Collection of Responses
With the purpose of pinpointing the primary meanings of The Urantia Book and integrating a range of views, the following question was asked of the Australian and New Zealand readership:
In approximately 300 words, describe the main message of The Urantia Book.
In order of last name, I compiled below the twenty one responses I received by email. (Some of the responses are very short and brief, and others are substantially longer.)
Cecilia Bendall, reading for 32 years
At its core I suspect that the main message of The Urantia Book was to get Jesus’ message through. The bonus was a history of Urantia, from a physical and evolutionary/revelatory perspective; an indicator of the magnitude and structure of the universe; God’s plans for the future of the universes and every personality; the parentage and role and function of various personality types; character portrayals of human traits and also personality traits that can cause problems; the life and teachings of Jesus; the seven incarnations of Jesus Michael and the reason for them.
Phil Billerwell, reading for around 7 years
Discovered The Urantia Book in 2011. Purchased the book and read it fully in 6 months and immediately started again at the beginning. Have now read it 8 times, and continue to read it regularly, cover to cover. And I learn more and understand more every time I read it.
The message I get from reading the book is an understanding of the Cosmos, of God’s creation and how the Universes come into existence. I now know of a lot of the guiding spirits and their place in the management of the universes.
It tells me that we are here for a short time as a learning experience for the eternal future as finaliters, and that our first goal is to get to the mansion worlds. I know that I have a Thought Adjuster and (hopefully) a personal seraphic guardian.
Having always been a little skeptical of the creation of the bible, the “life and teaching of Jesus” gives me a clear understanding of what God expects of us to succeed and to know God. In the past we thought Jesus was God, now we know different.
I firmly believe that this is the Fifth Revelation as I cannot see any man capable, intellectually to create this book.
This book has changed my whole attitude to life and I have no fear of dying.
Graeme C, reading for about 23 years
I think The Urantia Book is a call for individual humans to find ways to “fulfill the measure of their creation” which, to our great delight, happens to be a generally hopeful, upward adventure, spiritually connected and potentially eternal.
It makes examples of the many other orders of beings having diverse adventures on diverse worlds, yet alike in their willingness to engage with their true nature. It finds further examples in the animal life of Urantia whose emerging intelligence promoted evolution at each stage. This we may interpret as dedication to the task or even just sincere effort. If this is a minimal example of consciousness in action then we are also shown in the life of Jesus a glimpse of the maximal example whereby consciousness is raised to more consciousness.
I regard this outlook as an excellent remedy for our daily encounters with many distractions, with many attempts to erode our individual freedom and with interference in our own use of our own minds. At the very least, time spent with The Urantia Book is time spent out of harm’s way.
Colin Chenery, reading for over 35 years
The Urantia Book was a true revelation for me, as for many people. Part I goes into detail of the nature of deity in a manner that is deep and profound. It makes sense and every read deepens the understanding of the creative forces at work, the immensity of being, personality and intent that we are all a part of. To get such an insight and break down into absolute and sub-absolute levels is unique, powerful and profoundly enriching.
Part II and III bridge the profound truths of Part I in a more local sense, specifically the evolutionary path for us all. These Parts have ideas and concepts I would never had considered without reading the book. The accuracy of details in the book is not of consideration. The truth resonating within is what the teachings are about—they stand on their own. The principles and context open the consciousness to new possibilities of how the compassion and wisdom of the absolute can manifest in such a perfect way that gives meaning and context to our mortal lives on earth.
Part IV is such a humanising and detailed work on the life of our Lord and resonates deeply. It has contributed to a life-long deeper connection to Christ and the universal reality and significance of him as Creator Son as well as spiritual uplifter for this and other planets. It reveals aspects of aligning and flowing the living spirit into life in this world in a personal and real way that is inspiring and revelational.
Overall the book has expanded my mind to the possibilities and vastness of an evolving universe in ways I would not have considered and on a scale beyond what I previously imagined. It has helped me in my experience and worship of God in spirit. Embodying the living truth of Spirit, loving and serving each other and God with all our hearts and minds, aligning fully with Spirit is the bottom line task for us on this planet. It inspires me to be positive and excited about an eternal journey ahead.
I have studied The Urantia Book for over 35 years, reading it in full many times and while continuing to refer to it frequently, along with other studies and practices that I am called to. My passion for spiritual writing and teaching is now coming to the fore as I take on writing and teaching myself. The Urantia Book is one of my top 3 books for life-long inspiration.
In summary, the vast scale of universe evolution that we are a part of, the realisable love, beauty and goodness of deity in a multi-dimensional universe, the personal nature and unified experience available to us as created beings are the key themes The Urantia Book has opened up at a depth and scale that is of immense value.
