Urantia’s Unrevealed Destiny

CHRIST MICHAEL OF NEBADON — our sovereign Master Son and also, not by coincidence, the Planetary Prince of Urantia — undoubtedly receives frequent reports from Machiventa Melchizedek,[i]the Vicegerent Planetary Prince who acts on Michael’s behalf. Although it would be ludicrous to ask them to include us as Cc addressees when they exchange messages, any such missive would be unintelligible to us anyway, because Michael and Machiventa would certainly be communicating in the language of Nebadon, not in English or in any other language of human beings who currently reside on our troubled planet.

Even so, we have every right to believe that at some suitable moment during the last few centuries, Michael received an urgent appeal from Machiventa warning him that society and civilization on Urantia were approaching an era of tumult and crisis when the spiritual government of Nebadon would be compelled to intervene decisively. In part, this appeal of Machiventa’s reflected and honored Michael’s personal commitment to Urantia because of his extraordinary bestowal approximately 2,000 years ago in the human form of Jesus of Nazareth. After all, Michael most assuredly would not want a worldwide catastrophe to befall the planet on which he lived and died!

The limits of our knowledge and understanding do not enable us to reconstruct the urgent tones that Machiventa undoubtedly employed in his appeal to Michael. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to believe that Machiventa conveyed many of the intense concerns that a Melchizedek subsequently summarized in section 1 of Paper 99:

Given the decisions of Michael and Machiventa, it is clear that Michael was well aware that circumstances on Urantia were not suited to his immediate or sudden return, especially since he would be obliged to come to Urantia “as the supreme ruler of a universe and not as the obscure babe of Bethlehem” (the Midwayer Commission, 176:4).

The world on which he lived his seventh bestowal is now “the individual and personal ward of a Master Son and, as such, is wholly subject to his own plans and rulings.” Michael knew that there was no active plan for an Avonal Son to visit Urantia on a magisterial mission, even though a Perfector of Wisdom states that “regarding the future appearance of Paradise Sons, not even ‘the angels in heaven know the time or manner of such visitations’” (a Perfector of Wisdom, 227:3).

So what could Michael and Melchizedek do to upgrade human life on our planet Urantia? In other words, what alternatives did they have? Well, we really do not know, and I emphati­cally disclaim any personal knowledge of authoritative rulings on the meth­ods whereby a Paradise Master Son can act to uplift society and civilization on an inhabited planet that still suffers the extended consequences of rebellion and default (epochal revela­tions 1 and 2).

All we know for certain is that Michael and Melchizedek eventually decided to sponsor an epochal revelation on Urantia in the form of a book. To put the matter mildly, this was an extraordinary measure, although it would be rash for us to call it unprecedented. (We have no access to the record of epochal events on other planets in Nebadon whose spiritual superiors had aligned themselves with the folly of Lucifer.)

On the one hand, the entire narrative by a Mighty Messenger in Paper 52, “Planetary Mortal Epochs,” explains and analyzes the personal activity and active ministry that high spiritual Sons carry out on inhabited planets. Nothing that the Mighty Messenger describes has anything to do with preparing and publishing a book.

On the other hand, the three Ancients of Days of Uversa clearly approved the project, for they authorized “a high commission consisting of twenty-four Orvonton administrators” to prepare the narratives in Part I: “thirty-one papers depicting the nature of Deity, the reality of Paradise, the organization and working of the central and superuniverses, the personalities of the grand universe, and the high destiny of evolutionary mortals” (a Divine Counselor and One without Name and Number, 354:8). This too was an exceptional measure, for the Mighty Messen­ger who wrote Paper 52 states that on a normal planet, revelation of truth pertaining to the central universe and Paradise is not shared with human beings until the Post-Teacher Son Age (a Mighty Messenger, 598:6)

In comparison, however, Michael and Melchizedek were eminently qualified to specify the topics that needed to be analyzed and explained in Part II, “The Local Universe” (Papers 32 through 56). At the end of Paper 56, the author (a Mighty Messenger) pro­vides the following explanation:

