What does The Urantia Book instruct concerning the dissemination of its teachings?
We may note that The Urantia Book does not come up with any explicit instructions concerning the dissemination of the Revelation. We can of course study the methods employed in the dissemination of the four earlier revelations and then endeavor to apply the same methods in the dissemination of the fifth epochal revelation.
The first revelation, the Dalamatia teachings, was propagated through a method which involved inviting individuals from various tribes and peoples to Dalamatia where they received education and were then sent back to their tribes as emissaries of a new and better life.
As concerns the second epochal revelation, the Edenic teachings, the method of dissemination was partly identical with that of the first revelation, but there was also the new feature of Adam and Eve organizing about one hundred centers of culture and progress in various parts of the world. After the death of Adam and Eve the teachings were, during thousands of years, disseminated by a priesthood trained by Seth, the eldest surviving son born in the second garden. Seth’s grandson, Kenan, instituted a missionary service which spread the new teachings among the surrounding tribes, near and far [p.849:7]. The impact of the teachings of the Sethite priesthood began to wane only around 2500 BC .
The first disseminator of the third epochal revelation, Machiventa Melchizedek’s teachings, in the 19th century BC, was Abraham to the end of his life, where upon the Salem missionaries took over and went on spreading the good news for hundreds of years.The dissemination of the 6th century BC “mini revelation” happened through prophets and the founders of the new religions of that epoch.
The disseminators of the fourth epochal revelation included the apostles, other disciples, the group of 70 teachers, the woman evangelists and the other Jesus-trained followers and religionists in several corners of the Roman Empire. Long after Jesus’ earthly death his teachings were committed also into writing. A particular role in the spread of this revelation fell upon the Pharisee Saul after he had, because of an unexplained experience become Paul, the champion of his understanding of Jesus’ teachings. Mainly through the efforts of Paul and to a lesser extent because of the activities of the apostles, and due to an unwitting distortion of Jesus’ teachings, Christianity and the Christian church gradually evolved.
We may, however, question the helpfulness of the methods employed in the propagation of the previous revelations as concerns the dissemination of the fifth epochal revelation. The fifth revelation was delivered to us as a book, and the depth of its teachings can hardly be forced into the patterns observed in the dissemination of the previous revelations. Not many of us can and will hit the road and start proclaiming the good tidings on street corners and market places. Even so, the teachings of the book do give a multifaceted portrayal of the ways a religious revelation wins the hearts of men: It is spread by all those who believe in the revelation, and the believers do it through their own lives, in their relationships with their fellow men, in their contacts with other humans. Dissemination happens in believers’ deeds, behavior, speaking, and teaching.
What Is the Message to Be Disseminated?
An exhaustive reply to this question would require a factual presentation of all the teachings included in The Urantia Book. That is: I should read The Urantia Book to you within an hour, or come up with an exhaustive summary of its teachings. I shall not do so.
Each disseminator of the message will create his personal conception of what the message is that he endeavors to spread. It may, for example, be the gospel of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. The message may be God’s love and our doing his will. The will of the Father is that each of us becomes perfect even as he is perfect, and God has reserved for man an eternal career so to enable him to achieve the goal of perfection.
Man only needs to give his free-will consent to doing God’s will. Of Jesus we are told that the burden of his message was: the fact of the heavenly Father’s love and the truth of his mercy, coupled with the good news that man is a faith-son of this same God of love [p.1460:6].
Said Jesus: “Simply go forth proclaiming: This is the kingdom of heaven — God is your Father and you are his sons, and this good news, if you wholeheartedly believe it, is your eternal salvation” … “When you enter the kingdom, you are reborn. You cannot teach the deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh; first see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple. Introduce men to God and as the sons of God before you discourse on the doctrines of the fatherhood of God and the sonship of men.” [p.1592:6]
The truths above might do well as the message of even the modern disseminators. In the teachings of The Urantia Book there is much that is of general religiosity and which the book holds in common with the doctrines of institutionalized religions. Secularism and the predominant material-mindedness, materialistic philosophy, and the unlimited confidence in the unaided mere human ways of solving the world’s problems, are facts which speak for — even call for — our propagating the message of general religiosity. A reader of The Urantia Book may, however, induce into the spreading of even this message of general religiosity details and features which no institutionalized religion is capable of providing. One the nature of genuine, true religion. The teaching of The Urantia Book is that true religion is personal, it concerns man’s personal relationship with God; true religion does not signify that one adopts certain doctrinal tenets, lives in accordance with some preconceived rules of morality, nor does it signify observance of some given rituals. Personal, genuine and true, religion becomes manifest in man’s life. It will appear as fruits of the spirit. It will make such an religionist spiritually fragrant and attractive.
