Recent discoveries concerning the use of human source materials in The Urantia Book have proven both enlightening and disturbing to Urantia Book readers.  What is being discovered is that many teachings of The Urantia Book are parallel thoughts, gems of truth, or concepts found in other literature.  In some instances, entire paragraphs or even pages of The Urantia Book closely parallel, restate, or blend together the concepts and writings of previous sacred texts, religionists, philosophers, and scientists.

After hearing about these discoveries, some readers have been stunned to find that some thoughts and exact phraseology contained in The Urantia Book come from human sources.  After all, The Urantia Book claims to be the Fifth Epochal Revelation to our world.  And if that is so, how could the book contain the concepts and even exact writings of human beings?  For those who believe that The Urantia Book is a miracle delivered directly from God, the research is heretical, attacking the foundations of universe truth and personal faith.  To some, the studies cast doubt on the authenticity of the “revelation.”  If The Urantia Book claims to be a revelation, then how can it contain human thought?  And if it contains human words, is the book a fraud?  What is the truth?

I have written this short essay to provide some explanatory context as we unravel the process of revelation used in the creation of The Urantia Book.  This essay is not meant to be a scholarly thesis on the systematic procedures of revelation.  How The Urantia Book was written and edited will occupy the minds of brilliant scholars for generations ahead.  The recent studies have cracked open a door that the revelators expected and invited us to open.  The revelators’ invitations for our careful study are found in their acknowledgements about authorship sprinkled throughout the book.  When the revelators wrote their detailed descriptions on authorship, they knew this information would arouse the intelligent curiosity of people.  As Jesus boldly stated, “The truth never suffers from honest examination.”  (UB 1711:3).

What Is A Revelation?

The Urantia Book describes two forms of revelation.  The first is personal or auto revelation.  Personal revelation is the process by which God speaks directly or indirectly to an individual.  The act of auto revelation can be a dramatic rebirth experience similar to Paul’s transformation on the Damascus road or it can occur continuously throughout the life experience of an individual.  Often times, those who have consciously or unconsciously experienced auto revelation have written down their thoughts.  Some of those auto revelatory universe truths have undoubtedly found their way onto the pages of this revelation.

The second type of revelation is planetary or epochal revelation.  Epochal revelation is a periodic phenomenon authorized and performed by celestial personalities.  Epochal revelation is literally the act of the universe government stepping into the affairs of humankind and forever changing world history.  Epochal revelation can be analogized to the process of turbocharging an engine.  In the case of most turbocharged engines, the regular engine is modified, adding an extraordinary boost of power.  Importantly, the turbocharger is generally added on to the current engine instead of replacing the current engine.  Epochal revelation adds power to evolution but it does not replace evolution.  Epochal revelation builds upon the foundation of evolution’s best thinking and practices.

Epochal revelation is a natural part of planetary evolution.  “Revelation is evolutionary but always progressive.”  (UB 1007:1).  “Revelation is a technique whereby ages upon ages of time are saved in the necessary work of sorting and sifting the errors of evolution from the truths of spirit acquirement.”  (UB 1110:4).  Our world was not designed to be placed on autopilot.  We are part of a grand universe plan where all the inhabited worlds are destined to be part of a united and fully operative system.  Epochal revelation is an organic part of that process.

Since the beginning of human life on earth almost one million years ago, there have been five epochal revelations.  These revelations are as follows:  (1) The Planetary Prince and the Dalmation civilization which occurred about 500,000 years ago.  (2) Adam and Eve approximately 38,000 years ago.  (3) Machiventa Melchizedek approximately 4,000 years ago.  (4) Jesus of Nazareth about 2,000 years ago.  (5) The Urantia Book about 65 years ago.

What Is The Urantia Book?

The Urantia Book describes itself as an epochal revelation, the fifth and most recent presentation of truth to our world.  The Urantia Book differs from past epochal revelations because in the last four revelations many of the superhuman revelatory participants appeared in the flesh.  Unlike past revelations, The Urantia Book is a written compilation presented by many types of universe beings.  The superhuman authors and editors of the book range from nearly divine universe personalities to beings slightly above the human status.  The text itself is a combination of original superhuman writing blended with restatements, direct quotes, or editing of past human writings, memory records, and conversations.

What Was The Editorial Policy Used In Writing The Urantia Book?

Is a revelation “something that is revealed by God to humans”?  Or is revelation “an act of revealing or communicating divine truth”?  Both concepts are the first definition of the word “revelation” found in the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary.  And both concepts approximately describe the principles used in writing The Urantia Book.  The book is a blend of old and new truth.  “Down through the ages of a world’s history, the revelations of religion are ever expanding and successively more enlightening.  It is the mission of revelation to sort and censor the successive religions of evolution.  But if revelation is to exalt and upstep the religions of evolution, then must such divine visitations portray teachings which are not too far removed from the thought and reactions of the age in which they are presented.”  (UB 1007:1).  Revelation is truth from above and below.

The Urantia Book builds its revelatory teachings upon the foundation of man’s highest truth understanding.  Simply put, a group of universe personalities came to earth and edited, restated, simplified, quoted, and clarified the best of human knowledge and truth.  Then they surrounded that truth with original composition, if and only no previous human thought made the point.  “…we are to be guided by the mandate of the super universe rulers which directs that we shall, in all our efforts to reveal truth and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give preference to the highest existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects to be presented.  We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of presentation has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind.”  (UB 16:7).

Specific Instructions Given To The Urantia Book Writers And Editors

The Urantia Book makes it clear that all revelations are regulated by a set of mandates that direct the process.  In Paper 120, you can read the 17 points of instruction given Jesus before he came to earth.  Likewise, the authors of The Urantia Book were also given guidelines, advice, mandates, and policies to follow in creating the Fifth Epochal Revelation.  “Mankind should understand that we who participate in the revelation of truth are very rigorously limited by the instructions of our superiors….  Revelators must act in accordance with the instructions which form a part of the revelation mandate.”  (UB1109:2).

“My revelatory commission forbade me to resort to extrahuman sources of either information or expression until such a time as I could testify that I had failed in my efforts to find the required conceptual expression in purely human sources.”  (UB 1343:2).  “Wherein these human concepts, assembled from the God-knowing mortals of the past and present, are inadequate to portray the truth as we are directed to reveal it, we will unhesitatingly supplement them, for this purpose drawing upon our own superior knowledge of the reality and divinity of the Paradise Deities and their transcendent residential universe.“  (UB 17:1).  “When unable to find the necessary concepts in the human records or in the human expressions, I have next resorted to the memory resources of my own order of earth creatures, the midwayers.  And when that secondary source of information provided inadequate, I have unhesitatingly resorted to the superplanetary sources of information.”  (UB 1343:1).  “In many ways I have served more as a collector and editor than as an original narrator.“  (UB 1343:3).  “As far as possible I have derived my information from purely human sources.”  (UB 1343:1).

The revelators also warn us of their limitations in imparting knowledge.  These warnings are like caution signs on the highway of truth advising us to beware of fanaticism and fundamentalism in the belief of unchangeable and perfect truth.  “The laws of revelation hamper us greatly by their proscription of the impartation of unearned or premature knowledge.”  (UB 1109:2).  “These new developments (referring to science, new discoveries, and cosmology) we even foresee, but we are forbidden to include such humanly undiscovered facts in the revelatory records….  Let it be clear that revelations are not necessary inspired.  The cosmology of these revelations is not inspired.  It is limited by our permission for the co-ordination and sorting of present-day knowledge.  While divine or spiritual insight is a gift, human wisdom must evolve.”  (UB 1109:3).  “Always must the religion of revelation be limited by man’s capacity of receptivity.”  (UB 1007:1).

Three Reasons Why The Urantia Book Was Written This Way

There are at least three reasons why The Urantia Book was written by combining truth from heaven and earth.

1.      The Natural Way.  For those of us who would love to see water turned into wine and Jesus resurrected from the dead, the process of creating The Urantia Book seems dull.  Imagine how much fun it would be if God had mysteriously written and unveiled a perfect and complete manual of new truth above the skies of Chicago.  And since the universe government could easily interrupt radio signals, it would have been even more spectacular if they had broadcast a special planetary announcement about the book’s arrival.  But the process of creating and planting The Urantia Book on earth follows an unspectacular system that mirrors the procedures of past revelations.  The fact of a revelation is dramatic.  But the way revelation utilizes and integrates itself within the evolutionary stream of society is not dramatic.  Revelation improves evolution from within.  Jesus demonstrated this truth by his life.  “In and through all this extraordinary experience, God the Father chose to manifest himself as he always does--in the usual way--in the normal, natural, and dependable way of divine acting.”  (UB 1331 - §6).

2.      Language Difficulties.  The celestial beings involved in the compilation of The Urantia Book had a difficult time translating higher truth into our limited human vocabulary.  It is almost similar to university professors attempting to explain physics to kindergarten classes.  The professors would be forced to express concepts in terminology that the kindergarten students could understand.  “We are fully cognizant of the difficulties of our assignment; we recognize the impossibility of fully translating the language of the concepts of divinity and eternity into the symbols of the language of the finite concepts of the mortal mind.”  (UB 17 - §2).  It must have been more effective to convey universe truth via human thought and language rather than to translate it from universe thought and language.  On the mansion worlds, an analogous learning system juxtaposes the philosophies of man along side higher universe meanings called “Mota.”

When And How Was Human Knowledge And Truth Used?

During the process of creating The Urantia Book, the superhuman writers and editors must have searched the records of the “thought recorders” who file every human thought and concept worth preserving.  In the Foreword, they state, “Accordingly, in making these presentations about God and his universe associates, we have selected as the basis of these Papers more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe meanings.”  (UB 17:1).  In the acknowledgements detailing how Part 4 was written, we read, “The memoranda which I have collected, and from which I have prepared this narrative of the life and teachings of Jesus-aside from the memory of the record of the Apostle Andrew-embrace thought gems and superior concepts of Jesus’ teachings assembled from more than two thousand human beings who have lived on earth from the days of Jesus down to the time of the inditing of these revelations, more correctly restatements.”  (UB 1343:2).  “I have drawn freely upon all sources of record and planetary information.”  (UB 1343:1).  “As far as possible I have derived my information from purely human sources.  Only when such sources failed, have I resorted to those records that are superhuman.  When ideas and concepts of Jesus’ life and teachings have been acceptably expressed by a human mind, I invariably gave preference to such apparently human thought patterns…I well know that those concepts which have had origin in the human mind will prove more acceptable and helpful to all other human minds.”  (UB 1343:1).

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With the human source research in mind, I have become keenly aware of comments the revelators made when describing the revelatory process.  At study group the other night, I was struck by a phrase I had read numerous times but never noticed.  The comment was in the “Ordination of the Twelve.”  Jesus had spent four hours with Peter, James, and John talking about the kingdom of heaven.  I expected that the teachings of Jesus would be restated in modern phraseology.  But to my surprise, here is how the material was presented.  “This was a four hours’ teaching conference, embracing scores of questions and answers, and may most profitably be put in this record by reorganizing the summary of this momentous afternoon as it was given by Simon Peter to his brother, Andrew, the following morning:…”  (UB 1579:3).  Amazingly, the revelators found it more effective for our comprehension to reorganize what Peter understood than restating the Master’s actual teachings.

Examples Of Human Writing, Thought Gems And Concepts Interspersed In The Book

From the first page of the first Paper in Part 1 of The Urantia Book, you see the technique of building new truth within the framework of recognized truth.  “The Creator covers himself with light as with a garment and stretches out the heavens as a curtain.”  (The Bible, Psalms 104:2).  “God created the heavens and formed the earth….” (The Bible, Genesis 1:1).  “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.”  (The Bible, Mathew 5:48).

Throughout the entire Urantia Book, you see many quotes marked by quotation marks.  Exact quotes are generally quotation marked.  Another typical example is UB 1069:3.  “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom.  He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might he increases strength.  Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”  This quote originated in The Bible, Isaiah 40:31.

