Revelation from God is not a one-time event or even a two-time event. God is no respecter of persons: The God of universal love unfailingly manifests himself to every one of his creatures up to the fullness of that creature’s capacity to spiritually grasp the qualities of divine truth, beauty, and goodness. [1:4:5,6] [Acts 10:34] [The King James Study Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville TN]
The authors of The Urantia Book list several of the characteristics and limitations inherent in presenting revealed truth to humans. Among them are:
A. It is best that man not have an overrevelation; it stifles imagination.
B. Primitive man believes his gods are like himself, only more powerful. Divine revelation can inspire all mortals to become Godlike.
C.
A new revelation is always contaminated by the older evolutionary beliefs. Even
the teachings of present-day Christianity contain numerous evolutionary beliefs
brought forward from the beliefs of primitive
humans.
[See the
paper "Origin of Present-Day Christian Beliefs."]
D. Down through the ages of a world’s history, the revelations of religious truth are ever-expanding and successively more enlightening. But in all instances the revelations are limited by man's capacity to comprehend them. And as truth is infinite, even in eternity surviving mortals will never know all truth. Thus, a divine revelation given to mortals can never be a complete and final revelation.
E. Celestial personalities who participate in the revelation of truth are very rigorously limited by the instructions of their superiors. Always, they must act in accordance with the instructions which form a part of the revelatory mandate.
F.
Even though revelators now foresee scientific developments of a thousand years,
they are not permitted to include these humanly undiscovered facts in the
revelatory records. Thus, many of their statements regarding the physical
sciences will need revision in future years as the result of new scientific
discoveries. However, statements regarding the physical sciences are of
tremendous value in that they: reduce confusion by the authoritative elimination
of error; coordinate known or about to-be-known facts and observations; and
restore important bits of lost knowledge from the distant past. New discoveries
do not detract from the historic facts and religious truths contained in the
revelation.
[30:0:2] [92:4:1,9] [93:7:4] [101:4:1,2,5] [102:3:14]
There have been many truth teachers during the almost one million years of existence of humans on our planet. The authors of The Urantia Book mention a few of the more outstanding human teachers of revealed truth.
1. Onagar, a master mind, was the first great truth teacher. He was born 983,323 years ago from the year 1934 A.D. He assumed the leadership of his tribes and led them in the worship of the Breath Giver to men and animals. He proclaimed one Deity and taught his concept of the hereafter, which he called the Great Beyond. [63:0:1-3] [63:6:1,7,8]
2. Onamonalonton, a member of the red race, lived about sixty-five thousand years ago. A band of the red race had crossed into North America about eighty-five thousand years ago over the Bering land isthmus. He maintained his headquarters among the great redwood trees of California where he revived their worship of the Great Spirit. [64:6:5,7]
3.
Moses, an extraordinary combination of military leader, social organizer, and
religious teacher, was the outstanding teacher of truth between the times of
Melchizedek and Jesus. His mother was a member of the royal family of Egypt; his
father was a leader of the Bedouin captives. Moses led the polyglot horde of
so-called Hebrews out of slavery [in Egypt] and then laid the
foundation for the subsequent birth of a nation and the perpetuation of a
race.
Moses had a
great vision of God, but it was truly pitiful to watch this great mind of Moses
trying to adapt his sublime concept of El Elyon, the Most High, to the
comprehension of the ignorant and illiterate
Hebrews.
The
greatness of Moses lies in his wisdom and sagacity. Other men have had greater
concepts of God, but no one man was ever so successful in inducing large numbers
of people to adopt such advanced beliefs. The true brilliance of Moses is not
reflected in the Old Testament records as the Hebrews had no written language at
the time he led them out of Egypt. [74:8:9] [92:5:8] [96:3:1]
[96:5:1,2,4,5]
4. God provided continuing and expanding revelations of truth to the Hebrews through the prophets Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea, the first and second Isaiahs, Jeremiah, and others. [97:1-7] [97:10:8]
5.
Both Amenemope and Ikhnaton taught in the period following Melchizedek’s
bestowal. The sixth century before Christ witnessed one of the greatest
religious awakenings ever to occur on earth. Among the teachers who arose in
that century to proclaim religious truth were Gautama, Confucius, Lao-tse,
Zoroaster, and the Jainist teachers. Paul of Tarsus and Philo of Alexandria were
the outstanding human religious teachers in the first century after Jesus.
Mohammed taught in the sixth century after
Jesus.
The seven
outstanding human teachers of religious truth to appear on earth are Sethard,
Moses, Zoroaster, Lao-tse, Buddha, Philo of Alexandria and Paul of Tarsus.
