The Urantia Book is a spiritual and philosophical text that originated in Chicago sometime between 1924 and 1955. The authorship of the book remains a matter of speculation, as it was published anonymously under the title “The Urantia Papers”.
The Urantia Book consists of 2,097 pages divided into four parts. It claims to “present enlarged concepts and advanced truth” regarding God, Jesus, spirituality, science, cosmology and the history and future of humankind. Among other topics, the book discusses the origins and meaning of life, the nature of God, and our place in the universe.
Some of the main ideas presented in The Urantia Book are:
– God – The book envisions an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator it calls the “Universal Father”. According to The Urantia Book, God resides at the center of the universe as a personality of “infinite spirit”.
– Jesus – The Urantia Book claims Jesus Christ lived on earth as a high spiritual being called a “Creator Son”. It states he incarnated as a human to reveal more fully the love of the Father and illuminate mankind about spiritual realities.
– Afterlife – The book describes an afterlife consisting of gradual progress through different spiritual realms depending on one’s growth and attainment. The highest realm is said to be the perfection of God’s creation, which all souls will eventually attain.
– Cosmology – The Urantia Book presents an elaborate cosmology of “local universes” within a “master universe”. Our universe is called Nebadon and said to contain 3.8 million inhabited worlds with intelligent life.
– Evolution – The book harmonizes science and religion, affirming biological evolution as the natural mode of mortal creature development according to divine design. It views the human races as a single species at various stages of evolutionary progress.
– History – Approximately one third of The Urantia Book recounts the history of our world from a celestial perspective. It divides history into three epochs: Material Son (Adam and Eve), Spiritual Son (Machiventa Melchizedek) and Planetary Prince (Caligastia).
– Society – The book promotes the gradual transformation of society through greater recognition of spiritual values, the brotherhood of man, and the familial nature of humankind under the fatherhood of God.
The origins of The Urantia Book remain unclear. The text and earliest drafts have similarities with writings that are known to have been authored by William S. Sadler, a Chicago psychiatrist. Sadler and a small group supposedly helped to assemble the papers under the guidance of superhuman beings.
The trustees of the Urantia Foundation, which originally published The Urantia Book, have consistently affirmed that it originated as an revelation imparted by celestial beings which was put in human language by means still unknown. Skeptics argue the book’s modern concepts and command of 20th century scientific and historical knowledge point to strictly human authorship.
The contents of The Urantia Book are said to be revelations provided by superhuman personalities, including:
– A Divine Counselor – an advisor from the realm of divinity concerned with our intellectual and spiritual growth.
– A Chief of Seraphim – an angel of the highest order concerned with fostering the religious experience of humans.
– A Brilliant Evening Star – an exalted spirit assigned to clarifying our ideas about the cosmos and the workings of the universe.
– A Mighty Messenger – a supernatural being focused on interpreting the spiritual meanings underlying our evolutionary progression.
– A Melchizedek who acts as the main revelator – an elevated spirit who serves as a teacher about the truths in The Urantia Book.
The manner of revelation behind The Urantia Book is presented as a long and complex process. These exalted beings supposedly communicated concepts that were captured in writing by a small contact commission organized by William Sadler. The papers then underwent revisions for clarification before being compiled and published as The Urantia Book.
The Urantia Book’s teachings about God center on an eternal Creator it calls the Universal Father. He is described as an infinite and eternal spirit personality who resides at the core of creation. All beings and all things are considered originating in him and sustained by his providence.
Some key points about God according to The Urantia Book:
– God is a personality who can be intimately known and experienced by all his creatures. He is our divine Father spirit.
– The Father exercises infinite and perfect power, knowledge, presence, love, truth and other attributes beyond human comprehension.
– God desires intimate spiritual relations with mortals, andconversion – the warming of the soul by the ministry of the Spirit – is the aim of human existence.
– The love of the heavenly Father, fully manifested in Christ, reveals the personality of God and provides the pattern for optimal living.
– God’s eternal nature exceeds the absoluteness of time and transcends the finality of space; he inhabits eternity.
– The Universal Father shares divinity and upholds creation by the power of his spirit, called the Thought Adjuster, bestowed upon intelligent beings.
– God’s boundless spirit is changeless, but also dynamically active and endless in opportunity for new relationships with creatures.
