I am always working to improve and trying out new things. My very life has become an experiment in continuously discovering, living, proclaiming, and teaching the gospel. But two lessons about teaching truth have made me careful to experiment within the guidelines rather than with the guidelines.
We are told about the Planetary Prince’s staff and their successful policy of following, for the first 300,000 years, what I call the receptivity principle: “The evolution of the religious capacity of receptivity in the inhabitants of a world largely determines their rate of spiritual advancement and the extent of religious revelation” (52:2.3/591.3). (For an introduction to the many-sided receptivity principle, see “Getting the Gospel Movement Back on Track.”) After the rebellion, came the default of Adam and Eve, accompanied by a majestic lesson: “Never, in all your ascent to Paradise, will you gain anything by impatiently attempting to circumvent the established and divine plan by short cuts, personal inventions, or other devices for improving on the way of perfection, to perfection, and for eternal perfection.” (75:8.5/846.4)
My respect for these two lessons makes me willing to scour the Urantia Book for good ideas about how to work with the Book, and to continue my search for wisdom outside its pages, using the Book as the lens through which to evaluate other texts.
Jesus promptly recognized truth in the Book of Enoch despite its context; he was “ever willing to learn from even the humblest of little children” (126:3.8/1390.3; 126:2.3/1388.3). And now his Spirit of Truth enables us to recognize good advice no matter what we think about its context or source. Gold is where you find it. You never know where you’ll discover the next nugget of insight.
In documents associated with the Urantia Book, I have found gold in Urantia Foundation’s Declaration of Trust (discussed in the previous document in this series) and also in the Publication Mandate. I write not to persuade anyone that any text is revealed, but only to bring forth wisdom. This second document gives a picture that fits in perfectly with the overall pattern that we observe in other epochal revelations. They all go through an early phase of getting established, and a later phase of full contact with the planetary population. Much of the wisdom about teaching truth in the Book focuses on working with individuals. But how shall we apply the receptivity principle with the fifth epochal revelation as it relates to the planet as a whole?
Have a look and see what you think.
The Publication Mandate
FOR: The files of the Executive Committee of URANTIA BROTHERHOOD
PRESENTED: 4 April, 1955
It seems appropriate, a second time, to bring to the attention of the Executive Committee certain wise comments and advices which have been gathered over a period of years and which pertain to the future problems of the URANTIA BOOK. These advices could well be presented under the general caption:
THE TIMING OF THE URANTIA BOOK (Generally designated as “The Publication Mandate”*)
"We regard the Urantia Book as a feature of the progressive evolution of human society. It is not germane to the spectacular episodes of epochal revolution, even though it may apparently be timed to appear in the wake of one such revolution in human society. The Book belongs to the era immediately to follow the conclusion of the present ideological struggle. That will be the day when men will be willing to seek truth and righteousness. When the chaos of the present confusion has passed, it will be more readily possible to formulate the cosmos of a new and improved era of human relationships. And it is for this better order of affairs on earth that the Book has been made ready.
"But the publication of the Book has not been postponed to that (possibly) somewhat remote date. An early publication of the Book has been provided so that it may be in hand for the training of leaders and teachers. Its presence is also required to engage the attention of persons of means who may be thus led to provide funds for translations into other languages.
"(You) who have dedicated (your) lives to the service of the Book and the Brotherhood can little realize the import of (your) doings. (You) will doubtless live and die without fully realizing that (you) are participating in the birth of a new age of religion on this world.
"The future is not open to (your) mortal comprehension, but (you) will do well to diligently study the order, plan, and methods of progression as they were enacted in the earth life of Michael when the Word was made flesh. You are becoming actors in an ensuing episode when the Word is made Book. Great is the difference in these dispensations of religion, but many are the lessons which can be learned from a study of the former age.
"(You) must again study the times of Jesus on earth. (You) must carefully take note of how the kingdom of heaven was inaugurated in the world. Did it evolve slowly and unfold naturally? or did it come with sudden show of force and with spectacular exhibition of power? Was it evolutionary or revolutionary?
"(You) must learn to possess (your) souls in patience. (You) are in association with a revelation of truth which is a part of the natural evolution of religion on this world. Overrapid growth would be suicidal. The book is being given to those who are ready for it long before the day of its world- wide mission. Thousands of study groups must be brought into existence and the book must be translated into many tongues. Thus will the book be in readiness when the battle for man's liberty is finally won and the world is once more made safe for the religion of Jesus and the freedom of mankind." (10.5)
* In The History of the Urantia Movement, by Dr. William S. Sadler, this message is titled, The Publication Mandate. [This paper was presented by William S. Sadler, Jr. to the Forum on the above date. For public consumption, the pronouns were modified, e.g., “we” instead of “you.” For this purpose we have changed them back to the original. Copies of this paper were inserted
into the secretary’s notebook of each standing committee of the Brotherhood. Committee chairmen received copies.]
[http://www.uai-president.org/publication-mandate.html accessed May 27, 2013]
Questions and comments
Among the many questions that could be raised about this document, I will discuss a few. First, why is it wise to "regard the Urantia Book as a feature of the progressive evolution of human society”? This way of looking at the Book places it in a broad historical context: we are in the post-bestowal age, in a new epoch in that age, and looking forward to a new era. A long-range perspective promotes the self-mastery required to set aside the revolutionary ambition to publicize the Book to the general public as soon as possible.
What now?
The first and last paragraphs of the Publication Mandate frame it with its most challenging ideas. No essay can overcome long-seated differences between readers; but we learn to listen to each other in love. In the light of Jesus’ call to sympathy, cooperation, and tolerance, we can learn to “to differ, to debate, to contend, to pray, and to compromise, and throughout it all to remain sympathetic with the other person’s viewpoint and to maintain at least some degree of tolerance for his honest opinions” (144:6.11/1625.8).
“The Book belongs to the era immediately to follow the conclusion of the present ideological struggle.” What does the phrase “the present ideological struggle” refer to? The heart of an ideological struggle is a conflict between systems of ideas; one thinks of the challenge of secularism and of the philosophic chaos of the conflict between “the three contending philosophies of religion”—science-centered, humanistic, and spiritual (99:4/1020). Potentially disastrous ideologies gain the upper hand in nations; one thinks of secular totalitarianism and other challenges to human liberty (195:8/2081–82).
Jesus’ Urmia lectures are presented in such a way as to heighten their relevance to the 20th century (134:4–6/1486–91). Ideological conflicts may play out on the battlefield. World War has broken out when nationalisms bristled and the momentum of military build-up burst into flames; and when power, unchecked by religious idealism, grew overbearing and led to attempts by some countries to dominate other countries. The point of calling these struggles ideological is to draw attention to the fact that competing systems of ideas are at the root of the conflict. It takes wisdom to heal an ideological struggle.
Persons profit little from the Book unless they are willing to seek truth and righteousness. Does such seeking flourish during times of ideological and political conflict, or do people in such conditions rather tend to seek security or conquest? Progressive civilization follows a developmental sequence, in which the dominant interests begin with nutrition, security, and material comfort, continue through knowledge and wisdom, and philosophy and brotherhood, to spiritual striving and light and life (50:5/576). When civilizations are torn by ideological conflict, society gets polarized; the quest for wisdom suffers, as does the recognition of brotherhood, factors which affect the willingness to seek truth and righteousness.
Today we see the encouraging existence of many progressive individuals and groups, but the following words still apply:
During the psychologically unsettled times of the twentieth century, amid the economic upheavals, the moral crosscurrents, and the sociologic rip tides of the cyclonic transitions of a scientific era, thousands upon thousands of men and women have become humanly dislocated; they are anxious, restless, fearful, uncertain, and unsettled; as never before in the world’s history they need the consolation and stabilization of sound religion. In the face of unprecedented scientific achievement and mechanical development there is spiritual stagnation and philosophic chaos. . . . (99:4.6/1090.2)
In the arts now, secular assumptions and dystopian scenarios are common. Competitive pressures rise, and immature distractions multiply. Many people are too busy to grow; the attention and energy needed to search for new truth and a new level of living is in short supply. When chaos threatens, religion tends to reinforce what is familiar more than to explore what is new.
Parents learn that when their children become teenagers and the crucial years of transition are upon them, they are not ready for many new and challenging ideas. Now our world is in crucial years of transition. During this time of confusion, chaos, and conflict, what are most people ready for? The Book itself answers that one: “All Urantia is waiting for . . . the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus” (94:12.7/1041.5).
What people need instead is friendship, teaching, and preaching which meet them where they are. Receptivity to the Urantia Book is enhanced by promoting a religion, a philosophy, and a cosmology that are commensurate with man’s intellectual and cultural development. The alternative could be akin to what happened as Christianity was presented to the peoples of the Western world.
Christianity presumed to embrace too much for any one people to assimilate in one or two generations. It was not a simple spiritual appeal, such as Jesus had presented to the souls of men; it early struck a decided attitude on religious rituals, education, magic, medicine, art, literature, law, government, morals, sex regulation, polygamy, and, in limited degree, even slavery. Christianity came not merely as a new religion — something all the Roman Empire and all the Orient were waiting for — but as a new order of human society. And as such a pretension it quickly precipitated the social-moral clash of the ages. (193:0.3/2069.3)
Jesus did not work in such a way as to precipitate a social-moral clash. “In all his public teachings [Jesus] ignored the civic, social, and economic realms” (140:8.9/1580.4). By contrast, the Urantia Book sets forth projects in science, eugenics, world government, and other social, economic, and political topics. The Book tells of “the confusion and dismay which always result” as a result of “overteaching and overenlightenment” (66:6.6/750.1). The Book is not the gospel. Jesus said, “First see than men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple” (141:6.4/1592.6).
Four tasks
The fifth epochal revelation gives no specific instructions about what to do with the Book itself. We want to do things with this revelation; but will our advice simply be to encourage readers in experimenting with any project they may choose? In practice, that would be equivalent to false freedom, disregarding the principles of teaching truth set forth in the Book. The Publication Mandate focuses effort around four tasks—training leaders and teachers, preparing translations, forming study groups, and studying the fourth epochal revelation to discover lessons that apply to the fifth. These projects are not intended to monopolize all of our free time for service, but they clearly represent wise advice.
Does it not make intuitive sense that we should do these things? Do we need leaders and teachers? Their importance is made clear in the Book. Those who are experienced and knowledgeable can train others. For training, there are rich resources inside and outside the Book. Is it not obvious that we should learn from such persons and such resources? And how exhilarating it is to teach and lead, as we begin to obey the truth and act in accord with the Book’s guidance! One of the problems of teaching truth and actualizing brotherhood in our world is the multiplicity of languages; thus, we need translations, the best that we can realistically achieve at the present time. And study groups are needed to socialize and integrate the experience of study so that beginners can interact with experienced readers.
Another project is to “study the order, plan, and methods of progression as they were enacted in the earth life of Michael” with an eye to discovering the lessons for participating in the fifth epochal revelation. This is a topic for group study and for another document, but a few things can be said here. We are asked to “carefully take note of how the kingdom of heaven was inaugurated in the world. Did it evolve slowly and unfold naturally? or did it come with sudden show of force and with spectacular exhibition of power? Was it evolutionary or revolutionary?” These questions are rhetorical. The author presumes that the honest thinker who knows the Book can readily perceive the correct answer.
Jesus had a perfect grasp of the situation; he possessed unlimited power, which might have been utilized in the furtherance of his mission, but he was wholly content with means and personalities which most people would have regarded as inadequate and would have looked upon as insignificant. He was engaged in a mission of enormous dramatic possibilities, but he insisted on going about his Father’s business in the most quiet and undramatic manner; he studiously avoided all display of power. And he now planned to work quietly, at least for several months, with his twelve apostles around about the Sea of Galilee. (138:6.5/1543.3)
Nevertheless, though the overall answer is clear, the details are interestingly complex.
Order refers to sequence. Jesus grew to maturity before launching his public career. He chose rugged apostles and trained them not only in the gospel of the kingdom, but also in the interpretation of the scriptures with which they were familiar and which were regarded as authoritative by the people with whom they would be working. When they wanted to go public with the new message, he assigned them first to acquire experience and develop skill in personal ministry. As they began their public work, he insisted that they make sure that their students were born of the spirit, “in the temple,” the kingdom of heaven, before trying to show them “the beauties of the temple,” advanced teaching. In the early phase of their work, they spent a year quietly taking over the work of John the Baptist, before beginning aggressive proclamation.
The overall sequence of phases in Jesus’ life is fourfold.
Jesus now entered upon the fourth and last stage of his human life in the flesh. The first stage was that of his childhood, the years when he was only dimly conscious of his origin, nature, and destiny as a human being. The second stage was the increasingly self-conscious years of youth and advancing manhood, during which he came more clearly to comprehend his divine nature and human mission. This second stage ended with the experiences and revelations associated with his baptism. The third stage of the Master’s earth experience extended from the baptism through the years of his ministry as teacher and healer and up to this momentous hour of Peter’s confession at Caesarea-Philippi. This third period of his earth life embraced the times when his apostles and his immediate followers knew him as the Son of Man and regarded him as the Messiah. The fourth and last period of his earth career began here at Caesarea-Philippi and extended on to the crucifixion. This stage of his ministry was characterized by his acknowledgment of divinity and embraced the labors of his last year in the flesh. During the fourth period, while the majority of his followers still regarded him as the Messiah, he became known to the apostles as the Son of God. Peter’s confession marked the beginning of the new period of the more complete realization of the truth of his supreme ministry as a bestowal Son on Urantia and for an entire universe, and the recognition of that fact, at least hazily, by his chosen ambassadors. (157:6.3/1749.2)
Another dimension of order, sequence, in Jesus’ public career is two-fold, where the transition takes place after the peak of popular appeal at the feeding of the 5000 and the king-making episode and the collapse of support to its low point during the week after the epochal sermon.
The last of the seaside meetings was held on Sabbath afternoon, May 7. Jesus talked to less than one hundred and fifty who had assembled at that time. This Saturday night marked the time of the lowest ebb in the tide of popular regard for Jesus and his teachings. From then on there was a steady, slow, but more healthful and dependable growth in favorable sentiment; a new following was built up which was better grounded in spiritual faith and true religious experience. The more or less composite and compromising transition stage between the materialistic concepts of the kingdom held by the Master’s followers and those more idealistic and spiritual concepts taught by Jesus, had now definitely ended. From now on there was a more open proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom in its larger scope and in its far-flung spiritual implications (154:1.3/1718.1)
To comprehend Jesus’ earlier and more or less compromising phase requires making the distinction between compromising with evil, which Jesus never did, and compromising in the light of the conditions of people’s receptivity, which he did in various ways throughout his life. The casual reader may think that Jesus’ dramatic healings compromised his great decisions in the wilderness, but we are assured that this is not so. He did allow his compassion to flow toward his suffering creatures in response to their faith and thereby partly to satisfy their erroneous concepts of the Messiah (136:9.11–13/1523:3–5). But he never used his superhuman power in an effort to overawe people and win them to believe in him.
The next chapter of our story is important for understanding the complex operation of the receptivity principle. A linear and simplistic human understanding of the principle is contradicted by a number of seeming exceptions—which is no surprise, given the limitations of even the wisest mortal understanding of the laws of God (3:2.7–8/47.5–6; 4:2.2/56.6).
The first seeming exception to the principle of receptivity has to do with our sequence of epochal revelations. We have a bestowal Son before a Magisterial Son. Why? We have only part of the answer: “If ever the authority or administration of a Creator Son is challenged, attacked, or jeopardized, he is eternally pledged to uphold, protect, defend, and if necessary retrieve his personal creation” (21:3.14/238.8). Moreover, our world was more receptive at the time when Jesus came than at any time before or since (121:1.1/1332.2).
The second seeming exception is Jesus revelation of himself to Nalda, the Samaritan woman at the well. Both the puzzle and its solution are clearly explained.
This was the first direct, positive, and undisguised pronouncement of his divine nature and sonship which Jesus had made on earth; and it was made to a woman, a Samaritan woman, and a woman of questionable character in the eyes of men up to this moment, but a woman whom the divine eye beheld as having been sinned against more than as sinning of her own desire and as now being a human soul who desired salvation, desired it sincerely and wholeheartedly, and that was enough. (143:5.8/1614.2)
The third seeming exception is the toughest to account for. On three occasions Jesus publicly revealed his divine nature to groups of Urantia mortals, most of whom were not ready for it. Notice that he delayed doing so as long as possible, and that he continued to uphold the receptivity principle after each seeming suspension of it. Jesus avoided a clash with his enemies until they had organized and gathered before him, ready to declare open warfare. Only then, in the epochal sermon, did he begin to expand the revelation of who he was. Given the fact that most of his assembled enemies would not listen openly, he mercifully gave a strong warning, like a shepherd protecting his sheep, and giving his hearers a chance to wake up and realize their mistake before it was too late. After the epochal sermon, Jesus continued to insist that his apostles keep quiet about his divine Sonship, which he also made public toward the end, in the sermon on the light of the world and the sermon on the good shepherd. He thereby fulfilled the Paradise plan for a bestowal Son to reveal his combined nature during his mortal lifetime (and to all his receptive universe) (134:0.1/1483.1). And even after his mighty resurrection, he insisted that the gospel not be upstaged by the extraordinary facts connected with his divine Sonship, because he knew that these facts would so fascinating as to upstage the spiritual gospel, the entrance into salvation. Beginning with Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost, the distortion of Jesus’ religion occurred as advanced truths upstaged the gospel. What will be the verdict on how Jesus’ religion is handled by enthusiasts for the Urantia Book?
The Plan for the progression of the kingdom contains a rationale for the order, or sequence, of the unfolding of events. The plan was for Jesus eventually to openly reveal his divine Sonship, which he did) during the “second, or nonmiraculous phase of the progress of the kingdom” (134:0.1/1483.1; 165:1.2/1818.0). Jesus’ plan was anchored in the great decisions that he made in the wilderness after his baptism. By those decisions he restrained his use of the power at his disposal. The Urantia Book and today’s communication technologies are the main powers at our disposal, and we may study and pray, seeking wisdom for appropriate restraint in the use of that power. Jesus’ fourth decision is especially relevant (146:8/1520). He renounced the methods that people use to gain their ends in commerce and diplomacy. Instead, he pledged to accept methods that are “natural, ordinary, difficult, and trying,” just such methods as his followers would need to use in extending the heavenly kingdom (developing skills in personal ministry, teaching, answering questions, preaching, and effective organizing).
The methods of progression that Jesus learned from experience and from his Paradise Father were wisely adjusted to the people group in question. By the end of his adolescence, Jesus was nearly expert in revealing truth according to the receptivity of “all ages and stages” of people! And he said that we should ever be wise in selecting methods suitable for “the different races and tribes of men.”
Can growth happen too fast?
How could overrapid growth be suicidal? This warning comes from the Urantia Book and is given without explanation (39:4.12/435.5). My experience of warnings is that often when they come, I am unaware of being on dangerous ground and tending toward doing something or wrong; I also know how easy it is to neglect warnings. Let’s exercise our intelligence and see if we can understand why this warning might be given. Overrapid growth can precipitate a premature clash, in which we lack the trained leaders and teachers to handle the controversies, good translations so that people can read for themselves, and study groups where beginners can socialize their interpretations with more experienced students. Casting our pearls of truth before those who cannot nourish themselves on them may arouse hostility and sometimes persecution.
A social implication for 2017?
In the sentence about serving the Book and the Brotherhood, note that “Brotherhood” is singular, implying the unity of the spiritual brotherhood of students of the Urantia Book. In 1955, there was only one fraternal organization for readers. Now there are several. In my opinion, the service of the Brotherhood requires that we take our spiritual brotherhood to new heights and, with that enhancement of meanings and elevation of values, tackle the difficulties associated with achieving organizational unity between the two major membership organizations. If we little realize the import of our doings, it becomes all the more important that we obey sound advice, lest we complicate the birth of a new age of religion on this world.
Conclusions
We live in a time of rapid change, and more changes are needed: Modern man is confronted with the task of making more readjustments of human values in one generation than have been made in two thousand years (92:7.14/1013.9). But does that mean that in this time of crisis, the receptivity principle is obsolete? That would be like saying that when you hit white water rapids, you should jettison the fundamentals of canoeing.
Much disagreement about how to work with the Urantia Book would disappear if we distinguish between urgent goals and wise methods. That distinction enables us to harmonize the apparent clash between (1) the need for wise evolutionary methods that obey cosmic principles of divine wisdom and (2) the need for prompt personal transformation to follow Jesus: “Jesus has shown the way to the immediate attainment of spiritual brotherhood” (52.6.2/597.3).
I have said that my purpose in this essay is to promote wisdom, not to persuade anyone in the debate about whether the Publication Mandate is authoritative. But I need a quote that is relevant to that debate in order to clarify the wisdom that I find there.
The proof that revelation is revelation is this same fact of human experience: the fact that revelation does synthesize the apparently divergent sciences of nature and the theology of religion into a consistent and logical universe philosophy, a co-ordinated and unbroken explanation of both science and religion, thus creating a harmony of mind and satisfaction of spirit which answers in human experience those questionings of the mortal mind which craves to know how the Infinite works out his will and plans in matter, with minds, and on spirit. (101:2.1/1105.5)
I cheerfully leave it to the reader to judge whether the ideas that I set forth meet that test. Does they integrate into a consistent and logical universe philosophy a scientific understanding of the facts of the present age together with the religious revelation of the Urantia Book?
Happy discerning! Happy praying! Happy revealing by your life and teachings!
January 5, 2017