[92:5:8-11] [121:6:4]
Although God provides for the revelation of religious truth to mortals on a continuing basis, there have been only five revelations of epochal significance:
1.The
Dalamatian teachings. The Dalamatian teachings began with the arrival of the
Planetary Prince [Caligastia] and his Staff of One Hundred from the system
capital Jerusem about five hundred thousand years ago. The One Hundred were
provided with material bodies visible to humans upon their arrival. The
expanding revelation of the true concept of the Universal Father progressed
normally until the outbreak of the Lucifer Rebellion about two hundred thousand
years ago. Our Planetary Prince, Caligastia, cast his lot with Lucifer, as did
sixty of the Staff of One Hundred. This upheaval left the world in confusion
worse confounded. The divine truths taught to the mortals of those times were
largely lost during the following millenniums.
[Paper 53] [66:0:2] [67:1]
[67:3:2] [67:5:3] [92:4:5] [Isaiah 14:12-14]
2.The
Edenic teachings. Adam and Eve arrived on earth from the system capital
Jerusem 37,848 years ago from the year A.D. 1934. Like Caligastia’s Staff of One
Hundred, they were provided with material bodies visible to humans. They made a
valiant attempt to portray the concept of the Universal Father to the
evolutionary races of those times. But they had been set down on a world
populated by savages, barbarians, and semicivilized human beings. Nevertheless,
they made a heroic effort to fulfill the requirements of their assignment.
However, they partially defaulted in their assignment and were forced to flee
the first Garden of
Eden.
In the
second garden, Adam continued his efforts to portray the nature of the Universal
Father to the evolutionary mortals. Seth, their eldest son born in the second
garden, became the head of the new priesthood. He worked toward the improvement
of the spiritual status of his father’s people. He was assisted by his son Enos
and his grandson Kenan [Cainan?]. By 2500 B.C. the revelations sponsored by Seth
and his successors had been largely lost to mankind.
[74:0] [74:5:4] [75:2,3]
[76:3:2,4,5] [92:4:6] [Genesis 4:25,26] [Genesis 5:9]
3.
Melchizedek of Salem. The third epochal
revelation of religious truth was presented by Melchizedek, a high ranking Son
of God. He began his 94-year bestowal on earth in 1973 B.C. Melchizedek taught
the mortals of that time all they had capacity to receive and assimilate. He
came to achieve two tasks: to keep alive on earth the truth of the one God and
to prepare the way for the subsequent mortal bestowal of a Paradise Son of that
Universal Father: Jesus of Nazareth. The cardinal precepts of Melchizedek's
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. Melchizedek’s teachings were simple in the extreme, but even so
they were altogether too much and too advanced for the men of those days. The
missionaries he trained and sent to the known world were instrumental in
regenerating the world
religions.
Melchizedek
tried to lead the people away from the practice of sacrifice of flesh and blood
by offering them the substitute of a sacrifice of bread and wine. But over a
period of thousands of years of evolutionary religion, primitive man had
developed the belief that he was born under forfeit to his numerous gods and
thus must continually offer blood sacrifices in an effort to appease
them.
Abraham
attended Melchizedek’s school three times and became one of his most brilliant
pupils and chief supporters. As Melchizedek’s successor, he became a great
leader and the spiritual teacher of all the surrounding tribes.
[Paper 89]
[92:4:7] [93:2:1,2] [93:3:6] [93:4:15,16] [93:9:4] [Genesis 14:18]
4. Jesus of
Nazareth. The mortal bestowal
of Jesus, a Paradise Son of God, constituted the fourth epochal revelation of
revealed truth. He again presented the concept of God as the Universal Father.
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. His teachings constituted the first
Urantian [earth] religion which so fully embraced a harmonious co-ordination of
knowledge, wisdom, faith, truth, and love as completely and simultaneously to
provide temporal tranquility, intellectual certainty, moral enlightenment,
philosophic stability, ethical sensitivity, God-consciousness, and the positive
assurance of personal
survival.
Like
Melchizedek, Jesus taught his followers all they could assimilate. He did not
make the mistake of overteaching them. He did not precipitate confusion by the
presentation of truth too far beyond their capacity to comprehend. [92:4:8]
[101:6:8] [137:7:14]
5. The Urantia Papers. These papers, presented during the mid-1930s, are the most recent epochal presentation of revealed truth to mortals. They are the work of numerous celestial personalities hailing from as far away as Uversa, the capital of our seventh superuniverse. They are part of the continuing and expanding revelation of God and our universe. [15:7:10,11] [92:4:9]
Cynics
belittle religion as the "Opiate of the masses." Far from
it!
Religion is the revelation to man of his
divine and eternal destiny. Religion is a purely personal and spiritual
experience and must forever be distinguished from man's other high forms of
thought. [195:5.3]
Source: The Urantia
Book, published by Uversa Press 2003, a subsidiary of Urantia Book
Fellowship.
http://www.urantiabook.org .
fellowship@urantiabook.org .
Note: Numerous statements in this paper were quoted verbatim from The Urantia
Book.
Revised June 3 2005