Robert Coenraads, reading for 27 years
The message of The Urantia Book or, perhaps better put, the purpose of its compilers, is to shed light on God’s master plan for us all as individuals, to clarify our place in God’s universe, and to lay out our divine goal before us as we journey into the fullness of infinity… provided we are willing to take such a path of service.
The book is for spiritual seekers disillusioned with what is currently on offer; also for atheists, agnostics or those who have simply lost the ‘baby’ in the bathwaters of traditional religious dogma, censure-swinging ritual, battles for sectarian supremacy, and ignorant terrorism.
The Urantia Book introduces God and the players on His team, moving from the grandeur of the Grand Universe down to the tiny speck that is our planet, presenting us with an integrated picture based on science, religion, philosophy and cosmology that goes far beyond the petty ‘creation vs. evolution’ debates raging in our present age, where the true spirit of God lays buried beneath layer upon layer of spirit-obscuring materialism.
The Urantia Book tables the birth of our planetary home and our billion-year evolution from simple cells to complex self-reflecting creatures capable of knowing God. Our journey from cavemen to modern human is covered as is our accompanying religious development—from worship of lightning, animal spirits, food crops and the elements needed for them to flourish, through to the foundations of modern religious thought, finally culminating in the revealed religion of the prophets and the arrival of the ‘Son of Man’ on our planet.
The book is truly a revelation; however we are cautioned not to take everything presented therein as absolute fact. Instead, we are encouraged to use the book’s content and structure as a temporary scaffolding upon which to grow upwards into God’s light.
Jocelyn Goson, reading for around 2 years
The Urantia Book shows that Spirit is immanent and transcendent and describes the evolution of consciousness in a way that finds resonance in my being. The Urantia Book uses language to express this Reality that is different from my own way of expressing this Reality. The Urantia Book’s own expressions are really divine and so beautifully expressed that I know the author has truly made contact with the Divine Nature of Reality and that Divine Reality is the source of these revelations. The Urantia Book revelation points to the same Reality encounter in my own experience.
One of my most profound spiritual experience and revelation was that God, although having given the foundation of the universe, left it so open as to allow for human consciousness to grow and evolve toward an ever widening realisation of beauty, truth and goodness.
The insight of my spiritual experience is that we are called to participate in evolution and that led me to the conclusion that God—the existential perfect infinite reality—could be supplemented and complemented by an additional kind of perfection gradually achieved by free-will creatures in and through time.
But when The Urantia Book talks about how our universe and others came into being I am at a loss. I only can agree about the evolution of being.
I really need to go through these revelations with the [Canberra] group and see how people come to terms with these revelations.
Mathew Hall
That God is our spiritual Father and we are his children, and therefore we are all brothers and sisters. Therefore we should love our Father with all our heart and soul, and love our neighbour as ourselves.
Susan Hemmingsen, reading for 47 years
The Urantia Book confirmed the existence of God and has shown me he is a loving Father, the Creator and Upholder of all. I have had confirmed that religion is a personal experience and that a spark of God lives within me, so I can talk directly with him (through prayer).
Perfection is my goal (not my condition) and I will achieve this by following his will and loving and serving my fellow man. Love, truth, beauty, goodness, loyalty, trust, honesty etc. are the cornerstones of spirituality.
My soul is the scaffolding built from all my spiritual decisions.
Rituals, clothing, and eating taboos are products of evolutionary religion and have no bearing on spirituality other than to show a person’s sincere efforts to adhere to their own erroneous beliefs.
Evolution is our method of growth and applies to both the physical and spiritual spheres of existence.
I have confirmation that life exists on millions of other planets and the universe is well organised and maintained. I consider the afterlife as a giant university where I will continue to grow and progress.
The bible is inspired by God-knowing humans but is not infallible.
The Planetary Prince’s mandate was to initiate the beginning of an advancing civilisation, and Adam and Eve’s to biologically uplift the human race. Both of these revelations failed, and our planet is not progressing as most other inhabited planets are.
We are not all born equal biologically, intellectually, in spiritual capacity and will power, but God is “no respecter of persons” and loves us all no matter what.
Jesus is part man, part God, and whose mission was to live his life on Urantia as a human in order to experience existing as the lowest order of intelligent life in his creation, Nebadon; that he didn’t die to “save us from our sins”, but to experience living as a man and to exhibit the living of a perfect life on Urantia.
There is no conflict between science and religion, and religion can only be experienced, not scientifically proved.
We cannot, with the human mind, truly understand eternity and infinity, as we are only capable of measuring things in terms of time and space.
