President’s Message – December 2024

From , , By Enrique Traver, Brazil on

It is curious to see how we define our goals, values and destinies.

In any religion it is very easy to allow values to become disproportionate and to permit facts to occupy the place of truth in one’s theology. 143:6.3

Often our mortal vision is focused on immediacy. At this moment or, at most, for the period we estimate, we will live in the flesh, even without knowing when the “D” day will be.

Many times, we strive to prolong our earthly life, which is very good, but the fact is that none of us would be able to add a single day of life to our fleshly existence. Of course, good eating habits, exercise, and so forth, can make it even easier for us to live a few more years of life with better quality if we make an effort. But it is also a fact that none of us can in any way add a single day of life to our own carnal experience when the moment of death comes. When life exhales from our bodies, everything will be finished, as seen from the angle of this immediate vision.

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International Service Board Election Results

From , , By Joanne Strobel, USA on

The International Representative Council held elections on Saturday, December 14, to fill open seats on the International Service Board (ISB) and Judicial Commission. The new terms will commence on April 1, 2025, following a three-month period of training. The election for president was postponed due to the unexpected decision by our current president, Enrique Traver, to not continue for a second term. This results of this election will be announced in the next issue of Tidings.

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Sharing to Learn; Learning to Share

From , , By Joanne Strobel, USA on

Like many of you who work on behalf of the revelation, I wear several hats. My day job is working remotely for Urantia Foundation, where among other things I have the privilege of serving as executive director of Urantia Book International School (UBIS). During my spare time I am the board secretary of Urantia Association International. Over the last four years, I have observed how many local leaders are serving in multiple organizations. This should come as no surprise since a love of the revelation and a desire to serve in leadership roles often go hand in hand.

UBIS has grown exponentially over the past 25 years. From its origin as a correspondence school for English-speaking readers, the program has expanded to seven languages, offering courses in Spanish, French. Portuguese, Hungarian, German, and Polish. In January we will introduce a prototype course in Chinese. And by next September, we hope to offer courses in Indonesian and Finnish.

UBIS trains motivated readers like you and me to become teacher-facilitators (TFs). We adhere strictly to a non-interpretive teaching philosophy, and acknowledge the revelators as the true teachers. Our TFs simply facilitate the process of self-discovery of revealed truth. The school’s pedagogy is based on the Jesusonian method of questions and answers, making each student a dynamic participant. Intermittent discussion weeks are full of personal sharing and robust dialog among students from diverse cultures and backgrounds.

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4th Urantia Association European Conference

By AFLLU, France on

June 6-9, 2025 In Paris!

Organized by AFLLU, the French readers’ association of The Urantia Book

Divine Distributivity, Man as Heir of God

It’s good to tell people, “You’re great, you’re unique; the world and the Universe need you!” But can we really explain why? Through four presentations, followed by workshops, we invite you to explore the answers offered by The Urantia Book.

Man is great because he is God’s heir. But what exactly does he inherit? Can his human life be more beautiful if he knows more about his divine heritage?

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Dancing With God Retreat

From , , By Cheryl Glicker, USA on

Ten women, three of them facilitators, gathered last month for the first Dancing with God Retreat held at Urantia Foundation headquarters since 2019.  It was my very great privilege to be among them.  For me, it was like a homecoming.  I had attended two such retreats previously and benefited from them in so many ways.  These Retreats, facilitated by The Daughters of God, longtime Urantia Book students and leaders, Line St-Pierre, Katharina Becker, Doreen Heyne, and (previously) Carrie Prentice, have been the source of much spiritual, intellectual, and personal growth not only for me, but for many other women who have sought strength, renewal, growth, and the determination to continue their commitment to living God’s Will and enhancing the status of their sisters all over the world. [At a Dancing With God Retreat, the Daughters of God do not lead, rather they serve as guides, facilitators, for the rest of the participants to help them explore the unique ways in which they all “dance with God”.]

We introduced ourselves as we gathered over refreshments in the dining room at 533 that first evening, each of us telling where we had come from, chatting amiably, finding similarities here and there, or catching up with old friends we had not seen for some time.  Then, over the first of three absolutely delicious dinners perfectly prepared and artistically served by our two wonderful volunteer cooks, we continued our “getting to know you” conversations and shared our experiences with The Urantia Book.

It is a life changing experience and a priceless privilege to be able to lay aside daily obligations and step out of our routines, to come to this historic place and spend time in quiet contemplation with spiritual sisters from all over the globe, to share and to laugh, to encourage and uplift, to meditate and pray, and to come to a greater understanding of our worth and our opportunities!

