Auth: Eric Pement
Srce: CORNERSTONE magazine, vol. 20, issue 97, pp. 19, 23.
Date: 1992
Titl: THE URANTIA BOOK: A Brief Description and Its Secret Author Discovered
Note: Electronic text is somewhat expanded from the printed edition.
A book which appears frequently in the hands of mystical, New Age, and spiritual seekers is THE URANTIA BOOK. Easily recognizable as a massive blue $34 hardback, THE URANTIA BOOK consists of 2097 pages of channeled material. Though first published in 1955, the bulk of its material was actually channeled in the early 1930s. (Its publishers and supporters dislike speaking of THE URANTIA BOOK in terms of "channeling" or "spirit mediumship," since this draws attention to its anonymous human author, who wished his identity to be kept a secret.)
After nearly forty years of mystery, the author's veil of anonymity has finally been removed. The story behind the channeler's "secret identity" is actually quite fascinating. But first, some background information about the book.
There are currently more than 235,000 copies of THE URANTIA BOOK in print in two languages, English and French. Translations in Spanish and Finnish are forthcoming later in 1992, as well as a computerized version for electronic searches. Independent and "unauthorized" URANTIA BOOK readers have published a massive CONCORDEX and other study materials.
THE URANTIA BOOK contains 196 separate messages (plus a Foreword) from alleged disembodied beings in "higher" universes. Their discourses resemble what one might expect from religious alien intelligences, complete with galactic councils and interstellar colonization projects by angelic hierarchies. The "messengers" identify themselves with names like Divine Counselor, Melchizedek, Life Carrier, Midwayer Commission, Brilliant Evening Star, and Perfector of Wisdom. The planet Earth (which they refer to as "Urantia") is said to be down near the bottom of a cosmic scale of galaxies, universes, and superuniverses, all inhabited by billions of physical, etheric, and angelic beings.
The book is divided into four sections, describing an array of universes, "correcting" our concepts of God and Spirit, giving the "real" evolutionary history of earth and its religions, and offering a detailed revision of the life and words of Jesus Christ. THE URANTIA BOOK begins with copious quotations from the New Testament, particularly the writings of John. Early on, we learn that the creedal doctrine of the Trinity is false -- there are really three Trinities and seven Triunities, with different members in each. We also find that Jesus Christ is merely the seventh incarnation ("bestowal") of Michael of Nebadon (our "local universe"), the 611,121st Creator Son sent out by the Paradise Trinity. There are many others like him on other worlds, all "Michaels" and "only-begotten Sons" in their own right.
Unlike most channeled writings, THE URANTIA BOOK rejects the teachings of reincarnation and astrology. However, in line with other mediumistic revelations, it is dead-set against traditional Christian doctrines, including the inerrancy of Scripture, simple Trinitarianism, the Fall of man, original sin, the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, faith and repentance for salvation, the resurrection of the flesh, and eternal punishment.
THE URANTIA BOOK records Jesus telling his disciple Nathaniel, "The Scriptures are faulty and altogether human in origin" (page 1767); and while "the Scriptures contain much that is true, . . . these writings also contain much that is misrepresentative of the Father in heaven" (1768). The Jesus of THE URANTIA BOOK flatly denounces "this erroneous idea of the absolute perfection of the Scripture record and the infallibility of its teachings" (1768).
Likewise, the book says, "There has been no 'fall of man.' The history of the human race is one of progressive evolution . . . " (846). God's covenant with Israel is referred to as "the chosen-people delusion" (1005). And the atonement of Jesus is emphatically denied:
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