– The mandate of life is that creation should know the Father and become like him in character through the experience of finding God in free will decisions.
– God fully envelops his creatures with his spirit of divine love, providing for their material and spiritual needs both now and in the afterlife.
– The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man is the inevitably of mind growth in the Universe. God loves each person equally and unreservedly.
The Urantia Book presents Jesus Christ as a Creator Son of God named Michael who incarnated as a mortal to live on our world and illuminate the way to spiritual perfection. It provides one of the most extensive accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings found anywhere.
Some of the major views about Jesus presented in The Urantia Book:
– Jesus Christ is an eternal Divine Being called a Creator Son, the only one of his order to come to our planet.
– Christ enacted the final and supreme revelation of God’s love and righteousness by living as Joshua ben Joseph, a truth-seeker among mortals.
– Jesus experienced life as a human while simultaneously performing his Creator Son functions, revealing new depths of mercy and spiritual grandeur.
– The incarnation was undertaken by Christ as part of his service to the Father to enlighten worlds and draw all peoples towards greater spiritual meanings.
– Jesus lived through infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood much as humans do, but without sin and error. His development exemplified the stages of moral ascent and spiritual growth.
– During his ministry, Jesus taught universal spiritual truths, demonstrated intense devotion to God’s will, healed the afflicted, and inspired people with his compassion.
– Christ vigorously trained his apostles to carry on the work of advancing faith and spirituality after his death, demonstrating unfailing patience and supreme wisdom.
– Jesus’ cruel death on the cross served to magnify his selfless nature and the redemptive power of sincerely seeking and finding God.
– After his resurrection, Christ worked mightily to spiritually equip and inspire his followers before ascending again to the right hand of the Father.
– The religion Jesus lived is loving service animated by God’s presence within the human mind and heart, untainted by fear, ritual or legalism.
The Urantia Book delves extensively into the topic of the afterlife. It views material life as a short phase of a soul’s eternal career of spiritual progression. Death is seen as simply the next phase of an endless life in the adventure of finding God.
Some of the major concepts about the afterlife presented in the Urantia text:
– Upon mortal death, the soul is instantly repersonalized in a new non-material body and transported to the resurrection halls of the local universe.
– The survival of individual human personality and identity into the afterlife is inherent in the origin and nature of personality bestowed by God.
– Post-mortal existence continues the soul’s spiritual journey towards increasingly fuller divine embrace as it ascends through numerous transitional culture worlds and spiritual spheres.
– Progress in eternity is quantified by greaterexperiential realization of love, truth, beauty and goodness derived from an evolving knowledge of God and his universe.
– Ascending souls gradually attain new intellectual heights, expand in ethical sensibility and increase in spirit perception as they traverse the inner cosmos.
– Personality survives because it originates with the Universal Father, is validated by creature decisions, and is immortalized by the spirit presence of God within the mind.
– Eternal destiny awaits all ascending mortals beyond this life, guided by the mercy and ministry of patient teachers towards ever-expanding service.
– Hell is not a place or destination, but rather the future life experience consequence for beings who rejected spiritual truth and the way of love during mortal life.
– The journey culminates for mortals in the unimaginable glories of Paradise – the perfect central universe and abode of the Father – as we attain experiential oneness with God.
The Urantia Book presents an elaborate cosmology centering on the idea of “local universes” – of which there are 700,000 in the “master universe” inhabited by the Universal Father. Our universe is named Nebadon and has 3.8 million inhabited planets.
Some key cosmological concepts include:
– Physical space potentiates spirit activity by providing a finite arena for creature growth and spiritual evolution.
– The cosmos fosters increasing mastery over relative reality as personalities ascend to grasp and participate in absolute reality.
– The master universe consists of gravitationally-organized local universes revolving around Paradise, the stationary and eternal central universe.
– Local universes are enormous creations with hundreds of thousands of inhabited worlds overseen by Creator Sons originating in Paradise.
– Nebadon, our local universe, has its capital on Salvington and is governed by Christ Michael, a Paradise Creator Son.
– Nebadon has around 10 million inhabited planets and 3.8 million that harbor advanced planetary civilizations, including Urantia (Earth).
– The architectural spheres ofspirit valuesand divine meaningsat the center of all universes provide the eternal anchor points for the finite cosmos.