Jesus taught: “Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired. The measure where with truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth-co-ordinated life.” [p.1726:2]
The Revelation intimates that your religiosity is bound to be manifest and recognizable. We may, hence, conclude that you need not assert it or advertise it to others. If you feel a need to advertise, it is warranted to doubt if genuine faith truly exists. The quotations hereafter verify this statement: Observing minds and discriminating souls know religion when they find it in the lives of their fellows. Religion requires no definition;we all know its social, intellectual, moral, and spiritual fruits… One of the characteristic peculiarities of genuine religious assurance is that,notwithstanding the absoluteness of its affirmations and the staunchness of its attitude, the spirit of its expression is so poised and tempered that it never conveys the slightest impression of self-assertion or egoistic exaltation… Thus do the words and acts of true and undefiled religion become compellingly authoritative for all enlightened mortals [p.1119:6—7].
Ostensible religiosity, which actually consists of a mere superficial — not internalized — mastery of certain dogmas and moral codes, and of critical attitudes towards one’s own life, but particularly towards the lives of others, in the light of these dogmas and codes, ends up in fanaticism, intolerance and intolerableness, betrayal of intellectual honesty, isolation and lessened efficiency as a propagator of the saving message.
The precondition for anyone’s capability of disseminating the message through one’s spiritual fruits is of course that one has the faith which yields these fruits of the spirit. In the absence of the faith, the only method of propagating the message is that of preaching. The fifth epochal revelation explains in so many ways what the manifestations of faith and genuine religion, the fruits of the spirit, are. The exhaustive list appearing in paragraphs p.1108:4—16 of The Urantia Book is not quoted too often in discourses dealing with the ways that religion and spirituality manifest themselves in an individual. These manifestations include:
- Genuine religion causes ethics and morals to progress.
- Religion produces a sublime trust in the goodness of God even in the face of bitter disappointment and crushing defeat.
- True spirituality generates profound courage and confidence.
- Genuine religion exhibits inexplicable poise and sustaining tranquility.
- Religion maintains poise and composure of personality in the face of maltreatment and the rankest injustice.
- Religion maintains a trust in ultimate victory.
- True faith does not falter in the face of intellectual sophistries; it rather has a unswerving belief in God.
- True religiosity has faith in the survival of the soul regardless of the contrary allegations of science and philosophy.
- Faith does not collapse under the overload of civilizations.
- Genuine faith contributes to the survival of altruism in spite of human selfishness, antagonisms, and greediness.
- Spirituality believes in universe unity and in divine guidance regardless of the presence of evil and sin.
- Goes right on worshiping God in spite of anything and everything. Dares to declare, “Even though he slay me, yet will I serve him.” [p.1108:16]
As concerns religion, the Revelation instructs that its intellectual earmark is certainty, its philosophical characteristic is consistency, and its social fruits are love and service [p.1126:5].
The morontia Jesus imparted these teachings at Tyre in AD 30: “those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures. And the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace. If professed believers bear not these fruits of the divine spirit in their lives, they are dead” [p.2054:3].
Dissemination of the Message
Advocacy of religiosity does not require any mastery of The Urantia Book, neither needs one refer to its teachings nor necessarily possess any revelatory knowledge at all; yet a mastery of Urantia Book teachings, reference to them, and a possession of revelatory knowledge make all advocacy of religiosity easier and provide a solid foundation for it. When one is engaged in the advocacy of religion it is crucial to recall the revelatory piece of knowledge which reiterates that religion concerns itself only with values [p.1110:5; 1130:3]. It is much easier for men to agree on religious values — goals — than on beliefs — interpretations [p.1130:3]. Facts are the domain of science, not of religion. The importance and meaning of experience as well as the evolutionary nature of our existence are likewise aspects that are helpful to recall and put forward in any propagation of the message once it is done on a revelatory basis. A third factor which will prove helpful in the advocacy of religiosity, if it is done on a revelatory foundation, is the information about the life after death, eternal life, and about the purpose of earthly life; all of that information is available only in the Revelation. No institutional religion can give a satisfactory answer to these questions.
