The End of the World and the Coming Bestowal Son
A Study Guide to the Future, by Joe Pope, Vancouver, B.C., August 1986

 

“Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love.” (Mortal philosophic equivalent of morontia mota: 557:25-26)

 

PREFACE

This paper is speculation. It contains some error.

The only superhuman assistance which I, the author claim in preparing this work is my own indwelling Spirit of Truth. And I submit all to the validation or rejection by this same Spirit of Truth living inside you, for “he will even show you things to come.” (1951:47-48)

There is error herein because “it is impossible...to predict with certainty as to just how the primordials of force, concept, or spirit will respond to demands made in a complex reality situation involving supreme adjustments and ultimate values.” (56:3-6)

Still, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets,” (Amos 3:7) and “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Most of the analyses and references provided herein are from The Urantia Book, copyright 1955, URANTIA Foundation, Chicago, Illinois, and the Bible. I am preparing a more comprehensive book on this subject which will encompass the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Apocalyptic writings, which are rich in the visionary and detailed description of the imminent Messianic Age, as well as other sources from the main- stream of visionary prophetism.

I refer readers wishing to expand their understanding of the end of the world and the new age to Charlesworth, James H., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Vol l, Doubleday and Co. Inc,, New York, 1983, and to Woldben, A., After Nostradamus, Granada, (paperback) Toronto, New York, 1975. Both of these works, and others on this subject however, must be read with the discerning eye of Spirit truth rejecting, for example, any notion of a fed-up God who strikes down a delinquent earth with the fury of his wrath! Such a God does not exist.

All quotations herein from the URANTIA Papers use a line-count system like so: (1915:47-48) means page 1915, lines 47 and 48. (Page numbering lines do not count, all other lines including titles and section headings do.) All biblical quotations are from the Revised Standard Version, with one or two exceptions where another translation provided a clearer meaning.

I thank Duane Faw of Malibu, California for having had the presence of mind and the wisdom to produce his Paramony, cross-referencing the Papers and the Bible, and for most graciously having provided me with an early and free copy of his first draft. It has been an absolutely essential tool in producing this paper.

Man engineers the end of the world, not God. It is this beautiful and farseeing God who picks up the cosmic pieces and glues them back together again, something which “all the king’s horses, and all the king’s men” could never accomplish! And, thanks to the fact that the Gods do all things well, the freshly repaired earth will be far more glorious and fantastic to live on than the old one could ever be!

Even now, it is possible to prevent the end of the world! But mankind won’t. It’s as simple as that. So don’t shoot the messenger!

Joe Pope, Vancouver, B.C., August, 1986

 

WISDOM

“He who has an ear, let him hear...” (Revelation 2:7)

“And when you see all this come to pass, be not dismayed, but rather believe, inasmuch as you knew it all beforehand.” (Jesus–1954:15-16) (cf. 1951:15-33)

“But I cannot do it! I cannot convey to the human mind the breadth and depth of these realities of another world!” (An Archangel of Nebadon–504:3-4)

“The days are at hand, and the fulfillment of every vision...” (Ezekiel 12:23)

“Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’
For the day is near,
the day of the Lord is near;
it will be a day of clouds,
a time of doom for the nations.” (Ezekiel 30:2- 3)

“When this comes–and come it will:–then they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ezekiel 33: 33)

“He said ‘Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall de wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but those who are wise shall understand.” (Daniel 12:9-10)

“Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them;” (Hosea 14:9)

“...for of a truth the Lord has sent me to speak all these words in your ears.” (1709:47-48, quoting Jeremiah 26:15)

“To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed, they cannot listen.” (Jeremiah 6:10)

“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them but they will not answer you.” (Jeremiah 7:27)

“Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” (Revelation 10:9)

“...he that will hear, let him hear; and he that will refuse to hear, let him refuse.” (Ezekiel 3:27)

“An end has come, the end has come.” (Ezekiel 7:5)

 

THE END OF THE WORLD AND THE COMING BESTOWAL SON

The URANTIA Papers deal obscurely, yet quite extensively, with the idea of the “end of the world.” We are to expect some kind of temporary cessation of life on earth, to be followed by a “new earth” with a heavenly government, and that all this is COMING SOON, very probably in this generation.

The authors of the various Papers mention the subject of the “end” directly or indirectly at least 18 times, including several times by the Master himself! Several other ominous and end-like observations by the revelators get dropped here and there as well, leaving little doubt that they’re deadly serious about this topic, that it IS going to happen. No kidding!

THE CLUE IS IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL!

The clearest picture of the soon-to-be end of the world in the URANTIA Papers is to be found in the revelators’ masterful handling of the writings of the Old Testament prophet, Daniel.

Modern scholars differ on the period in which Daniel lived, even whether he was merely a legendary figure in whose name others presented their writings.

The Papers, however, confirm for us that he was a real person and that he was already, at the time of the appearance of the “apocalyptists,” approximately 107-ish B.C., a revered prophet who influenced their approach to the end of the world and the Messianic Age which follows it. (1500, 10-27)

Dr. Sadler, himself a superior scholar of the Bible, dated Daniel’s Book at approximately 165 BC Daniel certainly lived around the era of the Maccabees, 16o-134 B.C.

The Papers also confirm that Daniel’s prophecies indeed deal with “the end of the age and, in a certain sense, with the end of the world...creation was about to pass into its final stage; the kingdoms of this world were about to become the kingdom of God...an absolutely righteous state in which God (the Messiah) would rule the nations of earth in perfection of power Just as he ruled in heaven.” (1500: 19-27)

Now, as you read on, remember that we are told that Machiventa Melchizedek whispered in the ears of all the Old Testament prophets, like Daniel. (1024:44-45) Even the Master himself threw us a clue to the reliability of Daniel-as-truth, across twenty centuries of time, when he told Nathaniel, concerning these prophets: “As a revelation of truth, the last are more dependable than the first” (1767:37-38), and we know that Daniel was the last, or certainly near to last.

They further reveal the meaning and significance of this cautionary remark by Jesus, when they talk about “the human concept of the Messiah as the son of David, as presented by the earlier prophets,” and then go on to discuss the Messiah as “the Son of Man, the superhuman idea of Daniel and some of the later prophets.” (1390:13-37)

Now this is a big help to us in understanding ancient scripture, because not only have they told us that Daniel has a better and more truthful idea of the coming Messiah, they have also now revealed and explained that there are two different “Sons of Man” in the flow of religious scripture and history. We have Jesus as Enoch’s “Son of Man,” and the future yet-to-come end-times Messiah, whom I will later prove to you is Machiventa Melchizedek, (I call him “Lord Machiventa,” and will explain that too) in the role of Daniel’s “Son of Man” (1390:13-37, 1501:1-6, 22-26)

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We are to realize that when we read about the exploits of the Son of Man as described in Daniel, that we are reading about the “end of the world,” and the doings of the second, or end-days Messiah.

 

THE END DISGUISED AS THE SMITING OF THE GREAT IMAGE

They focus our attention specifically on Daniel’s second chapter, an elaborate allegory loaded with symbolism.

The king has a dream about a “great image,” a sort of composite, conglomerate beast, “mighty and of exceeding brightness.., its appearance was frightening.” (Vs. 31)

It had a golden head, silver breast and arms, bronze belly and thighs, iron legs and feet partly of iron, partly of clay. (Vs. 34) And remember, the king is utterly amazed through this transaction because Daniel is telling the king not only the meaning, but also the content of the king’s dream. In other words, even Daniel’s knowledge of the scenario of the dream- is miraculous or at least mysterious, since Daniel could not possibly know this detail by ordinary means.

Daniel describes the allegorical symbolism for the king:

“As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces; then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Vs. 34-35)

To interpret the vision for the king, Daniel first qualifies it, and then sets it down in time. He tells the king that the dream is a gift to him from God, “who reveals mysteries,” and that it concerns “what will be in the latter days” (Vs. 28) And lest there be any doubt about what “latter days” means, he later clarifies that he is talking about the “end” of all the world’s empires. (Vs. 44)(cf. 1498:21-22)

Now you must also remember that most of the Book of Daniel deals with the political overcontrol which the Most Highs of Edentia exercise over the Urantia nations, setting up and removing kings and presidents. And recall that in Paper 43 Malavatia Melchizedek told us that Daniel had a pretty good grasp of these things, that he “fully understood these matters. He said ‘The Most High rules in the kingdoms of men and gives it to whomsoever he will,’” quoting Daniel 4:17, 25. (488:40-42)

Daniel then explains to the king that the image represents four great empires, beginning with the king’s own, Babylon. But Daniel doesn’t specify by name what the other three empires are.