Phillip Marriott, reading for around 6 years
The Urantia Book… For me its main message is that I and all of us are never alone.
We have within our minds, all of us, a moral compass, whether I or any of us choose to follow its guidance is entirely up to me/us.
This compass is a fragment of our father, God.
This fragment of the father is to be my companion for as long as I/we choose, he will never fail me or any of us, he truly loves us, as a parent to a child.
All I have to do is to remember that he is with me always.
Pre McGee, reading for 25 years
Our Father’s Ascension Plan is for us to be with Him and as perfect as He is and He has given us all the support we need to achieve His Plan. However, it is our free choice to follow this Plan. It is friendly and highly organised Plan. It is an expansion of Jesus’ message about the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man and that love is the greatest thing in the Super Universe and beyond.
It is fascinating to realize that this process begins here on a remote, isolated and quarantined planet. We are not alone. Trusting in God and living by faith in daily life we can attain His Plan (perfection) with the support of our own Though Adjuster within and aided by the Spirit of Truth if we so choose.
Nigel Nunn, reading for about 38 years
Here are my thoughts for your project:
A Jerusem Perspective
About 500,000 years ago, when our original Lanonandek administrator arrived, he brought with him a small team of ascendant Jerusem citizens, “the Caligastia one hundred” [Paper 66:2.3, page 742.3]. This group shared (1) the experience of human life, (2) the experience of surviving death, and (3) the morontial education that leads to Jerusem citizenship. So we can assume that this group must also have shared what we might call “a Jerusem perspective”; each of these selected volunteers [Paper 66:2.4, page 742.4] would have had some idea of the nature and purpose of Michael’s local universe, and the reasons for fostering evolutionary human life.
With the collapse of that original administration and the loss of the Caligastia 100, the primitive cultures of our world lost access to that perspective. Had the Adamic mission gone according to plan, such access would have been restored. But as we know, that Adamic cultural legacy—like that of Dalamatia—soon dissolved into myth.
For me, one of the purposes of The Urantia Book is to foster a replacement for that lost perspective: a group of humans who share a virtual “Jerusem perspective” onto the purpose of human life, able to live and work as natives.
How will this come about? As more students of The Urantia Book come to understand—and to believe—the revelatory claims presented in these papers, a sufficient core will develop the faith to act on their belief. Such ripening agondonters [Paper 50:7.2, page 579.1] become catalytic agents, able to help motivate and nudge cultural evolution back on course.
In other words, they will have the opportunity to do—within today’s cultures—what the Caligastia 100 had volunteered to do so long ago: to help adjust the culture in which they found themselves placed.
Dylan Roberts, reading for 18 years
As a work of epochal and divine revelation The Urantia Book necessarily reveals much. Its message can therefore be expected to be broad and deep, enough to be revelatory, but simple and practical enough for mortals to comprehend, digest, and implement. Given it is a spiritual-religious revelation as much as an historical, philosophical and scientific one, it must touch the soul, heart and minds of the readers appropriately. This I think The Urantia Book does with unity, across the many papers, and challenges the individual on many levels simultaneously. The intended effect, I think, is better cosmic unity for the student over time.
To me the main message of The Urantia Book is to put mankind in his and her proper place, as truly blessed just-starting offspring of a loving Creator-Father, with our Father-brother Jesus as the spiritual-moral standard bearer of the human species, and is ultimately an opportunity to better grasp and use our system of consciousness (decision-making capacity), and its spirit influences, with an ultimate goal of achieving eternal life for our souls, rehabilitating and uplifting our planet and its peoples, and putting us back in line with the eternal plans and divine values of loyal Deity, as distinct from the failings of the Lucifer Rebellion still affecting our world.
Additionally The Urantia Book teaches us about Deity origins, and about a vast universe structure, populated by innumerable beings, giving us a much expanded perspective in which to make sense of our earthly lives.
Alistair Smith, reading for 13 years
I think the only real place to start, on what I feel is the message of The Urantia Book, is the message that the unique and amazing person of Jesus had for the people in his time, which is that God is our father, and that everyone is our brother or sister. I can’t flesh that out more, because I think it’s up to everyone to interpret it for themselves, based on their own personality, experience and intuition. So many attempts to interpret it for others have resulted in religions and theology that, while helping in some ways, often limit individuals in their spiritual growth.
That is another theme of The Urantia Book—that we grow spiritually, just as we grow physically, intellectually and socially. This is the point of life—it’s our training environment. The Urantia Book also says that individual evolution parallels the physical, biological, cultural and spiritual evolution of our society, world and even universe.
And so we’re all on an adventure together whether we know it or not—all the more if we are responsive to God’s quiet, loving leading in our lives.