The Urantia Book teaches that man enjoys free will. Hence, no one can be forced to become religious. Many divine influences endeavor to help man’s free-will choosing and his thinking on the arena of the mind; these influences include the Thought Adjusters, the Spirit of Truth, and the adjutant mind-spirits. What the disseminators of a religious message can only do is to help a fellow man take the crucial step and accept the idea that he is a son of God and that other people are his brothers. No disseminator of this message can make such a choice, such an effort of will,on behalf of another person.
Since The Urantia Book presents in its Foreword and Parts I–III the fifth epochal revelation and in Part IV a restatement of the fourth epochal revelation, it means that its teachings are to a high degree revelatory in nature; they include new pieces of information, unknown to mankind,things that mankind on its own and through the evolutionary means could never have found out. The teachings of The Urantia Book thus are fraught with enormous potentials. Through the application of these teachings to one’s daily living and human relationships it is possible to rectify many errors. With the help of these teachings it is possible to rectify controversies and absurdities in the doctrines of institutionalized religions. These irrationalities and controversies have, for many truth seekers, thinkers, and sensible people, become an effective obstacle blocking their advancing in the personal religious growth.
Apart from the revelatory teachings’ providing means for a rectification of absurdities in the tenets of institutional religions they can be employed also to rectify inaccuracies, false notions, and absurdities in science and philosophy. Since the revelatory teachings are truthful, they can be exploited as a priori knowledge, which means that it is wise to try to achieve the same knowledge also through the traditional scientific research methods and through the traditional methods of philosophic thinking. Philosophy is predicated on certain postulates which are tested in one’s thinking of reality and making observations as to the workability of the postulates in this reality. Science is founded on a great number of observations and results obtained through experiments, which need to be so explained as to yield a consistent view which is in harmony with the laws of mathematics and logic. Revelation is conducive to widened horizons, it opens new vistas even in the field of logic, it comes up with knowledge that no mere scientific observations and methods of deduction can ever discover.
The revelations included in The Urantia Book are truly exceptional even from the universe viewpoint. The book contains a great deal of revealed truth which on inhabited planets of more conventional development will be revealed only after several dispensations. We Urantians are told even about Paradise and Havona; on other planets this revelation is made only in the post-Teacher Son epoch. Yet these revelations were given to a mankind that is a full dispensation and more behind the average planetary schedule [p.593:5]. Why are we Urantians told about these things early like this?
The teachings of the Revelation can in a decisive way help us to understand and to correctly interpret evolutionary reality. They can prove extremely helpful in man’s analysis of the evolution of mankind so to find out what this is all about and where we are going. The teachings of the Revelation must be exploited as a priori knowledge and be wisely applied to all human activities, social life, politics, business, marriage, pair relationships, education, culture and so on, as the foundation for ethical and moral decisions, as the determiner of the direction where to go.They must be so applied and so related to reality as to make them a part and parcel of evolution. In practical terms this means that the teachings can hardly ever be applied maximally and in a pure fashion; one has to be content with something less, provided the tendency and direction are correct. A few examples will perhaps shed light on what I mean. The Revelation instructs that mankind should strive towards a situation where only one united world government wields power, where only one institutional religion prevails and only one language is spoken. This a priori piece of knowledge is helpful for anyone who has to determine where he stands with regard to, let us say, the unification of Europe, the defense of national self-determination, small nations’ struggle for independence, measures “in rescue” of dying languages, language training, and ecumenicalism — co-operation between institutionalized religions. It is good to note that this sort of stand-taking, too, constitutes “dissemination of the message.”Evolution does not signify straight-forward advance towards a given goal. Not at all.
Evolution is slow, but it is terribly effective [p.900:5;957:2], and it consists of many back-steps and sidesteps, and then again speedy progress.
Another example. The Revelation instructs that men are born unequal in capabilities and propensities, that there are considerable differences between the races, that there are even greater difference within the races.
The Revelation is unequivocal where it declares that some people and groups of people are decadent and that their procreation should be restricted. Freeing mankind of these elements must be the objective. All of that runs counter to what is generally believed. We may propagate the message also in our refusing to act upon illusory beliefs, in our daring to go against the mainstream, putting our trust in the a priori revelatory knowledge and acting upon it.