Incidentally, John the Baptist was Just about transfixed by this second chapter of Daniel which he “read a thousand times.” (1498:13) And the Midwayer authors seem to be confirming his father Zacharias’ interpretation that these other three successive empires of the king’s dream were “Persia, Greece and finally Rome.” (1498.14-16)

But wait a second: Rome is long gone: And the end of the world hasn’t occurred yet: Still, Daniel insists, “The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure” (Vs. 45)

Furthermore, the fourth kingdom, Rome, certainly fits the description of “strong as iron” (Vs. 40), but not the idea of a “divided kingdom” with “some of the firmness of iron...in it, Just am you saw iron mixed with the miry clay. And

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as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, Just as iron does not mix with clay.” (Vs. 41-43)

 

GEEING ROME INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Isn’t this perplexing? The authors of the Papers clearly tell us to put a lot of faith in Daniel, but this seems to be a dead end. What is this divided kingdom? With Rome long gone and the end of the world apparently long deferred, how do we fit this fourth empire, a “modern Rome” into our present day?

Obviously, we must first conclude that this iron-clay dual empire is either around now, or else hasn’t come to exist yet.

Could the vision be talking symbolically about leagues of nations, the United Nations, a polyglot mixture of weak and strong? Hardly. The U.N. is not a kingdom, and has far more than two member nations.

Could the vision be dealing with the superpower era, the current period of détente between the U.S and the USSR? I don’t think so. “Détente” is not a kingdom, and while both of these nations could be described as iron-like with their military strength, neither could be said to have the brittleness of clay.

Reaching to solve this dilemma, I poured over other prophecies, especially those that deal with the so-called Antichrist, for he too appears to be some kind of end-times antagonist. I looked at Daniel 7:7-8, the entire Book of Revelation, and the fate of nations as depicted by the 16th century French seer, Nostradamus.

Without going into a lot of detail, suffice it to say that the geo-political depiction which best fits this iron-clay divided kingdom scenario, would be the future conquering of the remainder of Free Europe by the USSR, and the imposing on this newly conquered territory of communist governments, not unlike those of the former and present European victims of this ruthless superpower, the Warsaw Pact countries. We could then say it must be this conglomerate, the iron (USSR), and the clay (the defeated nations), that is salted by the great stone in the king’s dream. We are told this stone represents, symbolically, the Messianic kingdom “which shall never be destroyed,” and which the “God of heaven will set up.” (Vs. 44)

 

“IMPENDING” MEANS “COMING SOON TO A PLANET NEAR YOU”

If this is the scenario, when will all this happen? The author of Paper 97, who incidentally, I am inclined to believe is Lord Machiventa himself, (the author identifies himself only as a “Melchizedek of Nebadon”–1076), knew that we would be asking this question, so he gave us the answer: “Soon”!

The word he chose, and remember this reference point in time is as of 1935, was “impending.” This means “to be near at hand, overhanging, about to happen, imminent or threatening, etc.” So, this means 51 years ago this event was already at the door, was “impending”: The Midwayers chimed in: “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.” (2082: 34-36)

This cosmic-timing-mechanism word “impending” appears on page 1071:14, and I think many readers of the Book miss its significance.

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This Melchizedek writes:

“Then Daniel presented the drama of the impending “crisis” -the smiting of the great image and the immediate establishment of the everlasting reign of righteousness, the Messianic kingdom” (1071 14-16)

Many readers miss the significance of this one sentence loaded with an incredible amount of revelation, because of this very word “impending.” At least I did for years.

Some readers think the author means “impending, or about to happen soon” relative to Daniel’s own days, i.e. around 165 B.C. But read Daniel chapter two again -nothing that Daniel tells the king is impending then! The smiting of the image is set off far into the then future, “in the latter days,” toward the “end.” Daniel doesn’t tell the king that something is going to happen soon to Babylon. He simply remarks that as the consequences of the flow of time, “After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you, etc” (Vs. 39)

That can only mean one thing: this Melchizedek means that he is saying “impending” relative to cur day, to the twentieth century, to 1935-0n.

So then, what’s this “crisis”? And why did he put it in quotes? Words in quotes means they’re being taken from somewhere else, or from someone else’s lips.

There is only one other use of the word “crisis” in the Papers which could apply. They spend a whole Paper, 170, explaining to us that the term “Kingdom of Heaven” is fraught with multiple meanings, from the subjective idea of God-within you, to the objective reality of God’s eventual worldwide rule over a righteous kingdom, the future Messianic Age.

In Paper 170, Section 4, they tell us that Jesus “noted no less than five phases, or epochs, of the kingdom.”(1862:43-44)

The phrase “phases, or epochs” means they are talking about sociological developments over stretches of time (phases), or settled dispensational ages (epochs).

This means the five are successive, one after the other. And since the Jesusonian kingdom idea has been around now for nearly twenty centuries, we must ask ourselves as we read these five successive phases, “Where are we now”? Where does the latter part of the twentieth century fit in?”

Well, the first phase is the subjective God-within-you- consciousness one, the introductory evangelistic stage of the Master’s mission, and it obviously applies to his and the Apostles’ own days, or times.

Then comes the “enlarging brotherhood of gospel believers, the social aspects,” (1863:1) which results from this individual God-consciousness. That certainly reads like the Christian church era. We are still living in that now.

Then comes phase “3” The supermortal brotherhood of invisible spiritual beings which prevails on earth and in heaven, the superhuman kingdom of God” (1863:4-5).

But wait a second! Invisible beings are not “phases, or epochs,” and they’ve been here since the Life Carriers first arrived. They didn’t just arrive after the Christian church era. And they’re still all invisible to us, which is why we are called “Agondonters,” beings “who can believe without seeing.” (579:3)

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If we are to fit them in somewhere in a succession of five kingdom phases, it means that this will have to be an “event-in- time.” And to be an “event” to us, we must see it, know of a certainty that it occurred. In some manner, then, they would have to be made visible to us, all or most of them, on at least one occasion, so that this becomes an “event.” Could this event be the “sudden and unexpected periodical changes in the material and the spiritual worlds” they talk about just below? (1863:28-29) I think so.

What an absolutely exciting and fantastic prospect!

And we know it hasn’t happened yet, so now we’ve been able to locate our present day in the flow of the five successive kingdom phases: we are still in Phase 2, awaiting this spectacular and miraculous apparition, Phase 3.

Then we read that Phase 4 of the kingdom will involve “the dawn of a new social order in connection with improved spiritual living–the next age of man” (1863:7-8)

The “next” age–that means Phase 3 must occur in this age, the Dispensation of the Spirit of Truth. Before this age ends, we must “see” our unseen friends! Blink! Blink!

Then, they give us phase 5, “The kingdom in its fullness, the future spiritual age of light and life on earth.” (1863:9-10)

Now they get even more mysterious farther down the page. They say: “Jesus referred one phase of the kingdom to the future. (1863:33) They can’t be talking about the future relative to the time of his speaking, 30 A.D., because back then, as we’ve already noted, the latter four phases of the kingdom were all in the future. They have to be talking abut “our” future, the now future.

Then they tantalize our curiosities by adding that Jesus repeatedly intimated “that such an event might appear as part of a world crisis.” (1863:34-35)

An “event”–that has to be Phase 3: And it doesn’t stand alone. It’s a “part” of some happening which is going to cause a worldwide “crisis.” What could this be?

 

BACK TO DANIEL:

Back to Daniel, and to page 1071 in the Papers. This Jesusonian-announced “crisis” must be the “crisis” Melchizedek is referring to! And that’s why he put it in quotes! He was sort of saying: “This crisis is referred to elsewhere, herein.”

So now we know what the “crisis” is: it’s the end of the world–”the smiting of the great image and the immediate establishment of the everlasting reign of righteousness, the Messianic kingdom.” (1071:14-16)

“Immediate establishment”? That means Phase 4 of the kingdom will follow right on the very heels of Phase 3, the “event.”

And now, if we go back to Paper 170, we can extract an even clearer picture of these prognostications.