The Urantia Book describes reality as bigger than we think: we live on one of a vast number of inhabited planets; there are many more things going on in the universe than we can see; and we have much more than just this first short life to be involved in them.
But what are the signs, patterns, flavours, characteristics and qualities of all this? Asked another way, what is God like that we would want to respond to him at all? The Urantia Book says that it’s about truth, beauty and goodness—if there is anything prescriptive in the Book at all, it’s that we need to be seeking after these things.
Rita Schaad, reading for 30 years
Thank you Dylan for getting us all to participate in this project. I hope many are contributing. It is, once one starts thinking about it, not all that easy to pin it down.
I found The Urantia Book in 1987 and have been, ever since this invitation to enter the enlarged cosmic home, a willing participant and member of ‘the heavenly household’.
At first, like so many, I was bowled over with the large amount of new information, the beauty of the language, the astounding insights of new concepts.
The intense feeling of being guided and watched over, the ‘in-kind’ conversation with the unseen helpers and the definitive wish to contribute where I can, has led me to this point where I try to ask myself “what is actually the meaning of this Revelation to me, our Planet, all mankind?”
What is its message?
- I am/we are—a part of a gigantic cosmic home, with inhabited worlds that are home to very similar intelligent beings like us. The God we learned about and believed in is actually the Source and Centre of this home.
- We are loved individually, we are each important, we are able to communicate with God—the Gods—we are Persons. We are cared for, individually and as a
- There is a vast host of beings that are also part of this cosmic home—they are helping us to advance. We are able to communicate and cooperate with
- There is purpose behind the evolution of this planet, including all creatures and us human (creatures!). We belong to an ordered cosmic family (System, Constellation, Universe).
- Our earthly life is not all there is—we have a promise of ongoing life on other, more advanced worlds and
But the biggest question about it is: why are we told all this, told all the details (or a great number of them) about cosmic events, angelic organization, human evolution, spiritual orders, mansion world life…
I think it’s because they want us to know these things so we can catch up to where we are supposed to be as a planetary society in the scheme of things. Of course it’s the individual that needs to advance first, which then leads into the greater upgrade of human society.
And that would be the message of the revelation—learn about your place and the role you play within, and then improve; as quickly as you can, spread the word, or what you learn each day. It seems that there is an urgency about it; we’ve got to deal with these matters now.
Kathleen Swadling, reading for 43 years
Dear Dylan,
You asked what I believe to be the main message in The Urantia Book. Well, as there are multiple “main messages” in the book, it’s hard to decide which one is the main message—depends on which day you ask!
Seriously though, one that really stands out for me is the revelation about the relationship between our human mind and the Thought Adjuster and how the two work together to grow the morontia soul. While the development of the immortal soul is an amazing revelation in and of itself, the fact that the Thought Adjuster is pre-personal intrigues me. During the process of growing the soul, the Thought Adjuster is destined to become one—to fuse—with our individual personalities, thus gaining personality expression, and in turn we are destined to become one—to fuse—with a spark of divinity, thus gaining a divine-like nature. What an amazing exchange! The more I think about it the more it blows me away… It highlights for me just how much the Universal Father values each one of his mortal creatures; how much faith he places in us to allow a part of himself to be a part of our self for all eternity.
But what’s even more amazing about this whole process is that our free-will will always reign supreme. The development of our soul is one hundred percent dependent on the free-will choosings within our personal Mind Arena. Our identity will always be “us” even though we will be able to reflect the divinity of our Thought Adjusters. Imagine such a gift: to be loved and valued so much by the very First Source and Centre of all things and beings in the universe. (It’s enough to cure us of any tendencies towards having a low self-esteem.)
And all this also highlights another of the “main messages” found in the book: because we are all so individually precious to the Father, it naturally follows that each one of our fellow human beings is equally precious and valued in God’s eyes making us all truly brothers and sisters under a loving heavenly Father—the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God—sonship with God. And the best way you can serve God is to serve his other children!
Thanks for asking the question.
Love,
Kathleen Swadling
Trevor Swadling, reading for 42 years
To me the main message of The Urantia Book is its portrayal of a much deeper and meaningful insight into the reality, purpose and value of love. It tells the story of the motive and actions of the personality of the divine love of the creator of all things and beings from the beginnings of eternity out into the finite evolutionary realms of time and space. It reveals that this love can grow in the inner life of individuals in their discovery and unification of all things that are true and through all meanings that are beautiful and in all values that are good. While The Urantia Book is a large book consisting of 196 papers of 2,097 pages, to me, you could call it the book about the unfolding story of love. One of the main messages I get from this book is that we can personally participate in this adventure and discovery and to the building of this unfolding story of love.