This paper on Universal Unity is the twenty-fifth of a series of presentations by various authors, having been sponsored as a group by a commission of Nebadon personalities numbering twelve and acting under the direction of Mantutia Melchizedek. We indited these narratives and put them in the English language, by a technique authorized by our superiors, in the year 1934 of Urantia time. (a Mighty Messenger, 56:10.23 (648.6))

We can be confident that when Mantutia Melchizedek carried out this editorial assignment, he complied with broad general instructions he had received from the Planetary Prince (Michael of Nebadon) and from the Vicegerent Planetary Prince (Machiventa Melchizedek).

From the same perspective, we have every right to infer that their general authority and broad direction also applied to Part III, “The History of Urantia” (Papers 57 through 119). At the end of Paper 119, the author Gavalia, the Chief of the Evening Stars of Nebadon, states:

This paper, depicting the seven bestowals of Christ Michael, is the sixty-third of a series of presentations, sponsored by numerous personalities, narrating the history of Urantia down to the time of Michael’s appearance on earth in the likeness of mortal flesh. These papers were authorized by a Nebadon commission of twelve acting under the direction of Mantutia Mel­chizedek. We indited these narratives and put them in the English language, by a tech­nique authorized by our superiors, in the year A.D. 1935 of Urantia time. (Gavalia, the Chief of the Evening Stars of Nebadon, 119:8.9 (1319.2))

The 63 Papers in Part III demonstrate the revelators’ intense interest in the pro­gressive growth and development of society and civilization on Urantia. Paper 81 by an Archangel of Nebadon (“Development of Modern Civilization”) is a cogent example that probably suffices to prove this point all by itself, but the unceasing efforts of the master seraphim demonstrate even more systematic interest in promoting higher levels of human life (as analyzed and explained in Paper 114:6 by the Chief of Seraphim).

Along the way, the revelators show great energy in highlighting the significance and importance of the home and the family (Papers 82 and 83). They explain that education “must continue throughout a lifetime” and state that the purpose of education “should be acquirement of skill, pursuit of wisdom, realization of selfhood, and attainment of spiritual values” (as a Melchizedek indicates in 71:7).

The revelators also tell us how government evolved and portray systematic methods and practices that will contribute to higher levels of freedom, fairness, and justice. One of the revelators declares: “The peace of Urantia will be promoted far more by international trade organizations than by all the sentimental sophistry of visionary peace planning” (a Melchizedek, 787:4).

After the author of Paper 71 has commented that “Present-day profit-motivated economics is doomed unless profit motives can be augmented by service motives,” he none­theless stipulates:

Profit motivation must not be taken away from men until they have firmly possessed themselves of superior types of nonprofit motives for economic striving and social serving — the transcendent urges of superlative wisdom, intriguing brother­hood, and excellency of spiritual attainment” (a Melchizedek, 871:6.1 (305.5,7))

Drafting and Editing Part IV

We can be confident that Michael took great interest in the efforts of the Midwayer Commission who prepared Part IV, “The Life and Teachings of Jesus” (Papers 120 through 196). In carrying out this task, the Midwayer Commission operated under the authority and direction of the Melchizedek revela­tory director who introduced himself as the author of Paper 120, “The Bestowal of Michael on Urantia” (Mantutia Melchizedek, 1323:1)

After Michael had bestowed himself on Urantia in the human form of Jesus of Nazareth, human traditions honored and carried forward quite a few of his inspiring teachings. On the other hand, events occurring during the last 2,000 years have included a number of fundamental misunderstandings that clearly needed to be corrected when the Mid­wayer Commission drafted Part IV. As an obvious example, we have every reason to believe that Michael was appalled at the barbarous teaching that he had died on the cross in order to appease the fictitious wrath of an angry Father in heaven. Before Michael left Salvington, Immanuel[ii] told him that in the perfec­tion of his relationship with the Para­dise Father, “the world of your bestowal, even all the universe of your creation, will behold a new and more understand­able revelation of your Father and my Father, the Universal Father of all” (Mantutia Melchizedek, 120:1.4).