– All known worlds and personalities participate in systematic circuits of spiritual ministry, worship, and educational exchange across the cosmos.
– All of material creation is infused with and responsive to mind, spirit and personality influences that connect the universe of universes into one functional whole.
The Urantia Book affirms biological evolution as the mechanism through which material life develops on the inhabited worlds of time and space. Human races are presented as a single species at various stages of evolutionary development.
Some of the key concepts about evolution include:
– Planets are living laboratories for cultivating higher mortal species through the evolutionary mechanisms built into cosmic creation.
– Intelligent life is painstakingly evolved and endowed with greater attributes by Divine Counselors over millions of years.
– Early humans were selectively supervised in their mating and migration, accelerating genetic improvements in the species.
– The human type attains its highest biologic expression during the sixth race in the post-Adamic era, with continued spiritual evolution thereafter.
– Mind functioning distinguishes humans from animals and allows for ever higher levels of rational thought, choices, creativity, morality and spiritual receptivity.
– Evolution fosters increasing brain power, intellectual expansion, growth of personality, and enlarged capacity to experience and comprehend cosmic citizenship.
– Racial differences are superficial and meaningless compared to mental, moral, and spiritual status — the higher values of self-mastery and God-consciousness.
– Humankind is a unified species derived from the same ancestors; all humans have equal spiritual status before the heavenly Father.
– Human mortals live on 619 different inhabited worlds in Nebadon alone, representing the ascendant destiny possible for all races and peoples through evolutionary progress.
The Urantia Book recounts a detailed history of our world from remote ages into the distant future. It views human history spiritually with an emphasis on divine providence and spiritual meanings.
Some highlights of its historical narrative include:
– Human origins began about one million years ago with the arrival of superior descendants of the colored Sangik races of the north.
– Adam and Eve came about 38,000 years ago as biologic uplifters of the native evolutionary human stock, establishing the violet race.
– The Planetary PrinceCaligastiacame about 500,000 years ago to foster civilization and install governments on Urantia (Earth).
– A Material Son and Daughter (Adam and Eve) inaugurated the second dispensation over 30,000 years ago, advancing civilization and religion.
– Machiventa Melchizedek ministered spiritually and educationally about 4,000 years ago, uplifting Abraham’s clan with advanced truth.
– Jesus Christ arrived 2,000 years ago as the culmination of divine efforts to spiritually illuminate Urantia through bestowal of Michael’s incarnated life.
– The future will see magnificent spiritual progress, stabilization of planetary civilization, and Light and Life—a golden age reflecting humankind’s readiness.
– Our world’s ideal destiny is to become an advanced sphere of art, science, technology, ethics, government, culture and religion.
– Urantia’s future ages harbour potential for unimaginable growth upon the mortal level, on the way to transcending human limitations.
The Urantia Book promotes the gradual spiritual transformation of society through the expansion of values such as unselfish service, universal brotherhood, courageous truth, beauty, goodness, and the realization of man’s intimate relationship with God.
Some of its social ideals include:
– Society should increasingly reflect the spiritual realities of divine kinship among people and man’s origin in divine purpose.
– True civilization arises from increased love, ethical culture, altruism, dignity, and spiritual striving.
– Human progress emerges from applying spiritual insights, uplifting cultural movements, educational development, scientific advances, and ethical reforms.
– Religion will expand into a dynamic experience of God’s transforming spirit in human hearts, moving beyond authoritarian institutions.
– Improving civilization requires augmenting internal spiritual guidance of the individual, not increasing external controls.
– Family life provides the ideal setting for fostering spirituality, high ideals, ethical culture, and altruistic service.
– Government should uphold liberty, expression, security and justice to allow humans to grow in moral dignity as children of God.
– Materialism, militarism, and economic conflict retard society’s advancement, while beauty, philosophy, education and religion facilitate progress.
– Human brotherhood, forgiveness, peace, and the supreme worth of the individual can uplift civilization.
In summary, The Urantia Book offers a unique body of spiritual teachings aimed at enlarging human perspectives and accelerating human spiritual growth. It celebrates the loving and purposeful universe overseen by our eternal Father. The life and teachings of Jesus provide the pattern for happiness through seeking God and serving fellows. All people share an eternal destiny of sublime spiritual adventure as we progress from the mortal life to climb the supernal heights.
