Who Wrote the URANTIA Book?

The Urantia Book's clear mark of "demonic" authorship is its total lack of understanding regarding the Christian doctrine of sin or salvation. Judaism and Christianity are continuously portrayed as "primitive" religions practiced by "primitive men." The biblical concept of progressive revelation is exchanged for an evolutionary theory which is used to explain most religious differences. Of course, the Urantia religionists considers themselves at the top of this spiritual evolutionary chain. While the book quotes and paraphrases several portions of the Bible, distortions of key biblical truths are found throughout. For example, Paper #89, Sin, Sacrifice, and Atonement states:

As the savage mind evolved to that point where it envisaged both good and bad spirits, and when the taboo received the solemn sanction of evolving religion, the stage was all set for the appearance of the new conception of sin. p. 975

The concepts of substitutionary atonement and propitiation with blood are viewed by the Urantia as grotesque and grossly primitive.

Primitive man believed that something special must be done to win the favor of the gods; only advanced civilization recognizes a consistently even-tempered and benevolent God. p.974

Similar to other cults who deny the inherited consequences upon humanity of Adam and Eve's transgression, the gospel according to the Urantia speaks of:

the Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of all men. p. 1085

and

God...who dwells, by his spirit, in every sincere human soul. p. 1453.

There are conflicting stories ["various histories"] regarding the origin of the Urantia Papers. According to long-time faithful, Ernest Moyer (author of a book on the group's beginnings entitled THE BIRTH OF A DIVINE REVELATION--The Mechanical Origin of the Urantia Papers), information similar to that found in the Urantia Book was communicated by various "spirit beings" using a male individual ("contact person") while that person slept (a.k.a. Sleeping Subject "SS"). This communication was but a preparatory exercise. Beginning 1905-11 and over a 20+ year period, divine "revelations" were hand-recorded by a Dr. William S. Sadler, a noted Chicago physician and psychiatrist. Dr. Sadler had extensive and close ties to the heretical Seventh Day Adventist sect/cult. Sadler is said to have engaged in conversations with "spirit visitors" as the SS functioned as an automatistic portal to a spiritual dimension. In Sadler's own words, SS was "sort of a clearing house for the coming and going of alleged extra-planetary personalities" i.e. angelic [demonic] beings. However, Sadler would later deny that these conversations were the source for what would later become the Papers. Moyer elaborately documents Sadler's ultimate claim--that the "final Papers appeared miraculously...out of thin air." "The actual Revelation by invisible divine agents was accomplished by placing the writing miraculously on paper in groups, or sets. The form was in handwriting which was then physically transcribed by Emma Christensen (Christy), a trained secretary and member of Sadler's family, into typewritten form. After proof reading for accuracy the original papers disappeared equally miraculously." See General Statement and A [not so] Brief Account. In another account, SS, in response to numerous written questions, is said to have delivered the Papers to Dr. Sadler. See THE URANTIA BOOK: A Brief Description and Its Secret Author Discovered, by Eric Pement, 1992.

Due to the extraordinary volume of detailed and complex information, it is difficult to conclude that the Urantia Book was the product of one or more inflated imaginations. While that is not out of the realm of possibility, a more plausible explanation is some form of genuine demonic influence. Similar to the claim for the Book of Mormon, divine revelation did not cease with the 66 canonical books of the Old and New Testaments. However, the Mormon product pales by comparison to the encyclopedic detail and complexity of the Urantia Book. The fact that the Urantia Book agrees with the Bible in certain areas confirms the fact that the author (human or demonic) had some level of understanding regarding spiritual themes. Further, while select statements found in the Urantia Book are not necessarily contradictory to the Bible, a number of critical topics are diametrically in disagreement with sound, orthodox Christian teaching.