third printing which, although naïve by Urantian standards, does present a more realistic picture of heaven and points out that it is time for the church to stop depicting hell and start thinking seriously about the potentialities of heaven.
I hope this presentation has given us a glimpse of the enormous preparation, which has and is taking place to prepare us for the advent of a new philosophic-religious age. Nevertheless, we must realize that we are only in the initial stages of this new philosophic age. The publication of the Urantia Book appears to have been beautifully timed so as to be available to the pioneers of this new age of religious enlightenment.
The Urantia Brotherhood being schooled in the wisdom of quiet evolutionary development has effected a solid organizational development. In an amazingly short time it has sponsored a French Edition and without publicity has sold the 10,000 copies of the first edition of the book and encouraged the formation of study groups all over the world. There is an increasing grass-roots response from all types of people who have discovered the Urantia book. Many activities are taking place, which we know nothing about and as we periodically discover them we are amazed that the Urantia message has established a fellowship of progressive people in many communities of significant potential. The future will bring many new developments, a great number of which we would not have been able to predict.
“All the growth for the whole human species”, Abraham Maslow has so effectively pointed out, “takes place in the growing tip, among that one percent of the population. The growing tip is made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is…It’s our Nielson rating among the members of the growing tip that determines the acceptance or rejection of ideas and even the direction of the human race.” (“The Psychology of Universality” – Abraham H. Maslow, Psychology Today, July, 1968, P. 56). You are the pioneers in the most significant movement on our planet. “The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, the Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths…the living spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.” (1,041), “Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment.” (P. 2,082)
There is a great need in our culture for the enlightening and ennobling Urantia philosophy to be planted in the minds and hearts of men where it will incubate and spring forth in creative activity, which will enable us…
To build more inclusive concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness which will bind together naturalism and idealism, the humanities and technology, science and religion.
To develop a new concept of man enabling him to appreciate his potentials and encouraging him to participate in his own creative evolution inspired by a vision of his great destiny.
To develop a mature view of the goals of social evolution and stimulate us to initiate wise programs of social engineering.
To present a new concept of Jesus and his message and thereby teach man the baseness of violence and war and inspire him to develop the personal, governmental, and universe potentials of love and brotherhood.
To construct a comprehensive view of our planetary destiny which in turn will unify culture, governments, and religions, and finally…
To enlarge and enhance man’s conception and understanding of his eternal destiny and thereby fill his life wit vital meaning and dynamic purpose.
This is our future; this is our task. In the meantime – our spiritually hungry world starves; our war torn world bleeds; our frustrated world experiencing existential meaninglessness cries out in anguish and totters on the brink of despair. “I tell you, life up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for the harvest.” (John 4:35) “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest.” (Matt. 9:37, 38)
This, then, is my analysis of our historical situation, which sees the future as a time of great potential for the Urantia Brotherhood and its pioneers.
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship