The Urantia Book--The New Revelation

williamsadler53 · June 20, 2013

I present this material for your edification. In the spirit of the ULC and this forum, I ask that comments be logically sound and friendly. Be very certain about your facts/position before you make negative assertions, please, and make any such comments respectfully. This book is every bit as much a "sacred" work or "holy scripture" as any other religious book. Any serious student of any major religious faith/belief system well knows that the written material associated with her/his faith/belief system has its own "unique" characteristics. This new revelation is not alone in its unquestionably atypical origins. I ask that you treat this book and any discussion thereof in this forum with at least the same respect that you afford your own belief system and associated written materials.

That said...

There is a modern day Revelation available. It is called The Urantia Book. There are numerous rumors and much incorrect information on the web regarding this book, who brought it, how it got here, and where it came from...I hope to provide some clarification to those with sincere interest in seeking the truth,

This book is no joke. It is 2096 pages long and includes 196 chapters. I have studied it for over 35 years and, according to the best of both my knowledge and experience, I affirm that it is in truth and fact the 5th Epochal Revelation provided to this world. Questions about the other four? Answers to come very soon [or read the book]!

**

In what follows, I may include some editors notes [--ed.] for purposes of clarification.

From the first page of the forward to The Urantia Book:

"IN THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia — that being the name of your world — there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity. Human beings are still more confused and uncertain about the relationships of the divine personalities designated by these numerous appellations. Because of this conceptual poverty associated with so much ideational confusion, I have been directed to formulate this introductory statement in explanation of the meanings which should be attached to certain word symbols as they may be hereinafter used in those papers which the Orvonton [essentially the Milky Way galaxy--ed.] corps of truth revealers have been authorized to translate into the English language of Urantia.

It is exceedingly difficult to present enlarged concepts and advanced truth, in our endeavor to expand cosmic consciousness and enhance spiritual perception, when we are restricted to the use of a circumscribed language of the realm. But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue. We have been instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning.

In the hope of facilitating comprehension and of preventing confusion on the part of every mortal who may peruse these papers, we deem it wise to present in this initial statement an outline of the meanings to be attached to numerous English words which are to be employed in designation of Deity and certain associated concepts of the things, meanings, and values of universal reality......"

**

Those of you who have read any of my posts know that I am a factual kind of guy. I am straight to the point, and that which I post is solidly backed up with experience and/or evidence. What I am sharing here today has been examined and positively appraised by theologians, philosophers, historians, chemists, anthropologists, eugenicists, biologists, botanists, astronomers, physicists, mathematicians, linguistic experts, psychics, spiritualists, witches, warlocks, military scientists, political scientists, politicians [at least one American President], lawyers, medical doctors, priests, bishops [at least one Pope], ministers, pastors, musicians, nuclear scientists, and I am sure I have forgotten some....

For each and every field, the information presented in the book that can be verified has been verified. If a topic is pure revelation and cannot be verified by current methods, then it has been deemed plausible and even probably correct. This applies not only to the realm of science but also the realms philosophy and religion. + + + Things...Meanings...Values + + +

In my personal experience, when a rejection of this book has occurred, it was not because of the material actually presented within the pages of The Urantia Book. Without exception, rejections have occurred only when no actual effort was made by the critic to sincerely read the book, and, when that happens, it is typically because of skepticism surrounding the origin and nature of the book.

Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail.

Blessings!

Bill Sadler

Rev. William J. Sadler, Jr., D.Div.

Edited June 20, 2013 by williamsadler53

williamsadler53 · June 21, 2013

Has a "celestial" being, like an Archangel, ever shared information with a human? Does it seem reasonable that a BOOK would be used as a tool to share information about the God, the universe, and reality?

What are your beliefs regarding life in the universe? Are we alone on our small blue green world?? Do you believe that there are others "out there" who have a vested interest in our success--or our failure?

More from the forward--

"...But in order to formulate this Foreword of definitions and limitations of terminology, it is necessary to anticipate the usage of these terms in the subsequent presentations. This Foreword is not, therefore, a finished statement within itself; it is only a definitive guide designed to assist those who shall read the accompanying papers dealing with Deity and the universe of universes which have been formulated by an Orvonton commission sent to Urantia for this purpose.

Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon. This universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton, from whose capital, Uversa, our commission hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection — the central universe of Havona. At the heart of this eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity and the dwelling place of the eternal God.

The seven evolving superuniverses in association with the central and divine universe, we commonly refer to as the grand universe; these are the now organized and inhabited creations. They are all a part of the master universe, which also embraces the uninhabited but mobilizing universes of outer space..."

Don't be shy! What do you think?...what do you believe?...

Do you want to know the big picture?

Is there a reason for a new Revelation? Or, do we already know all that is needed?

Peace,

Bill Sadler

Ex Nihilo · June 21, 2013

Hi Bill,

I've been intrigued by Urantia off and on for a number of years. However, I've read that science disproves a number of ideas posited (I recognize that science is fluid and the "facts" of today are the fictions of tomorrow and vice versa). How does Urantia ovecome the scientific criticisms like those found in this article (under the section titled "Critical Views": http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Urantia_Book

Edited June 21, 2013 by RevRattlesnake

Atwater Vitki · June 22, 2013

The odds of there being sentient life in the Universe, beside humans, is overwhelmingly positive. As to whether or not they've been here, communicated to the ancients or not etc etc...well the book is still open on that for me.

Blessings Be,

(Even though I am fairly sure they have been here at some point.)

emalpaiz · June 22, 2013

I have heard of the Urantia Book. I once went to a lecture by a local group, but I was not impressed. I think it is time to give the Book the opportunity to speak for itself.

Hermano Luis

williamsadler53 · June 23, 2013

Thanks Rev. Rattlesnake, Rev. Al, and Hermano Luis for responding to The Urantia Book--The New Revelation post.

I have been attempting to provide a response for a couple of hours tonight, but because of my efforts to be thorough, I keep closing this page prematurely and losing all the text of my responses. I am a newbie to online forums.

The point of the post is to share the UB. The UB is all about our relationship with God. It does indeed include much needed explanatory information like commentary on selected historic and other scientific topics. Regarding such, I have already stated my 35 + years experience with expert verification of this book. This post is not about apologetics, however, if you will provide a specific question of your own based directly upon material found in The Urantia Book, I will respond to it. Further, if you have specific questions as the UB origins or history, I will also provide responses.

(Rev. Rattlesnake, you can find a significant, but not exhaustive, amount of interesting scientific verification compiled for a variety of educational backgrounds [ here ].)

Importantly, the best way to realize the truth of The Urantia Book is to read it for yourself. Would you rely solely on the opinions of others as the basis for life critical decisions? You can actually experience Truth revealed in The Urantia Book--not virtually or vicariously, but actually and personally. I am willing to work wholeheartedly with anyone who manifests a sincere desire to learn about the topics presented in The Urantia Book--individually or in this open forum.

The Urantia Foundation [ here ], The Urantia Fellowship [ here ], Truthbook.com [ here ], and The Urantia Association International [ here ] make research into the book and its history simple via the tools on their websites. You can READ and/or LISTEN to the UB book online [ here ]. Further, a Google search on your question will generally produce immediate results if you include "urantia" in your search query, but, as I am sure you realize, there are many points of view on a topic as old and important as this, so you will have a choice of the quality of information you decide to read and whether it be affirmatory or skeptical.

I am willing to respond even to specific skeptical questions about any aspect of The Urantia Book if you include that/those specific question or concern of your own directly referenced with UB text. In other words, please, at least perform some preliminary research on your own like reading relevant sections in the book before engaging in skeptical comments and inquiry.

As for me, I have many years experience with this book and its Primary and Personal Topic...I know whereof I speak.

I have run out of time for now, but I will be back....Peace. Bill Sadler

Edited June 23, 2013 by williamsadler53

Pastor Dave · June 23, 2013

I had heard of this book back in the 70's. Hadn't thought about it in probably 30 years. My Mom was into all sorts of stuff back then including Edgar Cayce, Erich von Däniken, Witchcraft, Tarot, crystals, New Age ..... you name it. Not having read it, I can't give an objective appraisal of the book. However, having said that ....... A quick look at Wikipedia tells me it may be worth a read at some point. There appear to be concepts in the book that I agree with. One such concept gives an interesting way of explaining what happens to an unrepentant soul (my words).

Persistently embracing sin is considered the same as rejecting the leadings of the Adjuster, rejecting the will of God. Constant selfishness and sinful choosing lead eventually to iniquity and full identification with unrighteousness, and since unrighteousness is unreal, it results in the eventual annihilation of the individual's identity.^[59]^[60] Personalities like this become "as if they never were." The book says that "in the last analysis, such sin-identified individuals have destroyed themselves by becoming wholly unreal through their embrace of iniquity."^[60]^[61]^[62]

Claims that large parts were plagiarized would seem to be the important criticism of the work ... from what I see on wiki.

In 1992, a reader of The Urantia Book, Matthew Block, self-published a paper that showed The Urantia Book utilized material from 15 other books.^[125] All of the source authors identified in Block's paper were published in English between 1905 and 1943 by U.S. publishers and are typically scholarly or academic works that contain concepts and wording similar to what is found in The Urantia Book.^[123] Block has since claimed to have discovered over 125 source texts that were incorporated into the papers.^[126]
The use of outside source materials was studied separately by Gardner and Gooch, and they concluded that the book did plagiarize many of the sources noted by Block.^[127]^[128]For instance, Gardner and Block note that Paper 85 appears to have been taken from the first eight chapters of Origin and Evolution of Religion by Edward Washburn Hopkins, published by Yale University Press in 1923.^[129] Each section of the paper corresponds to a chapter in the book, with several passages possibly used as direct material and further material used in Papers 86-90 and 92.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Pastor Dave

Atwater Vitki · June 23, 2013

williamsadler53 sed:"but because of my efforts to be thorough, I keep closing this page prematurely and losing all the text of my responses. "

William,

Any lengthy post, that you do not want to risk losing, can be done in your Word Processor first and saved in a text file. Then when you wish to post to the forum use the 'import Word' command at top right (clipboard with the "W" icon) of the reply box to import your text. This will save you a lot of hassle and effort in the long run.

Just an FYI

Blessings Be,

williamsadler53 · June 23, 2013

Pastor Dave, thanks for responding to the post. I hope that you will decide to follow through and read the book--sooner rather than later. It is in your best interest to so do.

Wikipedia is not the best place to find reliable information--certainly not when there are other websites devoted to sharing the actual, original documents in an entirely searchable environment--and that include much in the way of study materials.

Below are the websites to which I refer:

The Urantia Foundation [ here ]

The Urantia Fellowship [ here ]

Truthbook.com[ here ]

The Urantia Association International [ here ]

***

The UB did not plagiarize other written works. The authors did make use of existing ideas, and they state that quite clearly. That there would be some similarity between a person's ideas and what they eventually put into writing seems an expected consequence to me. The UB has already been through US Federal Courts regarding various copyright issues. There was no mention of any improper use of other copyrighted work. People, authors, scientists, "stand on the shoulders of Giants" every day. Accepting and using the ideas of others as one's own is part of being a person with a mind.

I assure you that no intention to defraud or steal "intellectual property" was at any time a motive of the authors of the UB. They were required to use existing human ideas whenever such was available and to the point--otherwise they were permitted to resort to pure revelation [which they frequently did, BTW].

Again, read the book for yourself before making any judgments.

The Wiki article contains many incorrect facts, and much that is misleading. If you will read The Urantia Book and then explain to me how you find it misleading, untrue, false, deceptive, or even incorrect, I will certainly listen. I am not going to attack the Wiki authors, that would be fallacious on my part [although I am having some difficulty restraining myself.] I am just going to repeat that there is much in the Wiki article that is not correct. Further, I have reason to believe that a large portion of the criticism presented is of a strongly anti-religious [pro-atheist] motivation--so much so that any possible argument against such a work as The Urantia Book was seized upon and asserted as factual and correct [like deceptive statistics] to steer merely curious individuals away from taking a further look at the book.

Earlier in this post I provided links to various Urantia websites. I strongly encourage anyone with even the slightest interest in truth, beauty, or goodness to seriously and sincerely examine the book itself--not relying on the opinions of others. [READ The Urantia Book online HERE ] The entire point of the UB is to help the reader understand what has happened, is happening, and is supposed to happen on this planet with the sincere intention of promoting the reader's ability to grow his/her personal relationship with God. There is not one iota of deceptive intent involved with the origin, publishing, or material presented--or anything else involved--with The Urantia Book. but don't take my word for it--or that of anyone else. READ IT FOR YOURSELF.

Peace,

Rev. Bill Sadler

Edited June 23, 2013 by williamsadler53

williamsadler53 · June 23, 2013

Continuing with the forward...more food for thought....

I. Deity and Divinity

The universe of universes presents phenomena of deity activities on diverse levels of cosmic realities, mind meanings, and spirit values, but all of these ministrations — personal or otherwise — are divinely co-ordinated.

DEITY is personalizable as God, is prepersonal and superpersonal in ways not altogether comprehensible by man. Deity is characterized by the quality of unity — actual or potential — on all supermaterial levels of reality; and this unifying quality is best comprehended by creatures as divinity.

Deity functions on personal, prepersonal, and superpersonal levels. Total Deity is functional on the following seven levels:

The finite level of reality is characterized by creature life and time-space limitations. Finite realities may not have endings, but they always have beginnings — they are created. The Deity level of Supremacy may be conceived as a function in relation to finite existences.

1. Static — self-contained and self-existent Deity.

2. Potential — self-willed and self-purposive Deity.

3. Associative — self-personalized and divinely fraternal Deity.

4. Creative — self-distributive and divinely revealed Deity.

5. Evolutional — self-expansive and creature-identified Deity.

6. Supreme — self-experiential and creature-Creator-unifying Deity. Deity functioning on the first creature-identificational level as time-space overcontrollers of the grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of Deity.

7. Ultimate — self-projected and time-space-transcending Deity. Deity omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Deity functioning on the second level of unifying divinity expression as effective overcontrollers and absonite upholders of the master universe. As compared with the ministry of the Deities to the grand universe, this absonite function in the master universe is tantamount to universal overcontrol and supersustenance, sometimes called the Ultimacy of Deity.

The absonite level of reality is characterized by things and beings without beginnings or endings and by the transcendence of time and space. Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated — they simply are. The Deity level of Ultimacy connotes a function in relation to absonite realities. No matter in what part of the master universe, whenever time and space are transcended, such an absonite phenomenon is an act of the Ultimacy of Deity.

The absolute level is beginningless, endless, timeless, and spaceless. For example: On Paradise, time and space are nonexistent; the time-space status of Paradise is absolute. This level is Trinity attained, existentially, by the Paradise Deities, but this third level of unifying Deity expression is not fully unified experientially. Whenever, wherever, and however the absolute level of Deity functions, Paradise-absolute values and meanings are manifest.

Deity may be existential, as in the Eternal Son; experiential, as in the Supreme Being; associative, as in God the Sevenfold; undivided, as in the Paradise Trinity.

Deity is the source of all that which is divine. Deity is characteristically and invariably divine, but all that which is divine is not necessarily Deity, though it will be co-ordinated with Deity and will tend towards some phase of unity with Deity — spiritual, mindal, or personal.

DIVINITY is the characteristic, unifying, and co-ordinating quality of Deity.

Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.

Divinity may be perfect — complete — as on existential and creator levels of Paradise perfection; it may be imperfect, as on experiential and creature levels of time-space evolution; or it may be relative, neither perfect nor imperfect, as on certain Havona levels of existential-experiential relationships.

When we attempt to conceive of perfection in all phases and forms of relativity, we encounter seven conceivable types:

1. Absolute perfection in all aspects.

2. Absolute perfection in some phases and relative perfection in all other aspects.

3. Absolute, relative, and imperfect aspects in varied association.

4. Absolute perfection in some respects, imperfection in all others.

5. Absolute perfection in no direction, relative perfection in allmanifestations.*

6. Absolute perfection in no phase, relative in some, imperfect in others.

7. Absolute perfection in no attribute, imperfection in all.

***

I welcome specific questions that include reference to the text of the UB. The purpose of this post is to share the UB with you--not to engage in apologetics. However, if you have sincere concerns of an inquiring nature, send along that/those specific question, and I will respond.

Peace,

Rev. Bill

Edited June 23, 2013 by williamsadler53

williamsadler53 · June 23, 2013