We are told the prophets taught that the kingdom was “A present reality,” and “A future hope–when the kingdom would be realized in fullness upon the appearance of the Messiah,” (1858:26-28). They add: “From the very first Jesus and the apostles taught both of these concepts.” (1858:25- 30)

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This means that the Master himself is confirming that there IS a future Messiah who inaugurates this Phase 4 new age, the objective divine kingdom all over the earth. There are two Messiahs: I’ll have more to say about the two Messiahs later herein.

 

SETTING UP STRAW MEN TO COVER REVEALED SECRETS

Then, the Midwayers just casually remark that “There were two other ideas of the kingdom which should be borne in mind.” (1858:31)

Next, they proceed to do what these brilliant minds do so well, they “pretend” to explain some “problem,” in the process setting up a “straw man,” which they then can knock over with a shot of revelation. But in the process of describing all the problematic circumstances surrounding this straw man, they reveal a whole bunch of “stuff,” obscurely, which they otherwise would not be permitted to reveal, because of the limitations of their revelation mandates from more superior authorities.

They can get away with this straw man monkey business in the reach of God’s Justice and love, because they have “disguised” the revealed information. There’s a red herring guaranteed to be somewhere, masking the real intent of the comments, which is to “reveal” something to us, otherwise verboten.

Incidentally, this goes on throughout the URANTIA Book: It’s one of the stylistic features of their communication of ideas. And it’s a lot of fun discovering these gems of ingenious mentation, and then laughing out loud when you suddenly realize that they were “Jerking you around” mentally. But in a most affectionate way:

We see this straw man approach done most humorously and ingeniously by one of our 14 resident Life Carrier Sons here who wrote Paper 63. He tells us that Andon and Fonta wanted “to send greetings to Urantia in connection with these revelations” (the “stuff,” the “revelation”), “but this request was wisely denied them” (the “straw man,” the sine qua non without which the “revelation” would not be permitted.) (717:23-24)

 

THE STRAW MEN OF PAPER 170

Getting back now to Paper 170 we can see that the Midwayers set up and then knock down three related straw men, and in the “revelation” detritus that is left, we make some very exciting discoveries.

These red herring straw men are found in the passages from the bottom of page 1858 to the top of 1859,

The first straw man is the new age described as “the age of the Jewish triumph” (1859:1) (such a “triumph” never-to-be). The second is “all mankind would worship Yahweh,” (1859:2-3) (the anachronistic Sinaitic concept of deity, “one of the hundreds and thousands of nature gods which held the attention and claimed the worship of the Semitic tribes and peoples” 1053:8-9). The final straw man is the reference to “the composite and confused” Christian concepts (1859:12- 13) (today’s Christian church as the socialized shadow of this future kingdom, with the result that, the kingdom- within-you, as well as the objective kingdom-without, are “set ....off into the future.”–1865:25-26)

Having now disposed of the three straw men, let’s see what they concomitantly “revealed” to us, the “other ideas of the kingdom which should be borne in mind,” the good “stuff.”

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The first is “The later Jewish concept of a world-wide and transcendental kingdom of supernatural origin and miraculous inauguration.”(1858:32-33)

Wow. Fantastic! Far out! Transcendental! Supernatural origin! Miraculous inauguration! What in the name of God will this glorious destiny for us be? No wonder the Apostles “believed that the coming of the kingdom in the racial or world sense would be both sudden and spectacular.”(1860:38-39, cf. page 64, para 1 herein: “spectacular episodes etc.”

The second of the two “other ideas of the kingdom which should be borne in mind” in the Midwayers little straw men revelation is “4. The Persian teachings portraying the achievement of the triumph of good over evil at the end of the world.” (1858:34-35). The end of the world?

Then they tell us that Jesus synchretized “the most vital and culminating heritage of both the Jewish and Persian religions,” thus indicating to us where his stamp of approval rests. (1859:4-5)

“The triumph of good over evil at the end of the world.”

That makes it all so much clearer. The smiting of Daniel’s image IS this triumph. It will be a war so devastating as to cause the cessation of life on Urantia, a spectacular apparition of superhuman beings; yet somehow, miraculously, life gets started again in this “transcendental kingdom of supernatural origin and miraculous inauguration.”

They further note: “And when this kingdom of spiritual pre-eminence does come upon the earth, it will not be manifested in mere improved social and material conditions, but rather in the glories of those enhanced and enriched spiritual values which are characteristic of the approaching era of improved human relations and advanced spiritual attainments.” (1862: 34- 38)

Gosh!

 

WHO’S COMING FOR THE SECOND COMING?

I wonder, could the Master himself be coming for this grand spectacle and miraculous rescue? He tells us on page 1915 that his future itinerary is not known to time-beings, it’s “known only in the councils of Paradise,” “concerning the times of the coming again of the Son of Man, no one in heaven or on earth may presume to speak.” (1915:5-14)

But wait. Our Midwayer brethren earlier in the Papers told us Jesus “definitely stated that at some future state of kingdom development he would revisit this world in spiritual power and divine glory.”(1603:31- 33) So, it won’t be just a casual visit. It happens at some “state of kingdom development.”

“At some future stage of kingdom development.” There’s only three stages left, Phase 3, followed immediately by 4, and then probably about a thousand years later, by 5, are the only possible “stages” at which this could occur. The Midwayers add their observations to this exciting speculation by saying that his next visit will not necessarily be at the time of the crisis. How about right after, at the beginning of Phase 4, the inauguration of the Messiah and the Messianic Age? The Chief of Seraphim tells us that a number of our celestial friends have this opinion ‘that the vicegerent Prince may not come, as such, until Michael sometime returns. (1251:27

Given all we know about him, and Urantia, does it seem possible that he won’t come for the bitter end, or the sweet new beginning?

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In Paper 176, Section 4, the Midwayers themselves seem to express this Phase 4 opinion in a roundabout way.

In the first paragraph they give us the cheerful speculation that there’s no question that he’s coming back “not only once but even many times.” (1918:30) Then they move on to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and remark that when he didn’t show up for “these catastrophic events ....his followers began the formulation of that belief which eventually associated the Second coming of Christ with the end of the age even With the end of the world.” (1918:41-43)

Still, no one may speak with authority. It’s all speculation. It’s delirious to hopefully contemplate though, like a child who counts the days to Christmas!

Further on in this section the Midwayers try to throw us off with a “you wouldn’t be able to see him with your eyes anyway” argument, and conclude “then must his advent be long deferred.” (1919:20) They note: “whereas the eye of flesh had beheld him when he lived here in the flesh, on his return (at least on one of his possible visits) he would be discerned only by the eye of spiritual faith.” (1919:2-4)

Then they conclude: “when he does return, all the world will likely know about it, for he must come as the supreme ruler of a universe... But if every eye is to behold him, and if only spiritual eyes are to discern his presence, then must his advent be long deferred.” (1919:17-20)

I think there’s a straw man here, accompanied by a revelation. The straw man is this “long deferred” conclusion. The revelation is that our “spiritual eyes” will be “anointed, our vision range extended permanently in the direction of the ultraviolet where “they” live and have their being. And that this has to be accomplished before he comes!

Such an event is inherent in the very fact of this Phase 3 of the kingdom we’ve already discussed if the powers of heaven can make all, or nearly all our “friends” visible for this eschatological or end of the world event, Phase 3, then they can certainly make the Master visible too! And if this event is to be a flash in the pan occurrence, a one-time-only grand spectacle, that’s fine. If it’s a permanent thing, then they are going to have to extend our range of vision permanently, “anoint our spiritual eyes,” for indeed, “The children of light are all destined to see him” (1919:33). Ancient prophetic writings both in the Bible and in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha support such a view, and I’ll have more to say about this later.

Can you imagine? A whole new stunning universe of previously unperceived transcendental reality, amazing beings, undreamed of things, glorious beauty, ad infinitum! Are you ready for this?

The last straw man I want to note on this page is their warning that we should “disassociate the Master’s personal return to earth from any and all set events or settled epochs.” (1919:21-22) They’ve already told us he’s coming at some “future stage of kingdom development.” (1603:32)!

 

HOW DO THEY GET THE NEW HUMANS FOR THE NEW EARTH?

Let’s go back to the idea of the end of the world–new earth. Do we all perish? Of course not. There has to be some humans here, or they won’t have anyone to enjoy the “New Age” (1860:20), to populate the regenerated earth for the Messianic Age. But if the world is to “end,” there can’t be anything left living here! What a conundrum!

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Elsewhere in the Papers they’re pretty specific about the totality and circumstances of this “end”: “this godless philosophy of human society will lead only to unrest, animosity, unhappiness, war, and world-wide disaster.” (2081:31-32) Note the highly qualified verbal phrase “will lead only,” as opposed to something like “may lead.”

There are ominous and foreboding warnings throughout the Papers: “wars are going to become more and more devastating until they become almost racially suicidal” (1490:13), “catastrophic physical events, appalling accidents, horrific disaster, painful illnesses, and world-wide scourges” (115:39-40), “the ravages and devastations of world wars” (1491:8-9),”This secularistic human society, notwithstanding its unparalleled materialistic achievement, is slowly disintegrating” (2082: 8-10), “still more terrible destruction is yet to come” (2082:21-22), “man’s many blunders have thus far failed to stop or destroy human civilization” (764:11), “War...sometimes kills the patient, destroys the society”(785:31-32), “as never before in the world’s history they need...sound religion”(1090:11-14), “such times of great testing and threatened defeat” (2082:40), “impending world emergency situations” (1257:30), “Modern society is enduring the strain of one of its most dangerous phases” (765:16-17) “the devious strivings of a vainglorious generation threaten to swamp...civilization... unbridled self-gratification unfailingly destroys civilization”(766:4-10), “Civilizations come and go...crash” (196: 7-9), “certain economic adjustments and social changes are imperative if cultural disaster is to be avoided” (1086:23-27), “All were agreed that some drastic purging or purifying discipline would of necessity precede the establishment of the new kingdom on earth...a world-wide war would ensue which would destroy all unbelievers” ( 1500:46-48), “some physical catastrophe” (582:24), “if all things earthly crash...the flood tides of human adversity, selfishness, cruelty, hate, malice, and jealousy” (1096:20), au finally “temporal upheavals... terrestrial cataclysms...all things visible crash.” (1916:16-19)!

And if there is any doubt in your mind that we are talking about a totally devastated and uninhabited earth, a death star in the place of the beautiful blue sphere, we need only to turn to page 1003, “as long as this planet remains an inhabited sphere” (1003:25-26). Why would they write “as long as” unless they foresaw that at some definite future date, Urantia would be uninhabited, at least for a time? And again in the Paper dealing with the career of Machiventa Melchizedek they say “as long as Urantia remains an inhabited planet” (1025:6). Note the masterful way they have revealed to us that he is the second Messiah, and the skillful manner of revealing the timing of his reappearance as vicegerent Prince, namely, at the end of the world, when Urantia is no longer “inhabited.”

Whew: Stop the world, I want to get off!

 

THE MASTER’S MYSTERIOUS STONE

Let’s go back to the Book of Daniel, and in the URANTIA Papers, to the Master’s words describing the end of the world in cosmic parables.

You’ll recall that the Jerusalem Sanhedrin had sent out spies to follow along with Jesus and keep track of what he was up to, and Pharisees “to entangle Jesus with t heir questions.” (1893: 31-32)

While the Pharisees “withdrew to take further counsel...the Master...told another parable.” (1893:32-34)

This parable is about Urantia’s colored history and stunning future destiny. Read it now, please, the entire section, page 1893, Section 4.

The “tenants” are Caligastia and the rebels. The first rent-collecting servants

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are Van and the loyalists to whom Caligastia refuses to surrender the “fruits due their master.” The householder, of course, is God. The “other and more trusted servants” are Adam and Eve, whose default was really the work of Caligastia. Then comes Lord Machiventa Melchizedek in his emergency mission here 4000 years ago, as the “favorite servant, his steward.”

Then we have the Machiventa-inspired prophets, the “many other servants” who were not received.

The majestic, moving, most touchingly beautiful love of our Father is then presented in the gracious words and trusting attitude of his Son: “They may mistreat my servants, but they will surely show respect for my beloved son.” Notice that the mean tenants’ motives in rejecting this “heir” are materialistic greed: “the inheritance will be ours.”

Then the multitude provides the Master with the concept for the end of the parable, in fact, a description of the end of the world: “He will destroy those miserable men and let out his vineyard to other and honest farmers who will render to him the fruits in their season.” Note the ominous realization that comes over the crowd: “they said in sorrow, ‘God forbid that we should go on doing these things.’”

Now the Master gradually takes us back to Daniel. But first, in a parallel parable, asks the spies if they recall the words of the 118th Psalm, about the ‘stone which the builders rejected...which...was made into the cornerstone?”

When you have a moment, read this Psalm. It is momentous! It is the last “song” the Master ever sang on earth. It was the very last thing he and the Apostles did at the Last Supper (1943:12-14). He obviously picked it.

It’s very Messianic. It’s about God’s unfailing love and redemption in the face of the enemy, but not without testing: “The Lord has chastened me sorely, but he has not given me over to death” (Vs. 18). There is some kind of symbolic deliverance: “This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it” (Vs. 20) God has rendered a salvific response to prayer “thou hast answered me and hast become my salvation.” (Vs. 21)

Next comes the ironical rejected-stone-cornerstone verse, followed by words that seem to describe this deliverance as somewhat miraculous, amazing: “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Vs. 23-24)

Then there’s talk of a “festal procession with branches” which parallels Jesus own entry, triumphant, into Jerusalem, when the crowds “brought branches from the near-by trees in order to make a carpet of honor” (1882:8-10). And you’ll recall that When Jesus planned his own entry into Jerusalem, he based the donkey ride on Zechariah’s vision of the second Messiah’s own future entry. (1881:8918)

The Psalm concludes by again praising the steadfastness of God’s love.

Then Jesus turns to Daniel 2:34-35, and puts a new twist on the Danielic words, alters them into a new parable involving himself and his followers. Daniel merely says the pieces of the salted “image” blew away like wheat chaff in the wind and the smiting stone “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”

Jesus renders this into a paradox: “And there is a mystery about this stone, seeing that whoso falls upon it, while he is thereby broken in pieces, shall be saved; (“whosoever shall lose his life for the sake of this kingdom, shall find it”–1134:29, Luke 17:33) but on whomsoever this stone falls, he will be ground to dust and his ashes scattered to the four winds.” This stone is the Messianic kingdom.

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Now remember, these verses from Daniel have to do with the smiting of the great image, the world ‘crisis,” which is the end of the world,

You will notice that Luke the physician also used this same Jesusonian paradoxical idea of saving one’s life by losing it. Let us now examine the context in which this appears in Luke’s gospel.

It appears in one of the so-called apocalyptic parts of his gospel, which runs from chapter 17:20-37. You’ll recall that the Midwayers tell us that an apocalyptic vision about the eschaton (fancy word for “end of the world”) and the Messiah was written by a guy called Selta, and was added in toto to Matthew’s gospel, “and subsequently added (in part) to the Mark and Luke records” (1915:35-43). The result was that the details of this Seltaic prophecy about the end-times Messiah got mixed in together with the Master’s prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem. (1913:26-38)

You’ll also notice that in the ensuing discussion of the effect of the Seltaic prophecy on the Jesusonian prophecy, the Midwayers do not devalue nor dismiss Selta’s writings, they merely report that his visions clouded the Master’s prognostications. You’ll also notice that they tell us that this inclusion of the Seltaic prophecy into the New Testament writings occurred “very early in the second century,” yet Selta “was attached to the court of the Emperor Caligula,” who ruled only four years, from 37 to 41 A.D.!

That means they preserved Selta’s writings for at least something on the order of sixty to seventy years. He was obviously no ordinary visionary seer, two- bit fortune teller. He was highly regarded. They saved his writings. Furthermore, both a Melchizedek and the Chief of Seraphim on Urantia quote directly from Selta’s apocalypse, adding their implied stamp of approval to his words. (568:45, 569:01, and 1247:32-33, quoting Matthew 24:31 and Mark 13:27)

So now, all we have to do to figure out what was in Selta’s apocalypse is to temporarily disregard everything that the Master has to say about the destruction of Jerusalem.

When we do this in the Book of Luke, we quickly discover that the Jesusonian verse dealing with this life-saved-by-losing-it idea, is there (Vs. 33), but we also read the following words, obviously from Selta’s writings, since they also appear in Matthew 24:40-41, and are not included in anything the Master had to say about the then impending destruction of Jerusalem.

“I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. And they said to him, ‘Where, Lord?’ He said to them ‘Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” (Luke 17:34-35)

Most biblical translators through history, trying to make sense of this jargon in its original Greek, have confused the meaning of this last verse and have usually rendered it as a vultures-looking-for- dead-bodies feature of the destruction at the end of the world. It isn’t at all: It would be absurd to take living human beings on a selected basis from beds, only to dump them outside dead, so that eagles or vultures can have a feast!

In fact, this verse is a clue which you can better understand if we re-arrange the words, without really changing the meaning.

Let’s suppose we make it say: “Where the eagles are, there will the bodies be gathered together,” i.e. that the missing people of Vs 34 have been taken to some lofty place where only “eagles” can soar.

Now, if this is still a little obscure to you, let me cast some more light on the missing-bodies-taken-to-eagles’-nests idea.

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Did you know that some scholars among the ancient Jews believed that the end-times Messiah was a pre-existent being who dwelled in some far distant and mysterious place they called “The Bird’s Nest”?

To get to the rest of this mystery, we go back to Paper 170, to some more Midwayer straw men used to disguise a little extra “revelation.”

Incidentally, they have several different kinds of straw men: The one I’m about to show you is the wrong-facts-lean-to-wrong- conclusion straw man which is used to disguise the fact that this identical conclusion is correct, true, (revelation) when it is supported by a different set of leading facts.

On page 1863 they tell us the Christians lost sight of the kingdom-within, so they socialized the kingdom into a church. Then, realizing that this church was hardly the promised Messianic kingdom, “they proceeded to set the kingdom off into the future” (1865:18-28). This is the straw man.

The conclusion?

“In this manner the kingdom became the concept of an age (revelation–really true), the idea of a future visitation (true: eventual second coming), and the ideal of the final redemption of the saints of the Most High.” (Revelation!) (1865:29-31)

Why is this last phrase a big revelation? What does it mean, other than figuratively, our own resurrection from the grave?

 

BACK TO DANIEL

Back to Daniel.

This expression “the saints of the Most High” first appears in the Bible in the Book of Daniel. It’s really unique to Daniel.

Daniel chapter 7 deals with the same four kingdoms of chapter 2, but expands a little bit on the prophetic detail about the impending end-times empire, the Antichrist’s rule. (Daniel 7:1-8, 23-25)

Herein Daniel has a vision of the dispensational “last judgment” that accompanies the end-new-age. (Daniel 7: 9-10, 26, compare 314:37-47)

We learn about Daniel’s vision of his Son of Man, which, you will recall, I proved to you earlier was NOT the Master. (Daniel 7:13-14)

There is little doubt that this Son of Man is Lord Machiventa as the Messiah. The Ancients of Days had to be involved in his appointment to the title of Vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia, because Michael in doing this, even as a Sovereign Master Son with unlimited power, is varying the normal scheme of things: Melchizedeks don’t rule planets, Lanonandeks do. Melchizedeks teach planetary administration. (386:3-4, 571:4, 1025:13-14) And, of course, the Most Highs had to be consulted or involved (1025:12-13) in the appointment of a new world ruler because they control national political life on Urantia. The several parts, hence the whole.

Now, let’s get back to this dispensational Judgment. Daniel 7:11 says the beast is destroyed. Daniel 7:26 says “his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end.” But not everything is destroyed. Daniel 7:12 says that some of the “beasts,” other kingdoms on earth, lose their dominion (i.e. they surrender a measure of sovereignty to Lord Machiventa as world ruler), “but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.”

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So, we have this idea of prolonging life for some, and we must conclude that this “some” is “the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:22), or “the people of the Saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:27) who eventually inherit the kingdom.

We’re talking about “people”–living human beings, not bodies.

Therefore, when the Midwayers talk about the “redemption Of the Saints of the Most high” (1865:30) (and notice, Daniel himself doesn’t use this word “redemption”) they can’t be talking about resurrection! And the reference to prolonged life clearly means they are talking about redemption from DEATH!

Well, well, well!

The world is going to end, some people will be saved, redeemed from death, and this appears to involve Phase 3, our then-visible unseen friends, and then there’ll be a new earth, a new kingdom with a heavenly world rule and worldwide peace.

Now let’s jump to Daniel chapter 12, and see how this scenario develops. This chapter begins:

“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. (Second coming? No one may speak!) And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time; but at that time your people shall be delivered, every one whose name shall be found written in the book” (Vs. 1)

So now it should be getting obvious to you. Whatever this unprecedented “time of trouble” is, it is severe enough to end the world, except for a selected group, “everyone whose name shall be found written in the book,” who will somehow be “delivered,” redeemed, saved, disappearing from among the living in ones-and- twos here and there, and then popping up alive in some eagle’s-nest-like place!

It’s like they “evacuate” these selected people from off the earth!

God, this is getting heavy!

Can they do that? Evacuate a whole bunch of people? Ail things are possible with God, but where would they take us? We have to eat. What’s this eagle’s nest?

Well, believe it or not, they just happen to remark in an “Oh, by the way, in case you didn’t know” fashion, that they can do this mass evacuation, even if “the entire planet is to be emptied.” (582:22)

They uncover this gem in Paper 51 where they tell us that to get Adam and Eve onto a planet, they have to dematerialize- rematerialize them. Then they drop this oh-by-the-way bombshell:

“If some physical catastrophe should doom the planetary residence of an evolving race, the Melchizedeks and the Life Carriers would install the technique of dematerialization for all survivors, and by seraphic transport these beings would be carried away to the new world prepared for their continuing existence.” (582: 25-28)

Also, did it ever occur to you that telling us they can evacuate a planet is utterly useless and pointless information to put in a revelation like this unless they foresaw that they would someday have to do that very thing for planet Urantia?

So, that’s how, in Luke 17:34-35 (Selta), we have these selected people, one by one, Just disappearing off the street, and then popping up in the “eagle’s nest,” this evacuation “world prepared for their continuing existence.”

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Well, that’s at least a partial relief. Whew: If you or I get to be one of the “selected” ones, we won’t have to do anything. They’ll just come, dematerialize us and take us away!

At this point a million questions run through the mind. How do you get “selected” and put on the list? Where is this emergency evacuation world? What will life be like there? I am going to try to answer the questions for you, but first I want to deal with the most important single question in all of our minds: WHEN?

The only problem with “When?” is that it’s a minefield! Throughout the last two thousand years more people’s evangelistic careers and reputations have been shattered on the anvil of having predicted a precise date for the end of the world, when the hammer of that day came down.

To use another metaphor, I intend to do nothing but just barely touch my toes into this troubled water of picking a date for the eschaton.

Based on all the prophecy I’ve ever read, and I’ve made an exhaustive study of the subject, and based on certain statements in the URANTIA Book, and circumstances surrounding its presentation to earth, I am going to say I look for all these events on the order of ten to 35 years from this writing. (1986)

 

THE BOOK, THE SON, AND THE EPOCH

It is evident that something big is about to happen on Urantia because they call the URANTIA Book, these million-and-a-quarter words, nearly 2100 pages, the Fifth Epochal Revelation. Yet, we continue at this moment to live in the Fourth Epoch, the Dispensation of the Spirit of truth.

They have inaugurated every epoch so far with a Son, and this is indicated as the common practice throughout the time universes.

1956 years ago the Master promised us “an enlarged revelation of truth” (1914:33) and we’ve received it, thank you, (The URANTIA Book). But he also promised “an enhanced demonstration of righteousness” (1914:34). A “demonstration” requires a “demonstrator.” That means a Son! Incidentally, did you know that in Hebrew the word “Melchizedek” means “King of Righteousness”? Interesting.

Now, since these two (the “Book,” and the “Son”) are linked in the Master’s own phraseology, we have to conclude that this Son is coming too, and very soon, since we’ve already had the Book for over thirty years.

In his prophetic promises the Master allowed for this 30- plus-years-of-Book-minus-Son. He said, when “you discern the coming of the spiritual springtime of a new dispensation, (the Book) should you know that the summertime of a new visitation (the Son) draws near. (1915:18-19)

One of our longtime URANTIA Book students, and brother in the Netherlands, Henry Begemann, contributes astutely to this discussion.

Henry notes that there are two conditions that must be fulfilled for us to have received both the Book and the Son. These are:

A. “the kingdom aunt have come to its full fruition” (1914:32) and

B. “the world (must have) passed through the long winter of material-mindedness” (1915:17-18)

(Note: I am quoting from Henry’s recent paper “SPRINGTIME–A Study of the Future”)

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Concerning the first condition, Henry reasons that since we have already received the revelation (the Book) “about all that reasonably could be expected to be attained by the fourth epochal revelation, given time and circumstances, has been attained.”

He thus concludes because: “Has all the world become Jesusonian or even Christian? Surely not; the meaning must be different.” So Henry deduces that the Master’s gospel has indeed “been proclaimed to all the world for the salvation of all peoples” (1915:8), the real meaning of the “full fruition” condition in A.

Turning to the second condition, Henry takes us to the Midwayer commentary later on in the Papers to the effect that “At the time of this writing (1935) the worst of the materialistic age is over.” (2076:40) That means the world has indeed “passed through the long winter of material- mindedness,” as far as Henry’s concerned.

So Henry concludes: “Therefore the spiritual springtime is now.”

Henry’s case is a good one, right on the money, but I differ with him on this last point. Look at the context in which the Midwayers make this observation sounding the death knell for materialism. In their very next sentence they make it clear that they are speaking in a narrow sense about scientists, and acknowledge that the public at large has a long way to go in this regard: ‘The higher minds of the scientific world are no longer wholly materialistic in their philosophy, but the rank and file of the people still lean in that direction as a result of former teachings.”

I think the Master’s words “the long winter of material-mindedness” are far more formidable and horrible. Awful to contemplate. I think he is referring to a so-called “nuclear winter” as the vehicle that will bring down the curtain on this age in just about as dramatic a fashion as you could ever envision. Remember, if everything and everyone, except the evacuees, is going to perish at the end, there has to be a plausible cause for such a denouement.

You’ll recall that nuclear winter is the theoretical outcome all over the world of too many nuclear bombs set off in some future war, the smoke of the burning cities and forests as well as the mega-tonnage of fallout rises into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun, and plunging the earth into a horrible and endless winter, thus breaking the food chain.

 

SO WHAT’S A HUNDRED YEARS AMONG FRIENDS?

There is another factor which affects the timing of these events, and to discuss that I must turn to what I call the “Divine Letters Latent.” In transmitting the URANTIA revelation to the six contact commissioners on earth, a number of additional “communications” were included. These were intended for the contact commissioners’ eyes only. They were like “letters,” not intended for wide distribution or publication but rather for the personal edification and guidance of these unique mortals selected for the task. “Letters patent” are the governing instructions which a sovereign might issue to some sort of governor-general before sending him off to rule some distant territory within the sovereignty. But these letters weren’t patent. They were latent. They were to be destroyed upon the occasion of the death of the last living contact commissioner, and I have good reason to believe that that was carried out at 533 the day Christy died.

Divine love being what it is, however, a few fragments of these communications were shared and have become today a part of what we might call Urantia “lore.” If anything, they disclose the ambience of the epochal contact between heaven and earth.

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Among these few preserved words and phrases are those which go something to this effect:

“The Book has been given to the world one hundred years ahead of its time,” and

“The Religious Guardians among the Master Seraphim of Planetary Supervision have been given custody of the revelation for its first one hundred years, after which it shall be turned over to the Progress Angels for a more accelerated social metamorphosis.”

This is entirely reasonable. We read on page 1255 that the Religious Guardians are tasked with “the safe transit of moral values from One epoch to another” (1255:26-27), and that the Progress Angels “are intrusted with the task of initiating the evolutionary progress of the successive social ages.” (1255:19-20).

It’s too easy to jump then to the logical conclusion which thus presents itself. We have discovered now that we are going to go through a cataclysmic transition from the present age, the Fourth Epoch, the Age of the Dispensation of the Spirit of Truth, to the Fifth Epoch, the Messianic Age and Dispensation. The mind wants to think, “Fine. 1935 plus a hundred years is 2035. The world will end in 2035, so let’s eat, drink and make merry until 2034!” (1 Corinthians 15:32)

Remember, the Religious Guardians are responsible for a transition, “from one epoch to another.” This means they have to function, for at least a brief time in the new epoch. So ail this has to come to pass well before 2035:

Besides, this ‘one hundred years” business is too cut and dried for me. I think it is probably a rounded-up figure.

Pretend you’re one of the revelators. And let’s just say that you know the world is going to end in, pick a date, say 1997. Now you subtract 1935, and you write to the contact commissioners: “The Book has been given to the world 62 years ahead of its time.” You would then say: wait a minute, if I do that I’m giving them the nearly precise date of the eschaton, and I know that “when ignorance is essential to success, it would be a colossal blunder for the Creature to know the future” (438:7-8) in such precise detail. So you say, I’ll round it up to 70 years. No, that still sounds too specific; let’s just go for a century. That’s a nice round number.”

Nonetheless, it is clear from certain other facts that they want us, the Children of Light, to know what is about to happen and roughly when.

The Master clearly wanted his followers to know the circumstances immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. He wanted them to know specifically about certain religio-political events, so that they did not get involved, and so that they would know when to get out of town and not “perish in the downfall of Jerusalem” (1913:23)

He gave them rough timing: “even this generation will not pass away until my words are fulfilled” (1915:12) Scholars differ about the meaning of a “generation,” but it’s generally taken to be about thirty years. In fact, the Master was speaking in 30 A.D.; the destruction took place in 70 A.D., forty years later. But then, he didn’t say “within this generation,” in effect, he said “this generation shall not have died.”

He also gave them a lot of detailed predictions: many false prophets claiming to be the Messiah, “wars and rumors of wars,” “famines or earthquakes,” civil and religious persecution and imprisonment of his followers, “the revolt of the false prophets” (for details of this see 1988:46–1989:3), followed by the surrounding of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, and finally that the end would come suddenly,

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“Let none who are in the city and around about tarry to save ought, neither let those who are outside dare to enter therein.” (1913:30- 31) (1912:25–1913:38)

Concerning the end of the world, we too are similarly given a very detailed prophetic picture of the events which immediately precede the end, however these are revealed to us for a different reason. The Master did not want his followers to perish in the fall of Jerusalem, he wanted them to know when to escape. Secondly, he did not want them to be misled by the many religious screwballs who he knew were coming down the road of time, “but you should not be deceived, for I told you all this beforehand.” (1913137-38)

At the end of the world, our escape will be arranged for us by our unseen friends. We are being told the details of these things, so that we don’t despair in the horrible confusion and suffering of the end, and lose our faith in God.

“When it comes, every heart will melt and all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water.” Ezekiel 21:7

Wherefore on that day will the Master’s words echo through our minds: “And when you see all this come to pass, be not dismayed, but rather believe, inasmuch as you knew it all beforehand.” (1954:15-16)

Furthermore we know that we are all indwelt by the Master’s spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who will “even show you things to come.”(1951:48)

There are other trigger words in the Papers which clearly indicate to us these events are not far off in time: “in the near future” (1251:18), “any day or hour” (1251:29), “the next thousand years” (330:15), and “quivering on the very brink.” (2082: 34-35)

We can also look among the whispered tales and hushed stories that surround this great revelation to mankind for yet another clue to timing. Christy used to say: “In about 40 years time a John the Baptist will come along and that’s when this revelation will really get going.” Forty years from 1955 is 1995. On the other hand, those who heard her say this can’t definitely pin down the date when she was speaking in their memory. If she was speaking circa 1950, we are looking at 1990, barely four years from now. You will know this latter day “another and greater John the Baptist” by three characteristics of his ministry:

A. He will emphasize the indwelling Spirit of the Father which makes you a relative of God’s, one of His Sons or Daughters;

B. He will have no criticism of existing religions, “the visible church on earth”; and

C. When asked about the second coming, he will say “No comment.” (1866: 7-12)

I’ll have more to say about this John the Baptist in a moment. But first, let’s go back to the Book of Daniel for some more clues on the timing mechanism for the eschaton.

 

SET YOUR OVEN TIMERS AT SEVEN YEARS:

Daniel sets the stage for the last seven years before the end in his ninth chapter. He presents a “seventy weeks of years” i.e. 490 year (70 X 7) grand prophetic scheme for the Jewish people. (The Jews loved the number seven, held it in superstitious regard, for that was the day God “rested” in Genesis) This grand prophecy is set in four specific time periods:

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A. Seven weeks;

B. 62 weeks;

C. Last week before “the decreed end”; (seven years) and

D. Last half week before “the decreed end.” (three-and-one- half years)

Let’s focus on C and D, the events of the final seven years before the end.

At this point John the Revelator picks up the prophecy and reveals more about the detailed happenings of these last seven years, especially the first three and one-half years. John explains that the first three and one-half years will be characterized by the worldwide work of two remarkable prophets, witnesses who we know by inference are Elijah and Enoch. This spectacular ministry ends in their assassination, public exposure of their bodies for several days, miraculous resurrection, and ascension. You can read about them in the Book of Revelation, chapter 11, verses 1- 13.

Then, in chapter 13 in Revelation, John fills in the details for the final three and one-half years (forty-two months) before the end of the world, the horrible era of the Antichrist and his rule.

At this point we should note that the Midwayer authors just about blow the Book of Revelation to smithereens on page 1555. They tell us it’s “greatly abridged and distorted,” that it “contains the surviving fragments of a great revelation, large portions of which were lost, other portions of which were removed, subsequent to John’s writing. It is preserved in only fragmentary and adulterated form.” (1555:44-48)

I think they must have had second thoughts about this sweeping dismissal of the Book of Revelation, because later they change their minds on one point.

You’ll recall our discussion about the Caligulan prophet Selta whose apocalyptic visions about the end of the world and the Messiah got copied into the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, (1915:30-43) thereby confusing the Jesusonian prophecies about the destruction of Jerusalem.

But then you’ll note they add, almost in passing: “But the Apostle John never became thus confused.” (1915:42-43) That’s very interesting. The Gospel of John has nothing to say either about the impending destruction of Jerusalem, nor the end-times Messiah, except the occasional reference to resurrection on “the last day.” So the Midwayers cannot be referring to the Gospel of John in saying he got the story right, they must be referring to the Book of Revelation. But the Book of Revelation does not touch upon the destruction of Jerusalem either, so they are telling us that John has the end-of-the- world-coming-Messiah story pretty accurately portrayed in the Book of Revelation! So, the Book of Revelation may be “greatly abridged and distorted... fragmentary and adulterated,” but it got the end of the world story straight! That’s nice to know.

 

THE MINISTRY OF THE TWO WITNESSES

Now at this point, it’s obvious that if we are to expect a Urantian John the Baptist prophet very shortly, he and Elijah have to be one and the same person. And if we carry this equation even further, it means that he is also the 12th Imam of Islam, (Khomeni eat your heart out!) and the “prophet of the latter days–Teacher of Righteousness” of the ancient Essene Dead Sea sect, but I’m not going to get into these right now.

We will know that the seven year countdown to the end has begun when these

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two remarkable evangelists begin a spectacular worldwide religious crusade, probably complete with real miracles the likes of which man has not seen since Jesus walked the earth. I presume it will really be Jesus doing these miracles through them. And that’s why the Midwayers call this Elijah “another and greater John the Baptist.”(1866:7, cf. 1008:31:34)

They will call themselves Elijah and Enoch; but they are very likely not the prophets of old. They are of the “typology” of “Elijah,” i.e. simply great prophets, in the same way that the Master explained to the Apostles that the first John the Baptist was of the typology of Elijah. (1754:21-29)

Of course, it’s not impossible that it could be the original and authentic Elijah and Enoch of old, incarnated for the purpose, since a full dispensation has passed since they lived here. This means they could be, accordingly, permitted to return. (436,12-15, 1230:46-47, 2024:12-15)

And indeed, they both did return here in their morontia bodies, we can reason- ably assume, for a period of one hundred years as the centennially rotating Governor- General of Urantia. If they followed the sequence of appointment (oldest first) to governor-general, as they did to the 24 Counselors, we can deduce that Enoch presided over the government of Urantia from 1030 A.D. to 1130 A.D., and Elijah from 1230 A.D. to 1330 A.D. (513: Section 4, 1252: Section 3, 2024:12-15, 1646:18-22)

This may be unreliable speculation, however, since Lord Machiventa, who is 14^th on the list, was in fact the tenth Governor-General. (514:14-23, 1025:49 - 1026:3)

On the other hand, the supervisors weren’t too keen on the idea of the first humans, Andon and Fonta, being permitted to formally send greetings here even three dispensations removed from the one in which they lived, as we have already noted. (717:23-24)

Therefore I am more inclined to the view that the end-times Elijah and Enoch are simply typological cosmic “roles” on Urantia which will be “played” by present day mortals with very different yet ordinary names. They will call themselves by these “role” names when they begin their public careers in a few years time.

John the Baptist himself had to wrestle with this same Elijah-identity- typology dilemma. He finally decided that he was “Elijah,” but still had doubts about using the name. (1499:10-48)

Elijah will proclaim the inauguration of a new-old religio-social group which I expect he will call “The Jesusonians” to set them away from Christians and Christianity. His, and Enoch’s, missions are not to the Urantia movement, per se, they are to the whole world, all mankind. They will be assisted by “Urantians,” I expect, but they will come to him.

His message will be syncretistic–he will point the way away from the narrowness of sectarianism toward universal religion–the religion of the Master. He will convince many religio-sectarianists that they have one important thing in common, the indwelling Father fragment which makes them “Sons of the Living God.”–so did Hosea describe Elijah’s message. (Hosea 1:10).

His theology will be incredibly simple. He will not say “You have to read this big blue book, 2100 pages of stentorian prose!” There will be just five points that he will emphasize, over and over. The Master put the same five points in different terms on page 1863, but they’re really one and the same thing, (1863:16-23)

A. The indwelling presence of God;

B. The Fatherhood of God;

C. The Brotherhood of Man;

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D. Justification by faith alone; and

E. Eternal life, salvation.

Now to help you to understand why the careers of these two heaven-sent messengers will be so spectacular, why the whole world’s media will be agog and astir with descriptions of their miraculous healings, why even mother nature will be at their beck and call (Revelation 11:6) we have to construct an imaginary conversation. I want to describe for you an anthropomorphized or “humanized” conversation between Michael and the Universal Father. And while I have thus made it easier for my fellow mortals to relate to, I doubt not for one minute that some transaction along these lines occurred.

Let’s journey on out through the transcendental time frames of the absonite realm, past the before-time and the after-time, on into the eternal non-time reality of the Paradise Central Shining. Michael number 611,121 is home for a visit.

Suddenly, His eyes disclosing a Father’s loving concern for his children, the Universal Father turns to Michael and says: “What are you going to do about Urantia? You know this planet is going to blow itself up, thanks to our erring delinquent Son, Caligastia?”

Michael stares off to the horizon with a faraway look in his eyes and says: “Yes, I know. And it’s one of my worlds, so I feel personally responsible. Darn! Look, Abba. (He always called Him that–1360.15-16) I still have a bestowal left. I’ll go in there. They won’t receive me, they’ll kill me. But I’ll have time to plant a few seeds of truth. And the bestowal will mean I can pour out my Truth Spirit, and You can indwell every mortal instead of just those who are ready for You. “(610: 18-21)

“In this way,” he went on “We’ll be able to salvage every possible child that we can, before the end. And I plan to use this end for your greater glorification, Abba! I will even send them two last messengers, and I will even permit these messengers to violate our normal policy of not winning believers by over- awing them. (1520:24-27) In this way, we will even be able to garner some of the weak of faith, who are responding out of shock over the “wonders.”

“Very well,” says the Father. “But if you are going to use wonder-working as an evangelistic tool, had you not better turn it off at some point, so that there has to be a final choosing, final parting of the ways?”

“Very well, Abba, so shall it be! I’ll provide an interregnum period of no wonders, of equal duration to the prophet-wonder period, right at the end. Then they’ll have time to reflect on what all these things mean, and where they fit in. Then you and I, Abba, shall make a clean harvest, and then start again with our real children, the ones who have found our love.”

“Good luck, my Son!”