We also have every right to conclude that Michael has not welcomed the behavior of persons who claimed to be acting in his name during the ensuing interval of approxi­mately 2,000 years, but who have frequently adopted an implicitly tribal attitude of “us” versus “them” — thereby disdaining or at least discriminating against human beings who have adhered to other spiritual teachings and traditions. When Immanuel gave Michael considered counsel and advice, he included instructions that were very explicit:

As you may see fit, you are to identify yourself with existing religious and spiritual movements as they may be found on Urantia but in every possible manner seek to avoid the formal establishment of an organized cult, a crystallized religion, or a segregated ethical grouping of mortal beings. Your life and teachings are to become the common heritage of all religions and all peoples. (Mantutia Melchizedek, 120:3.6 (1330.1))

We must also bear in mind that the 77 Papers in Part IV do not confine themselves to spiritual and religious matters, probably because the Melchizedek revelatory director received instructions in which Michael and Machiventa called for Part IV to include appropriate remarks about the state of society and civilization on Urantia and the need for substantial improvements. For example:

The Midwayer Commission provided considerable detail about Jesus’ trip to Rome and other locations on the Mediterranean during his 28th and 29th years, while he was accompanying the wealthy Indian merchant Gonod and his son Ganid. The papers that narrate this trip include quite a few passages in which Jesus shared conceptual and philosophic insights pertaining to various key aspects of human life and experience:

• Discourse on Reality (130:4).
• At Carthage — Discourse on Time and Space (130:7).
• True Values (132:1).
• Good and Evil (132:2).
• Truth and Faith (133:3).
• At Athens – Discourse on Science (133:5).
• At Ephesus — Discourse on the Soul (133:6).
• The Sojourn at Cyprus — Discourse on Mind (133:7).

Further, the Midwayer Commission clearly devoted considerable effort to sum­marizing and adapting the teachings that Jesus presented during his lectures at Urmia:

• Sovereignty — Divine and Human (134:4).
• Political Sovereignty (134:5).
• Law, Liberty, and Sovereignty (134:6).

These editorial efforts of theirs were difficult, painstaking, and controversial:

When we, the midwayers, first prepared the summary of Jesus’ teachings at Urmia, there arose a disagreement between the seraphim of the churches and the seraphim of progress as to the wisdom of including these teachings in the Urantia Revelation. Conditions of the twentieth century, prevailing in both religion and human governments, are so different from those prevailing in Jesus’ day that it was indeed difficult to adapt the Master’s teachings at Urmia to the problems of the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men as these world functions are existent in the twentieth century. We were never able to formulate a statement of the Master’s teachings which was acceptable to both groups of these seraphim of planetary government. Finally, the Melchizedek chairman of the revelatory commission appointed a commission of three of our number to prepare our view of the Master’s Urmia teachings as adapted to twentieth-century religious and political conditions on Urantia. Accordingly, we three secondary midwayers completed such an adaptation of Jesus’ teachings, restating his pronouncements as we would apply them to present-day world conditions, and we now present these statements as they stand after having been edited by the Melchizedek chairman of the revelatory commission. (The Midwayer Commission, 134:3.8 (1486.3))

While the Master’s teaching concerning the sovereignty of God is a truth — only complicated by the subsequent appearance of the religion about him among the world’s religions — his presentations concerning political sover­eignty are vastly complicated by the political evolution of nation life during the last nineteen hundred years and more. In the times of Jesus there were only two great world powers — the Roman Empire in the West and the Han Empire in the East — and these were widely separated by the Parthian king­dom and other intervening lands of the Caspian and Turkestan regions. We have, therefore, in the following presentation departed more widely from the substance of the Master’s teachings at Urmia concerning political sov­ereignty, at the same time attempting to depict the import of such teachings as they are applicable to the peculiarly critical stage of the evolution of political sovereignty in the twentieth century after Christ. (The Midwayer Commission, 134:5.1 (1487.8))

