Reflections on the Publication Mandate

 The students of the Urantia Book are often astounded at the apparently slow progress of the revelation but the Publication Mandate reminds us that: 

“The book is being given to those who are ready for it long before the day of its world-wide mission. Thousands of study groups must be brought into existence and the book must be translated into many tongues. Thus will the book be in readiness when the battle for man’s liberty is finally won and the world is once more made safe for the religion of Jesus and the freedom of mankind.” [Emphasis mine] 

This paragraph is pregnant with many insights which, if carefully unpacked, I believe could help us understand our situation and so manage our expectations. Firstly, the book is ‘given’ – it is a gift from divine beings to us as a planet, and to us as specific individuals, “long before the day of its world-wide mission.” If you have ever tried giving this book to anyone you quickly learn the astonishing ambivalence expressed by so many people toward it. This ambivalence is in stark contrast with breathtaking enthusiasm of those that have ‘found’ the revelation. Of those that have found and recognised the revelation it offers a window through which we may glimpse the destiny of the universes [and all who dwell therein] as it traces their march through the heavens in their endless pursuit of everlasting perfection. Alas, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder and those selected and blessed to receive the teachings must be content with a long and somewhat lonely vigil, fanning the spark of the revelation in their own corner of the planet and in relative obscurity. We must be content to carry the torch from one generation to the next, to nurture the fellowship as best we can, until the day comes when the world wakes up to the fact it needs a revelation of this type and discovers that we have been here present for a long time, waiting at the sidelines for humanity to mature to the point wherein it recognises the value we offer. Much disillusionment and tragedy must occur before this happens.

My reading of the above suggests to me that the revelation will not have any significant global traction until AFTER the battle for man’s liberty is finally won; at which point our ability to meet demand will, undoubtedly, be challenged. This notion should frame many of the strategies of the present movement and the expectations of the community should be adjusted accordingly. But, that said, it is a very significant statement. The theme of Liberty runs throughout the revelation as a seam of gold in a mine; many priceless insights can be acquired through studying the teachings related thereto. The second statement is also instructive. They imply two ages: the current one in which the ‘religion of Jesus’ is not safe, and a subsequent one in which it is.

The mandate clearly states that “The book belongs to the era immediately to follow the conclusion of the present ideological struggle.” This is an open reference to the great religious age to which it offers many allusions. However, it points out something to which I was completely blind – an age of active hostility to the religion of Jesus, [the current age in which we live] and “hostility to the religion of Jesus” must include persecution of the followers of the teachings of Jesus and virtually endless ideological challenges to the civilisations based on the religion that bears his name. These words suggest the culmination in a global ideological struggle in which the teachings of the Master will ultimately prevail; a victory secured, no doubt, at great cost.

This would suggest, then, that the world is presently engaged in something of a life or death struggle; that the teachings of Jesus have been beset with countless challenges from the day they were first loosed upon the world and, having reviewed the historical facts – it is hard to deny. The teachings make reference to one specific challenge to be mindful of, one given by the Master himself to his own apostles while he still walked among us: [178:1.10] [You] will stand in grave danger in subsequent times when most men will speak well of kingdom believers and many in high places nominally accept the gospel of the heavenly kingdom.

In the global west many western leaders “nominally accept the gospel” but, given recent actions by these individuals, their behaviour clearly indicates that absolutely none of them grasp the gospel and, given the evidence, it is safe to conclude that a ‘nominally’ Christian world is genuinely worse than a culture based on actual ‘Christian’ values. The problem that the children of this world have with ‘Christian values’ is that they make the acquisition of power difficult because it highlights and insists upon the need for ‘checks and balances’ – the social structures that it seeks to sponsor attempt to off-set, control, and otherwise ameliorate the inescapable weaknesses of our brethren; sincerely endeavours to create a world free from fear wherein justice flourishes. Such social systems do not suit the selfish and the wicked and so are subject to ceaseless attack. The children of the Kingdom view power as a means to an end, a means through which the lives of our fellows can be enhanced but, in contrast, for the children of this world power is an end in itself.