A third example. The Revelation instructs that evolution has a direction, and that the direction is upwards and forwards, ultimately towards something better. This teaching, too, runs counter to what is generally believed. There are even those who deny and refute developmental together. The objective of their activities is that of pushing mankind back to a more primitive existence. This kind of pessimistic vision is fashionable, and in public discussion it enjoys a dominant, if not an exclusive, role.
Consequently, we may disseminate the message also in our refusing to act upon these illusory notions and denying our support to them. We should rather be emboldened to go against the mainstream, putting our trust in the revelatory knowledge and acting upon it.
A fourth example. The Revelation has it that democracy is the most advanced form of government, yet concurrently it warns us about the weaknesses and right away dangers of democracy. Democracy has become a phenomenon which is so sacrosanct, so much a taboo, that it is not politically correct to submit it to a reasoned analysis. The dangers imbedded in democracy include among others: glorification of mediocrity,choice of base and ignorant power brokers, ignorance of the basic facts of social evolution, universal suffrage in the hands of uneducated and indolent majorities, slavery to public opinion, which has become a factor not many dare to challenge, etc. The Revelation underlines the responsibility of the individual, the significance of the individual, and the importance of individual choices. It exhorts us to question, to analyze, and if needed, to align ourselves against public opinion and that which is viewed as “politically correct.” The Revelation instructs: Well-organized and superior minorities have largely ruled this world [p.908:3].
Propagation of the message, thus, includes also a well-reasoned attitude towards democracy, the courage, if need be, to point out its weaknesses and the dangers that are an inherent part of it. A disseminator of truth should not be afraid of being in the minority.
Fifth example. The overdone adoration of democracy has also obscured the importance of leadership. True leadership is vitally important,but unfortunately only less than one per cent of world population are capable of true leadership.
Leadership is vital to progress. Wisdom, insight, and foresight are indispensable to the endurance of nations. Civilization is never really jeopardized until able leadership begins to vanish. And the quantity of such wise leadership has never exceeded one per cent of the population [p.911:7].
Another revelatory teaching proclaims: Most great religious epochs have been inaugurated by the life and teachings of some outstanding personality; leadership has originated a majority of the worth-while moral movements of history. And men have always tended to venerate the leader, even at the expense of his teachings; to revere his personality, even though losing sight of the truths which he proclaimed. And this is not without reason; there is an instinctive longing in the heart of evolutionary man for help from above and beyond. This craving is designed to anticipate the appearance on earth of the Planetary Prince and the later Material Sons [p.1008:7].
It is politically correct to question the importance of leadership because leadership is — incorrectly — viewed as something antagonistic to democracy.
The Revelation, however, instructs us in the words of Jesus: “In my universe and in my Father’s universe of universes, our brethren-sons are dealt with as individuals in all their spiritual relations, but in all group relationships we unfailingly provide for definite leadership. Our kingdom is a realm of order, and where two or more will creatures act in co-operation, there is always provided the authority of leadership.” [p.1959:0]
Consequently, we may disseminate the message also in our refusing to act upon these illusory notions about democracy and denying our support to them. We should rather be emboldened to go against the mainstream putting our trust in the revelatory knowledge and acting upon it.The scope of the efficacy of the propagation of the message depends on the propagating individual’s spirituality, faith, and capabilities of being convincing, yet to an equal extent it depends on the attitude of the target of the propagation effort.
Some people are conformists: they willingly subjugate themselves under the dominance of tradition and authority. A great part of even those who view themselves as religious belong to this order of people. Likewise, a great part of those who do not view themselves as religious belong to this same category. They are slavishly obedient to traditions, they hardly question anything.Some people again are happy with modest achievements, which are only just adequate to make everyday life balanced. At an early stage they stop pondering the deep issues of life and fail to progress beyond this level of modest achievements. Their relationship with God is almost dead.They believe that matters take care of themselves — struggle and effort are not needed. The number of those who fit into this characterization is high.
Then again there are those who do think and ponder and advance up to the level of logical intellectualism. They do not, however, progress any further because they dare not take the step of faith, the stride of belief. They are prisoners of their cultural setting and their social network.The door of the cell is open, but they dare not walk away. Those who are engaged in the domains of science and culture are well represented within this category.