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The Urantia Book in Nigeria

From , , By Alicejane Uwaoma, Nigeria and Ade Awoyinka, England on

I was invited to Chicago in April 2019, along with other readers from other countries, to talk about the opportunities of spreading The Urantia Book in countries worldwide. I spoke about the possibilities in Nigeria, based on my limited experience of living there.

My starting point is that Nigeria is a country of great spiritual potential but is experiencing those common problems and social dislocations of a nascent democracy and emerging economy. Whilst this can make everyday life unpredictable, its unpredictability creates a fertile ground for an improved and more enlightened spiritual awakening because of the on-going struggle to resolve the problems of basic existence. The everyday living in Africa, taken for granted in more settled societies and mature economies, is precarious. Therefore, people are more spiritually attuned and are less at risk of the self-satisfied skepticism of those whose basic needs have been met.  We do not know how long this window will remain open. The increasing risk is that people become overwhelmed and respond through social unrest, making it difficult to work.

It is not secularism that is the obstacle to sharing The Urantia Book in Nigeria and more widely in Africa. The biggest barrier to spreading the word in Nigeria is the entrenched authority of organized religion. The Bible is the word and has the last word.  So where does The Urantia Book fit in?  How do you disseminate a revelation that will be judged against the authority of the Bible and other religious texts?  In my limited sharing of the book with Nigerians, I am asked—does it align with the Bible?

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Focus on the Father – The Divine Leadership Team

From , , By James Woodward, USA on

A leadership crisis has plagued our world for some two-hundred thousand years. Over that very long stretch of time the turmoil of cosmic insanity gripping the planet has been widespread. The Urantia Book reveals that wise spiritual leaders have appeared from time to time and effected good progress among their followers, but for reasons scattered throughout the revelation (mostly disobedience to Deity) that progress invariably dwindled over generations.

A planetary quarantine of Urantia and the presence of unbalanced and misbehaving superhuman personalities have bequeathed us a history of error, evil, sin, and iniquity. The double default of rebellion by the Planetary Prince, and mission failure by Adam and Eve resulted in a legacy of spiritual chaos so rampant and destructive as to attract the remedial attention—the love and mercy—of Michael of Nebadon, the Creator Son of this universe.

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TIME with God is ETERNAL

From , , By Francine Fortin, Canada on

 If you live in the PAST, you are depressed
If you live in the FUTURE, you are anxious
If you live in the PRESENT, you are at peace
Lao Tau

The Urantia Book teaches us to think differently, revealing truths and elaborating concepts that, in my experience, had never before germinated in my mind.

So, when I realized that time and space had not always existed, and that God had created them, starting in Paradise, I was struck by this discovery, which led me to think hard about this fascinating subject: TIME

It’s very reassuring for me to know that my time here on Urantia is only temporary and short, very short. Whatever challenges I face, my time here is but the blink of an eye, compared to the eternal life that awaits me. 

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The Giving Season

By Jay Peregrine, USA on
Association Logo

Dear Urantia Book Reader,

The 2024 Holiday Giving season is upon us.  This is the time when Urantia Association International is gifted with most of the income which sustains us throughout the coming year.  While planning your year-end activities, please take a moment to consider a heart-felt donation to help us continue our important work in 2025.

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Unity Initiative Update

From , , By Special Unity Committee on

In June, the Unity Committee of the Association began meeting regularly with the Unity Committee of the Urantia Book Fellowship to explore the possibility of uniting our two organizations into a single entity. By August, several key issues had been identified. At present, discussions are on hold at the request of the Association awaiting options regarding the Fellowship’s publishing of The Urantia Book.  We remain committed to pursuing unity and look forward to continuing down this path. We will provide updates as progress is made.

The Urantia Book and Chat GPT

From , By Michael Zehr, USA on

There has been a lot of excitement over recent AI tools with speculation about how they might change the world (for better or worse) including how they might help us learn and understand concepts. I’ve seen examples and reports of people giving it prompts such as “What does The Urantia Book say about …?” Or “According to The Urantia Book, what is …?” While this can be useful, care should be taken so that it leads to helpful results.