Now if the Midwayer Commission and the revelatory director had been content to provide an entirely factual summary of Jesus’ teachings at Urmia, they could have operated as journalists who simply recorded and reproduced his words. That, however, was not enough, for the revelators clearly intended to provide a narrative that would be understandable and useful to us now, while “attempting to depict the import of such teachings as they are applicable to the peculiarly critical stage of the evolution of political sovereignty in the twentieth century after Christ” (134:5). With all these factors in mind, we have every right to infer that the Midwayer Commission and the revelatory director were instructed to prepare wording that will contribute to the progressive growth and development of human society and civilization in our era, not just narrate the exact events that occurred while Michael was conducting his bestowal in the human form of Jesus of Nazareth.

An even more obvious example is the fact that in the penultimate paper in Part IV (Paper 195, “After Pentecost”), the Midwayer Commission expresses intense concern about the need for human beings to overcome and rise above conun­drums that currently afflict society and civilization, especially materialism and secular totalitarianism. These passages are eloquent evidence of Michael’s active interest in the welfare of society and civilization on Urantia, the inhabited planet where he lived his bestowal life approximately 2,000 years ago in the human form of Jesus of Nazareth.

Tasks for humanity

In a formal and procedural sense, we, the inhabitants of Urantia, are now living in the Post-Bestowal Son Age, but almost nothing in our current circumstances corresponds to the description that a Mighty Messenger provides in Paper 52:5.

Post-Bestowal Son Man
The bestowal Son arrives on a world of high educational culture and encounters a race spiritually trained and prepared to assimilate advanced teachings and to appreciate the bestowal mission. This is an age charac­terized by the world-wide pursuit of moral culture and spiritual truth. The mortal passion of this dispensation is the penetration of cosmic reality and communion with spiritual reality. The revelations of truth are extended to include the superuniverse. Entirely new systems of education and government grow up to supplant the crude regimes of former times. The joy of living takes on new color, and the reactions of life are exalted to heavenly heights of tone and timbre. (A Mighty Messenger, 52:5.3 (596.1))

Quite to the contrary, the Mighty Messenger tells us that the current situation of society and civilization on Urantia closely resembles circumstances on a normal planet in the era immediately after Adam and Eve arrive. Given these realities, our world “is a full dispensa­tion and more behind the average planetary schedule.”

Post-Adamic Man
The result of the gift of the Adamic life plasm to the mortal races is an immediate upstepping of intellectual capacity and an acceleration of spiritual progress. There is usually some physical improvement also. On an average world the post-Adamic dispensation is an age of great invention, energy control, and mechanical development. This is the era of the appearance of multiform manufacture and the control of natural forces; it is the golden age of exploration and the final subduing of the planet. Much of the material progress of a world occurs during this time of the inauguration of the development of the physical sciences, just such an epoch as Urantia is now experiencing. Your world is a full dispensation and more behind the average planetary schedule. (A Mighty Messenger, 52:3.6 (593.5) emphasis added)

We definitely should welcome the fact that recent centuries on Urantia can indeed be described as “an age of great invention, energy control, and mechanical development… the era of the appearance of multiform manufacture and the control of natural forces” (a Mighty Messenger, 52:3.6). After all, human beings living on our planet have benefited enormously from the scientific and technical advances that have transformed human life in ways that an ancestor of ours living in the year 1700 could not possibly have imagined. Even if we restrict our comparison by advancing the clock two centuries, thereby reaching the year 1900, I find it very difficult to believe that anyone living in North America at the beginning of the 20th century could conceivably have imagined the instant communications and enormously enhanced access to information that have transformed our lives during the most recent decades.