Within these three categories faith is not excessively vibrant. They have a tendency to be fanatical, to persecute dissenters, and to be intolerant. Living faith does not foster bigotry, persecution, or intolerance [p.1115:0].
Finally, the fourth category consists in those who have liberated themselves of all obstacles put by conventionalism and traditionalism and who have mustered the courage to think, act, and live honestly, loyally, fearlessly, and truthfully [p.1114:2]. Those who belong to this group do not concern themselves so much with any specific beliefs or given modes of living as they concern themselves with discerning the truth of living, the good and right technique of reacting to the ever-recurring situations of human existence [p.1115:6].
The Revelation presents also another, slightly different, categorization which classifies professed believers. In this categorization believers are classified either as indolent conformists or escapists and romantic sentimentalists, finally as activists [p.1120:4— 1121:2].
Indolent conformists: There is no real religion apart from a highly active personality. Therefore the more indolent of men often seek to escape the rigors of truly religious activities by a species of ingenious self-deception through resorting to a retreat to the false shelter of stereotyped religious doctrines and dogmas … Intellectual crystallization of religious concepts is the equivalent of spiritual death [p.1120:4].
Escapists and romantic sentimentalists: Again, there are other types of unstable and poorly disciplined souls who would use the sentimental ideas of religion as an avenue of escape from the irritating demands of living.
When certain vacillating and timid mortals attempt to escape from the incessant pressure of evolutionary life, religion, as they conceive it,seems to present the nearest refuge, the best avenue of escape. But it is the mission of religion to prepare man for bravely, even heroically, facing the vicissitudes of life… Mysticism, however, is often something of a retreat from life which is embraced by those humans who do not relish the more robust activities of living a religious life in the open arenas of human society and commerce. True religion must act… Never will religion be content with mere thinking or unacting feeling [p.1121:1].
Activists: But true religion is alive… To keep pace in his life experience with the impelling demands and the compelling urges of a growing religious experience means incessant activity in spiritual growth, intellectual expansion, factual enlargement, and social service [p.1120:4].
For a disseminator who approaches people with a revelatory message the situation is not hopeless with regard to any of the classifications above. As targets those of the first three groups are of course more difficult than the others, but the Revelation does contain potentials which, if applied wisely, will penetrate even the most petrified heart. There is one exception: the situation is hopeless with regard to those who are spiritually dead. The fifth epochal revelation instructs:Intellectual crystallization of religious concepts is the equivalent of spiritual death [p.1120:4].
Circumstances which facilitate propagation
There are, apart from the superhuman influences mentioned above, also a number of features and capacities in man himself which help him in truth recognition and message acceptance.
The endowment of reality sensitivity. The Revelation unveils that man is endowed with a power to recognize reality, a truthful portraiture of that which exists: All divisions of human thought are predicated on certain assumptions which are accepted, though unproved, by the constitutive reality sensitivity of the mind endowment of man. [p.1139:3]
The desire to know. The Revelation intimates that human curiosity is purposeful: Curiosity — the spirit of investigation, the urge of discovery, the drive of exploration — is a part of the inborn and divine endowment of evolutionary space creatures. These natural impulses were not given you merely to be frustrated and repressed [p.160:1].
Perfection hunger. There is in man a hunger for perfection, and that fact of course has its bearing on the dissemination of the message: There must be perfection hunger in man’s heart to insure capacity of comprehending the faith paths to supreme attainment [p.1118:4].
The craving for survival. Man has an inborn desire for survival, and that again constitutes the fundamental of faith: The highest evidence of the reality and efficacy of religion consists in the fact of human experience; namely, that man, naturally fearful and suspicious, innately endowed with a strong instinct of self-preservation and craving survival after death, is willing fully to trust the deepest interests of his present and future to the keeping and direction of that power and person designated by his faith as God. That is the one central truth of all religion [p.1127:5].
Religious tendencies are innate. Religious tendencies need not be created in any human being for it is an innate inclination: The religious tendencies of the human races are innate; they are universally manifested and have an apparently natural origin [p.1129:2].