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From the Editor

From , By Richard Jernigan on

November 2024

Translating a document as immense as The Urantia Book is a humbling notion. Transferring this English text into the word symbols of Chinese must be downright overwhelming. Richard Zhu discovered this text around 2009 and within five years, translating it into simplified Chinese became a mission that will probably be lifelong. Richard joined us on a Zoom call recently to tell his story of leading this translation effort. Georges Michelson-DuPont, who heads translations for Urantia Foundation, has often said it takes thirty years to do a truly strong translation of The Urantia Book into another language. Richard admits that after ten years of work he believes his team is only halfway done with getting this translation to the level of perfection it deserves. But Richard is in it for the long haul, and we’re grateful. 1.6 billion people read simplified Chinese and will now have access to this revelation in a familiar text. You’ll see in the interview a few samples Richard sent us of how his team translated few terms, as well as a comparison of “simplified” and “traditional” Chinese. The latter, read by the 30 million people of Taiwan and other countries, is also underway.

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Reader Comments

From ,

Re: Thomas Aquinas and the origin of The Urantia Book

May 2024

I enjoyed David Kantor’s article on Aquinas and the roots of the revelation. There was so much going on in that period, and Maimonides and Al Ghazzali were just two others from the religious traditions who were really helping to bring a candle to confusion, providing Guides for the Perplexed. The mystic traditions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism were also bringing an appreciation of the importance of personal spiritual experience.

One of David’s sources, Rick Tarnas, was my teacher and dissertation advisor. His book Passion of the Western Mind has almost as many underlines as my UB. One of my favorite classes to teach at University of Nevada-Las Vegas has been The History of Philosophy with its twists and turns of personal revelation and confusion.

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The Spirit of Truth and Seraphic Guidance Stimulate Soul Growth

From , By Chris Wood, USA on

In our Urantia circles, the universe is often compared to a university, a never-ending career of learning and achievement where eventually students progress to the point where they become the professors. In this analogy, we mere mortals are like kindergarteners just trying to pick up the basics. And no matter how much the adults try to explain it and how much we say we understand, in reality we can never truly understand the great path we have before us any better than five-year-olds can understand the realities of a doctoral study track.

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An Interview with Richard Zhu

From ,

Richard Zhu is the Head Translator for the simplified Chinese translation of The Urantia Book, and we recently interviewed him for the Journal to learn about this ambitious undertaking. The effort has been in progress for nearly a decade, and an online version was made available earlier this year to allow public review of the translation––and to begin spreading these teachings to a Chinese-reading audience.

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Verily, Verily, I Say to You

From , By Mark Blackham, Canada on
Mark Blackham

In The Urantia Book, as in some versions of The New Testament, Jesus often began a sentence with the phrase, “Verily, verily, I say to you…” At the time, this had unique meaning, and Jesus used it often to underscore the importance of his words.

Verily means in truth, truly, or truthfully. The word is derived from the Middle English (14th century) verray, meaning true or real and is used in the Bible as a translation of the word amen which, in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Ecclesiastical Greek, means so be it or in truth.

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Artificial Intelligence and The Urantia Book

From , By Richard Jernigan, USA on

Artificial intelligence took a major turn with the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022. The chatbot’s informed, well-written responses to nuanced questions generated both excitement and concern across multiple disciplines. The tool is particularly intriguing for students of The Urantia Book, since the text contains specific information and unique concepts not always found outside its 2097 pages.

While putting together the recent Journal edition on “Government, Politics, and The Urantia Book,” we “tested” ChatGPT’s capability by posing the question, “What does The Urantia Book say about democracy?” Below is ChatGPT’s answer followed by commentary from several students of The Urantia Book.

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Urantia Crossword Puzzle #1 Solution

From ,

Urantia Book citation numbers, where applicable.

Across: 10. 49.3.3, 12. 16.4.14, 30. 123.5.2, 36. 38.8.2, 38. 93.5.5, 39. 18.0.1, 40. 93.9.11, 47. 163.4.12, 54. 23.2.2, 57. 130.0.3.

Down: 1. 26.3.4, 2. 38.3.1, 3. 98.8.3, 5. 20.5.4, 6. 12.5.2, 7. 29.1.3, 8. 130.0.3, 20. 26.11.7, 42. 66.5.13, 48. 73.1.5.

About the Journal

From ,
Journal Online Archives

The Journal is produced twice yearly and contains essays, articles and study aids by readers and for readers of The Urantia Book. Any interpretations, opinions, conclusions, or artistic representations, whether stated or implied, are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Urantia Association International, the National or Affiliate Urantia Associations, or the editorial team of the Association’s Journal.

You can view the entire collection of issues in the archives. All issues before 2017 are downloadable PDF format.

The Journal is currently published in English  , French  and Spanish  . (There are some older issues that were published in Finnish .) You can view the French and Spanish Journals by clicking on the language choices in the pull down menu at the top of the page.

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