Humanity is still working through the overtones and implications, and no one seems rash enough to predict how long that will take. Further, there also seems good reason to wonder whether all these achievements that human beings have made during recent centuries — advances that are usually associated with the Post-Adamic age — have tended to distract from spiritual realities, instead focusing disproportionate attention on material aspects of human life and experience. As a result, it may be reasonable to conclude that materialistic philosophies are an implicit outcome of these developments, perhaps even inevitable under the circumstances.

With all these factors firmly in mind, what other important advances can we imagine? For example:

Now I realize that these goals and objectives are exceedingly ambitious and cannot be achieved immediately or in a single step. After all, “No great social or economic change should be attempted suddenly” (an Archangel of Nebadon, 81:6.40). We are implicitly talking about how human beings behave as individuals and in groups — the full collec­tion of customs, traditions, and practical methods that influence how they live together and seek to cooperate for common purposes and mutual benefit. For society to evolve and advance, we will always need a patient and persistent process of imagination, inno­va­tion, and experimentation, on the understanding that not all new ideas are worthwhile and that many of them would not represent an improvement.

We must remember that evolutionary upgrades are necessarily and inescapably a pro­cess of trial and error that compels us to depend on the insights and inspirations of innovators and original thinkers — the imaginative energies and original perceptions that they encounter in the inner mind. A Solitary Messenger tells us: “The advances of true civilization are all born in this inner world of mankind. It is only the inner life that is truly creative” (a Solitary Messenger, 111:4.3).

At the outset, however, who is qualified to decide that some new idea that seems imagi­native and innovative really would amount to an advance in civilization? After all, innovators and original thinkers cannot expect universal acclaim or unanimous consent. Any new idea must compete with current practices, and it must also be more convincing, more persuasive, and more practical than other recommen­dations that different persons operat­ing in the same field are proposing and promoting.

Upgrading Society & Civilization on Urantia

At first glance, it may seem difficult for us to accept that the reservations and concerns expressed by traditionalists, skeptics, and adversaries make valuable contributions to the task of achieving higher levels of society and civilization — an extended process that is inevitably gradual and arduous. In effect, however, the persons and groups who can be identified as traditionalists, skeptics, and adversaries are implicitly seeking to cherish and preserve the positive values that humanity managed to achieve during many pre­vious eras of social, economic, and political evolution.

Please permit me to give you an example that may be somewhat surprising. Many committed readers of The Urantia Book are deeply concerned about the highly unequal distribution of wealth and other mater­ial advantages that surrounds us in contemporary society. On the other hand, we must pay appropriate attention to the rather pointed warnings that a Melchizedek of Nebadon advances in section 9 of Paper 69:

The right to property is not absolute; it is purely social. But all government, law, order, civil rights, social liberties, conventions, peace, and happiness, as they are enjoyed by modern peoples, have grown up around the private ownership of property.

The present social order is not necessarily right — not divine or sacred — but mankind will do well to move slowly in making changes. That which you have is vastly better than any system known to your ancestors. Make certain that when you change the social order you change for the better. (a Melchizedek of Nebadon, 69:9.17-18 (782.4-5)

To make what I have just said as clear as possible, please permit me to emphasize that the immediately preceding example does not mean that I oppose any possible adjustment or reform to current laws and regulations associated with owning and inheriting prop­erty, and it also does not mean that I am endorsing current methods of taxation and the existing regulations that govern commercial activity in general or international trade in particular. I will quite willingly stipulate that all these matters are fit for discussion and for possible improvement by means of a process of experimentation and adjustment that is gradual, thoughtful, and thorough. Here is the key point: This same process of experi­mentation and adjustment is needed in every context of human life, whether economic, social, political, or spiritual.

In all these regards, the role of innovators and original thinkers is crucial, for the lack of imaginative ideas and new proposals would imply rigidity and stagnation — not the “procession of changes, adjustments, and readjustments” that a Melchizedek describes and calls for in section 1 of Paper 99. From these perspectives, however, we should under­stand that originality and creativity operate in different ways and at different levels. Naturally it would be inappro­priate and unfair to dismiss the originality and insight that are required to write a book, to develop new software, or to design and market some new type of product or service that may benefit human beings. In a colloquial sense, all this can be broadly described as playing the game according to the rules that currently exist.