Neville Twist, reading for 32 years
To me, the main message in The Urantia Book is the restated Life and Teachings of Jesus. I believe this is fundamentally why we were given The Urantia Book. To clear the air of 2000 years of dogma and tradition, and present to our world afresh, the unsullied truths of our paradise creator son. We are told that these teachings will not fail, and I believe they will eventually become the source document of all philosophical and religious thinking on our planet, and probably many others besides.
For all pretext and purposes, Jesus was God made manifest as a mortal of the realm. He is the only person who has ever lived on our planet, who could say with all authority “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father except by me”. And, “He who has seen me, has seen the Father, because the Father and I are one”. Therefore, to come to the Father, we acknowledge his divine presence in us all. That we are all his sons and daughters and part of his gigantic universal family.
To have this undying hope, this reassuring faith, this constant source of love, I can only agree with the authors when they say:
There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every creature of all his vast domains, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life. And the infinite treasures of such a matchless career are yours for the striving! [Paper 32:5.7, page 365.3]
Verner Verass, reading for 43 years
Message from Dad
Same spirit influence, differential response to the invitation-call to be perfect as he is perfect.
Dad has already bridged the gulf from where he resides in full spiritual majesty on Paradise to find and be with each one of us, here on this inhabited world, to take up residence within each person of freewill moral choice capacity in the mind. Then, in tandem with the Spirit of Truth, escort us home to meet him face-to-face.
The Urantia Book sheds new light on personality, the soul, the Thought Adjuster, why we are here and where we are going. You have to start somewhere; each of us starts here.
Our long isolation is actively compensated-for by our caring universe family ~ Michael of Nebadon is Sovereign Ruler of the universe of his own creation, actual experience as a mortal, the lowest will creature in his universe, was the way he achieved that sovereignty. Likewise, bona fide evolutionary experience is the way each mortal creates himself or herself.
We agondonters can be happy that the divine and saving down-reach of revelation in the form of The Urantia Book has now been delivered and distributed. Surely achieving its purpose of planetary spiritual uplift by ordinary people doing extraordinary work. The task is important, the self is not. You can get more done if you leave yourself out. Selfless service is the way of the future. Sonship is a universe reality there for the fullness of realisation in the privilege of service
Mortal existence must be visualized as consisting in the intriguing and fascinating experience of the realization of the reality of the meeting of the human upreach and the divine and saving downreach. [Paper 102:6.10, page 1125.5]
William Wentworth, reading for 46 years
The main message is that we live in an everlasting universe with a vast number inhabited planets populated by a diverse range of intelligent beings under the control of a fatherly creator. God controls the non-personal physical universe by the force of gravity. God—the Universal Father—exerts his influence over personal beings purely by the power of his love. All personal beings, such as us, have absolute free will to respond to the Father’s love or not, as they choose. To the extent that we choose to respond to God’s love we come to love our fellows. We humans are evolutionary beings at the very beginning of a career which is eternal, and which involves learning to respond ever more readily to the love of God. There are many stages along the way where more advanced beings, who are themselves imperfect, but ever learning, assist their less advanced brethren. Implicit in this message is the fact that attempts to improve our planetary situation without recognising our dependence on God are bound to fail. We can build a lasting and progressing civilisation only by responding to God’s love. Cultural development, political organisation, ideological commitment, emotional indulgence—all lead no-where in the absence of the recognition of God. And to this end a fragment God Himself indwells our minds, helping us to choose—a guiding light to all who seek to choose God’s way.
Regina Williamson, reading for 20 years
This sermon was an effort on Jesus’ part to make clear the fact that religion is a personal experience. [Paper 145:2.3, page 1629.4]
I am told that as an individual I am a child of God. Jesus said:
I have come… to bring this knowledge of God and the revelation of his love and mercy to the individual believer as a genuine personal experience. I have come among you to proclaim a greater truth, one which many of the later prophets also grasped, that God loves YOU—every one of you—as individuals. All these generations have you had a national or racial religion; now have I come to give you a personal religion.”[Paper 145:2.4, page 1629.5].
The purpose of living and goal of existence is given, life is explained. I am taken care of, I have the invisible team taking care of me; I am important. One on one with God. I live in Him, He lives in me. My Father in Heaven. Now I know what life is all about and that makes a huge difference in the individual who realised that. The source of all this: The Urantia Book.
My motto of The Urantia Book from the beginning of reading it was:
“Do you not realise that the hope of a better nation—or a better world—is bound up in the progress and enlightenment of the individual?” [Paper 145:2.8, page 1630.4]
Then the world will be realising real peace on Earth.