My studies have taught me many things about Christianity and the challenges it has faced over the years. The teachings single out one challenge as particularly dangerous: ‘godless, secular, totalitarianism’ in which the state seeks to take the seat once held by the monolithic totalitarian Christian Church. The progressive spiritual desiccation of the Christian world has undermined the immune system of Christendom, left it vulnerable to all sorts of spiritual diseases and invasions which threaten the very existence of the Christian world.

One particular ideology has harassed gospel teachers since the inception of the faith on this world. From age to age it appears in slightly different cultural raiment but it always driven by the same ideals and goals. This ceaseless challenging of the authority of the Church and the merits of the gospel led to the unbelievable hostility of the medieval Christian Church to dissenters, such that they would even dig up the bones of old enemies and drag them through the streets before burning and cursing them. The enemies of the Church then, like the enemies of Christendom today, share common ideals and goals: the destruction of the family, the demolition of private property, the elimination of all competing or secondary loyalties, exalting the needs of the group over the needs of the individual and the fostering of institutions that protect and serve the group while undermining the rights of the individual.

These appear over and over, throughout the ages, from one country to the next, like a spiritual cancer. The similarities can be traced from the Gnostics, to the Cathars, to a wide variety of the self proclaimed true followers of Christ whose radical interpretations of his life and teachings precipitated convulsions of unbelievable destruction. It was these conflagrations of spiritual delusion that sprang ever and anon throughout Europe that led the hierarchy of the medieval Catholic tradition to take an astonishing hard line on heresy. It was not merely to protect church coffers, but to stamp out highly destructive radicalism to which heresy often gave rise. Those ‘religious refugees’ that fled Europe due to the ‘persecution’ of the Catholic church were all too often adherents of religious sects whose ultra-radical teachings were detrimental to the social order. Catholicism was unusually tolerant of all kinds of spiritual groups from within its own family but was virulently opposed to radicalism, and for good reason. Upon arriving at the new world these extremists were confronted with a social structure vastly different from that prevailing in Europe and necessitated adjustments i.e.: abandonment of certain of their more radical elements in favour of those that promoted greater social cohesion and co-operation.

Traditional Christian values take their origin in the Divine Family, and hold the family to be a value of absolute and sacred importance [the absolute foundation of the cosmos residing in the personalities, actions, and purposes of the Absolute Family of the Father, Son, and Spirit], supreme loyalty to the transcendent [one that embraces, validates, and wisely enhances all secondary loyalties to country, race, religion, or football team], primacy of the individual and the fostering of institutions that protect and serve the individual, and the exaltation of service – the consecration to the dual duty/privilege of perfection of the self and the enhancement of the world.

The revelation itself offers these words of comfort with regard to the present crisis, in that it points out that [99:2.1] …Only the real religion of personal spiritual experience can function helpfully and creatively in the present crisis of civilization.

It warns that [195:8.13] The complete secularization of science, education, industry, and society can lead only to disaster. During the first third of the twentieth century Urantians killed more human beings than were killed during the whole of the Christian dispensation up to that time. And this is only the beginning of the dire harvest of materialism and secularism; still more terrible destruction is yet to come. [Emphasis mine] Given recent developments, I think that we are beginning to sense to the true meaning of the ‘dire harvest’ to which the revelators were alluding. One would have thought the Second World War, the Holocaust, the proliferation of despotic godless Communist States, the Cold War and the nuclear brinkmanship to which it gave rise, would have been adequate evidence that the ‘dire harvest’ had come and gone but, given recent events, you would have been wrong. It would certainly seem that the ominous promise of ‘still more terrible destruction to come’ is yet to be fulfilled. A chilling prospect indeed.

All is not lost though. The teachings point to a way out: [195:10.21] The hope of modern Christianity is that it should cease to sponsor the social systems and industrial policies of Western civilization while it humbly bows itself before the cross it so valiantly extols, there to learn anew from Jesus of Nazareth the greatest truths mortal man can ever hear — the living gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

This is a huge challenge. The children of Christendom have become almost hopelessly addicted to luxury and these teachings suggest that salvation will only be found through abandoning “the social systems and industrial policies of Western civilization” and making the Cross, and the life of unflinching loving service to ones fellows which it glorifies, the very centre and horizon of our life. Overcoming great obstacles requires great sacrifice. If our very way of life is one that encourages our bondage and destruction then that way must be abandoned and new ways must be found in which we can thrive or else doom will crown our efforts.