On the other hand, a far more crucial level of originality and creativity can be associated with innovations and reforms that implicitly involve changing the rules, not just playing the game. Even though society and civilization are far more than a game, this metaphor is useful because it implicitly concentrates attention on the full collection of customs, traditions, and practical methods that influence how human beings live together and seek to cooperate for common purposes and mutual benefit.

The Global Endeavor

Please permit me to introduce you to the Global Endeavor, an idealistic and altruistic project that can be understood as a support network intended to provide service and assistance to innovators and original thinkers who are operating in society — persons and groups who are seeking to invent, develop, or promote reforms and other imagina­tive initiatives aimed at upgrading those sectors of human life and experience that they know and cherish. To say this somewhat more simply, the Global Endeavor will be a support network that will seek to encourage and assist the innovators and original thinkers whom I sought to represent in the small triangle at the bottom left of Figure 1 above.

The work of the master seraphim (114:6) is our spiritual model. Please bear in mind, however, that nothing in our plans for the Global Endeavor serves to specify or constrain the spiritual perspectives and religious views of the persons and groups who will benefit from this altruistic program of service and assistance. In other words, those who receive service and assistance from the members and associates of the future working groups of the Global Endeavor will not have to be readers of The Urantia Book, and it is reasonable to believe that few of them will be. Our aim is to serve humanity by promoting the progressive growth and development of society and civilization on Urantia, whereas the existing social organizations mainly serve readers of The Urantia Book by helping them understand and appreciate the teachings.

We believe that by implication, it is reasonable to understand our ambitious project from the perspective that I advanced in the first few paragraphs of this essay: my conviction that Machiventa Melchizedek appealed to Michael of Nebadon at some suitable moment during the last few centuries, warning him that society and civilization on Urantia were approaching an era of tumult and crisis when the spiritual government of Nebadon would be compelled to intervene decisively. Here is a short summary of the stimulus and encouragement that the working groups of the Global Endeavor will make available to innovators and original thinkers, as is explained on the first page of Chapter 4 of the draft plan:

As I previously implied, the Global Endeavor is not yet operating: At this point, it mainly amounts to a concept and a plan. In March 2023, however, the Committee for the Global Endeavor established a program of preliminary practical activities patterned on some of the responsibilities that a substantive working group will carry out in a regional asso­ciation composed of twelve working groups. (Any actual working group cannot be established until a regional association exists; and a regional asso­ciation will not exist until it is established by the two global bodies, on the understanding that the members of these global bodies will be elected during the founding convention.)

We hope that many of you who read this essay will take an active interest in our plans for the Global Endeavor, especially in relation to the program of practical activities that are now underway. Please feel free to consult our modest website https://www.globalendeavor.net, which offers a wide range of documents that you can read or download.

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[i]    As committed readers of The Urantia Book are well aware, Machiventa Melchizedek was one of the twelve Melchizedek receivers who assumed spiritual responsibility for Urantia after the rebellion of Lucifer and Caligastia (a Melchizedek, 67:6.5-6). Machiventa Melchizedek eventually exercised his share of these responsibilities by conducting the third epochal revelation, an emer­gency bestowal in the days of Abraham: He suddenly appeared in human form and then lived and taught on our planet for 94 years. For a detailed narrative, see Paper 93, “Machiventa Melchizedek” (written by another Melchizedek of Nebadon).

[ii]   This sentence refers to instructions and counsel that Michael received from Immanuel of Salvington, “the Union of Days assigned to the local universe of Nebadon,” where he serves as “the ambassador of the Paradise Trinity” (the Chief of the Archangels of Nebadon, 37:5.1). The same author explains: “In a certain sense this high Trinity Son is also the personal representative of the Universal Father to the court of the Creator Son; hence his name, Immanuel.”