Because religion is about spirituality, about one’s personal relationship with God, there is no language which on the level of the mind could adequately discuss this value. This is an aspect to recall when one is engaged in the propagation of the message. The fifth epochal revelation describes this paradox in these words: Religious speculation is inevitable but always detrimental; speculation invariably falsifies its object. Speculation tends to translate religion into something material or humanistic, and thus, while directly interfering with the clarity of logical thought, it indirectly causes religion to appear as a function of the temporal world, the very world with which it should everlastingly stand in contrast. Therefore will religion always be characterized by paradoxes, the paradoxes resulting from the absence of the experiential connection between the material and the spiritual levels of the universe — morontia mota, the super-philosophic sensitivity for truth discernment and unity perception [p.1121:4].
The Message is a Revelation!
The message to disseminate is a revelation, the fifth epochal revelation and the restatement of the fourth epochal revelation, printed in a book, The Urantia Book. It is therefore worthwhile to study in what manner the Revelation characterizes itself.
… revelation (the substitute for morontia mota) leads to the consciousness of true reality… [p.1122:1].
… revelation liberates men and starts them out on the eternal adventure [p.1122:2].
… revelation glorifies man and discloses his capacity for partnership with God [p.1122:3].
… revelation portrays the eternal brotherhood, the Paradise Corps of the Finality [p.1122:4].
… revelation is the assurance of personality survival [p.1122:5].
Science indicates Deity as a fact; philosophy presents the idea of an Absolute; religion envisions God as a loving spiritual personality. Revelation affirms the unity of the fact of Deity, the idea of the Absolute, and the spiritual personality of God and, further, presents this concept as our Father — the universal fact of existence, the eternal idea of mind, and the infinite spirit of life [p.1122:7]
… revelation tends to make man Godlike. [p.1122:10]
Revelation unifies history, co-ordinates geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, and psychology. [p.1123:6]
How does one propagate it?
Jesus instructed his apostles in many ways. As concerns the dissemination of his message he said i.a. “When you enter the kingdom, you are reborn. You cannot teach the deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh;first see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple. Introduce men to God and as the sons of God before you discourse on the doctrines of the fatherhood of God and the sonship of men.” [p.1592:6]
“Do not strive with men—always be patient. It is not your kingdom; you are only ambassadors.” [p.1593:0]
“… how many times have I instructed you to refrain from all efforts to take something out of the hearts of those who seek salvation? How often have I told you to labor only to put something into these hungry souls? Lead men into the kingdom, and the great and living truths of the kingdom will presently drive out all serious error. When you have presented to mortal man the good news that God is his Father, you can the easier persuade him that he is in reality a son of God. And having done that, you have brought the light of salvation to the one who sits in darkness. Simon, when the Son of Man came first to you, did he come denouncing Moses and the prophets and proclaiming a new and better way of life? No. I came not to take away that which you had from your forefathers but to show you the perfected vision of that which your fathers saw only in part.” [p.1592:4]
About Jesus’ teaching methods we are told at least these aspects:
And this was his method of instruction: Never once did he attack their errors or even mention the flaws in their teachings. In each case he would select the truth in what they taught and then proceed so to embellish and illuminate this truth in their minds that in a very short time this enhancement of the truth effectively crowded out the associated error. [p.1456:0]
In all his teaching Jesus unfailingly avoided distracting details. He shunned flowery language and avoided the mere poetic imagery of a play upon words. He habitually put large meanings into small expressions. For purposes of illustration Jesus reversed the current meanings of many terms, such as salt, leaven, fishing, and little children. He most effectively employed the antithesis, comparing the minute to the infinite and soon.
His pictures were striking, such as, “The blind leading the blind.” But the greatest strength to be found in his illustrative teaching was its naturalness. Jesus brought the philosophy of religion from heaven down to earth. He portrayed the elemental needs of the soul with a new insight and a new bestowal of affection. [p.1771:1]
The modern disseminator of the message will most certainly act in a wise manner if he endeavors to be faithful to Jesus’ teaching method,a method which in many ways is greatly different from the ways of human teaching.
In Conclusion
Once the lives of individuals undergo profound changes, it will unavoidably bring about profound changes also in their actions. Today it is still difficult to discern changes which would be occasioned by any conscious efforts for world betterment founded on the teachings of The Urantia Book.
We must not worry about this much less feel guilty because of it, for the revelators themselves intimated that the Revelation was delivered to us long before its world-wide impact. Everything, after all, depends on evolution. And evolution is slow but terribly effective.