Then, Elijah and Enoch will be murdered. The last martyrs ever to die for him. They’ll probably be gunned down in the streets of a large city, and be left, obviously very dead. But the infidel, or ruler of that nation where this occurs will not permit their burial. (Revelation 11:1-13)

For three days the corpses will remain in the street, photographed daily by the media and transmitted world-wide to a great hue and cry. Then, on the morning of the fourth day, Elijah and Enoch will GET UP! They will probably make some appropriate announcement to the cameras and then disappear!

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I’m not sure what becomes of Enoch. I suspect he will elect the mansion world career and we will hear nothing more of him. It appears that Elijah will be offered the opportunity to come back to the New Jerusalem as a sort of High Priest at the new Temple of the Father. And he will accept, continuing for one thousand years as one of the “elect” until he, and they, fuse and ascend at the termination of the one thousand year visit of the Trinity Teacher Sons.

I’ll get to the “elect,” the Temples of the Father, as well as the coming Trinity Teacher Sons in a minute. First, let’s follow the apparent sequence of events to the end.

I expect that Elijah and Enoch will have provided for some kind of continuity, some means of holding together as a social group the converts they win.

I think they will train and commission their own “Latter Day Apostles of Jesus,” which they will leave behind in each city or nation of their ministry to organize and build tri-concentric Temples of the Father, but more importantly to shepherd the flock, those souls drawn together by the spiritual as well as the wonder-working power of Elijah and Enoch.

I also surmise that, like the Apostles of old, this group of Latter Day Apostles will be a very tight fraternity, probably with all things in common.(1823:11-17)

 

THE END WILL COME SUDDENLY! “IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE:”

As we watch Elijah and Enoch “disappearing” on our six o’clock news, we glance at our seven year oven-timer and say: “Ok. That means we now have three and one-half years, roughly, to the end, to Armageddon.” But whatever you do as a child of light, don’t get complacent. It is clear from many prophecies and the URANTIA Book itself, that the end will come suddenly, amidst great peace and prosperity.

“Therefore you do well to prepare yourselves for that day when you will be visited suddenly and in an unsuspecting manner” (1824:32-33), “to an evil-minded and hypocritical generation no sign shall be given” (1745:3-4), “coming of the kingdom in the racial and world sense would be both sudden and spectacular (1860:39-40), “Yes, Teacher, we do look for the Messiah, but when he comes, we know that his appearance will be in mystery” (1791:15-16), “A sword...polished to flash like lightning” (Ezekiel 21:8-10), “On that day swift messengers shall go forth from me to terrify the unsuspecting” (Ezekiel 30:9), “Without warning he shall destroy many” (Daniel 8:25), “for a full, yea, sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth” (Zephaniah 1:18), “Watch, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42 from Selta’s Apocalypse 1915:35-43), “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 24:42,50; 25:13, Mark 13:35, Luke 12:39-40), and finally “and that day shall come upon you suddenly like a snare.” (Luke 21:34)

Am I making myself perfectly clear? The day before the end of the world someone predicting it will be regarded as a screwball, even as some of you now reading this paper have difficulty believing it. “On a planet of the blind, the sighted man would be regarded as insane!”

See? “...the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘There is peace and security’, then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape.” (1 Thess. 5:2-3, 1 Peter 5:8, 2 Peter 3:10, Revelation 3:3, 16:15) Enough said!!

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THE “END”–NUCLEAR WINTER BRINGS DOWN THE FINAL CURTAIN
FIRE AND ICE

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if I had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

          -Robert Frost

It appears the end will come as the result of a sudden nuclear exchange on earth, which will be completely unexpected and will come at a time of great material prosperity and peace, pretty much like things are now, maybe even better.

The smoke and fallout overwhelms the biosphere, leading to a worldwide winter even in mid-summer and even in the tropics, destroying the food chain and causing universal famine–the end.

There won’t be any stockpiling of food. There won’t be any food to stockpile. And no amount of wealth will save you. Ezekiel saw these days:

“All hands are feeble, and all knees weak as water. They gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror covers them; shame is upon all faces, and baldness on all their heads. (Radiation poisoning causes baldness!) They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing; their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.” (Ezekiel 7:17-19)

It’s really going to happen! The authors of the URANTIA Papers mention the end of the world directly or indirectly 18 times, including at least five by Jesus himself! I’ve already mentioned some of these, let’s go over the rest.

Jesus to Thomas: “The downfall of nations, the crash of empires, the destruction of the unbelieving Jews, the end of an age, even the end of the world, what have these things to do with one who believes this gospel...if nations overturn, the age ends, or all things visible crash”(1916:9-20, 1096:19-21).

“It was during one of these conferences at the home of Justa that the Master first (meaning he did it repeatedly’) told his disciples that ‘even though heaven and earth shall pass away, my words of truth shall not’” (1736:20-21, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33, Matthew 5:18; 24:35, 2 Peter 3:10). Heaven passing is the darkness of nuclear winter. Jesus, talking to all the Apostles minus Judas, plus “about fifty of his trusted followers,” his “farewell address,” on “his last free day on earth as a divine Son incarnated in the flesh”: (1929:1-17) “And my spirit shall be upon you, now and even to the end of the world”(1932:23-24)

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Then on the next page the Master sends a personal version of this farewell to Abner at Philadelphia: “I will not forsake you. I will be with you to the end.”– (1933:10-11)

Jesus teaching at Jotapata: “In the end it will prove true: ‘Whoso stops his ears to the cry of the poor, he also shall someday cry for help, and no one will hear him.” (1639:10- 12) Those are momentous words! Will they apply to you at the end?

The Master’s last teachings at Pella: “Take lessons from those who make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, and likewise so conduct your lives that you make eternal friendship with the forces of righteousness in order that, when all things earthly fail, you shall be joyfully received into the eternal habitations.” (1854:13-17)

Earlier in the Papers a Melchizedek sets up the end of the world as a straw man, in the process revealing it as truth: “Zoroaster, like the Egyptians, taught the ‘day of judgment’, but he connected this event with the end of the world.”– (1050:15-16) The word “but” implies error, but the error is not the “end,” it is the fact that the day of judgment is a feature of all ends of dispensations, not just the “end of the world.”

Probably the same Melchizedek uses a similar straw man in Paper 98, “at the end of the world Mithras would summon all the dead from their graves to face the last judgment.” (1082:42-44). Mithras-as- divine-judge-straw man, God does–the judging!

On pages 1500 and 1501 they spend a page and three-quarters telling us what–all the various schools among the ancient Jews thought about the end of the world,’ but you’ll notice the Midwayer authors never once express their own opinion, nor in any way evaluate the opinions they are reporting. It’s as if their revelation mandate made the “end of the world,” at least as a direct revelation, a taboo subject. I’ll have more to say about that later. But the words are clearly there: “the end of the world” (1500:19) and “the world was approaching its certain end.” (1500:41).

Martha to the Master concerning the then dead Lazarus: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day.” (1843:5) Jesus corrects her only to the degree of saying “I am the resurrection and the life” (1843:8-9)

In attempting to explain the inaccurate association of the then imminent destruction of the temple, with the end of the world, the Midwayers explain how the Master’s followers got confused. But note: they carefully choose their words. They do not devalue nor discount the eschaton: “In their minds these Jews were determined to connect the destruction of the temple with the ‘end of the world.’” They believed this New Jerusalem would fill all Palestine that the end of the world would be followed by the immediate appearance of the ‘new heavens and the new earth.’” (1913:44 – 1914:01) Also do you see the beautiful revelation and the knocked-over straw man? While the Midwayers were doing this little tirade about “those darn Jews - getting everything confused!” they revealed truth as follows:

A. The Messiah is “reappearing,” i.e. he has “appeared” before! This confirms that Lord Machiventa IS the Messiah,

B. A New Jerusalem will be enlarged to “become the world’s capital;”

C. This New Jerusalem “will fill all Palestine;” and

D. Phase 4 follows immediately after Phase 3, “the end of the world would be followed by the immediate appearance of the new heavens and the new earth.’”

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There are plenty more references to the end of the world in the Papers.

“They wanted to know more about the destruction of Jerusalem, the Master’s departure, and the end of the world.” (1915:49-50). This is an interesting phrase for the Midwayers to put in this sentence, since the Master himself in the previous context, has not yet even mentioned the end of the world!

“His followers began the formulation of that belief which eventually associated the second coming of Christ with the end of the age, even with the end of the world.” Again, note the context. The “error” they are clarifying is not that th