More universally applied throughout the book are human concepts or thought gems.  Concepts are not direct quotes but they do directly reflect the thoughts of one or more human authors.  A complicated example of this technique can be found in Paper 160, “Rodan of Alexandria.”  Many of Rodan’s Greek philosophies are like minded with an early 20^th century American writer named Henry Nelson Wieman.  In Wieman’s 1930 circa book entitled The Issues of Life, he discusses the “art of life.”  When comparing Wieman’s book with the Rodan paper, it seems as though the revelators used many of Wieman’s words and thoughts to express, in modern phraseology, Rodan’s older Greek philosophies about the “Art of Living.”  Both Rodan and Wieman advocate a positive way of life consistent with Jesus’ teachings and the editorial philosophy of The Urantia Book.

The evolutionary discourses in Part 3 of The Urantia Book have parallels in Wallace, Darwin, and many other evolutionists’ writings. The 28 parallels between mortal philosophy and Morontia Mota on Pages 556 and 557 of The Urantia Book have their human origins with writers such as Goethe, Browning, Spurgen, Francis, Rictor, Disraeli, Mills, Lowell, Delain, and many more.  The “Acme of Religious Living” found on Page 1101 of The Urantia Book parallels the thoughts of Charles E. Jefferson in his book, The Character of Jesus, which was published in 1908.

Once you start looking for human thought in The Urantia Book, you will be amazed at the volume of human material.  Without precise analysis, I estimate that at least 50 per cent of the book’s teachings have been previously expressed by human minds.  For example, in Papers 1 through 5 you shall frequently see quotation marks surrounding Biblical and sacred text quotes.  Randomly dispersed in Part 1 and Part 2 are concepts that sound familiar amid superhuman revealed truth on subjects as varied as The Co-ordinate Trinity-Origin Beings to details about the Isle of Paradise.  Part 3 of the book is loaded with familiar thinking that feels like world history restated, sorted, and censored to present accurate time lines, verify real occurrences, and then contextualized by super universe meanings and values.  If needed, planetary records are supplemented by superhuman knowledge when major gaps in human understanding must be filled.

Part 4 of The Urantia Book is built upon the foundations of human records and understanding.  The acknowledgement in Part 4 is very specific; whenever and wherever possible, the revelators used human records.  In fact, the basis for the narrative in Part 4 was supplied by a secondary midwayer who was assigned to the superhuman watch care of the Apostle Andrew.  The memory record of Andrew was extensively used in preparing Part 4.

Common Elements Of Past Revelations

Looking back at the last 500,000 years, we get a better understanding of how epochal revelation works.  Revelation does not superimpose universe truth far beyond the thoughts and words of the evolutionary circumstances at the time of the presentation.  Acts of wonder may accent revelation but it does not direct the day-in, day-out ordinary circumstances of revelatory life.  The universe meets us as and where we are found.  Each revelation has been cast like a play for the life and times of the civilization it encounters.

A few common elements of revelatory process can be seen across the first four revelations.  First, in all past cases, most of the beings who presented revelation took a human form.  They lived human lives and filtered truth through the expression of the human mind and spirit.  Instead of appearing as “angelic-like” or “Melchizedek-like” forms and thinking and speaking through superhuman minds, they chose the human condition.

Second, past revelations have occurred in the physical world and have been built upon the best known human practices of that age.  For example, Dalamatia, the city constructed for the first revelation, utilized superior building practices of those early days.  The buildings were beautiful yet simple one-story structures.  They were designed so visitors to Dalamatia could understand the building systems and then teach the improved construction techniques to the surrounding tribes.  Importantly, the revelatory visitors from the mansion worlds did not create imposing ten-story, dazzling office complexes constructed from the latest high tech materials found on the headquarters of 1,000 planets.  Dalamatia and the Garden of Eden were evolutionary headquarters bettered by revelation.

Third, in past revelations, the best of human knowledge was used as the foundation for revealed truth.  In Dalamatia and Eden, the revelators taught the natives new and better ways to improve their prayer techniques, family life, trade policies, health and sanitation practices, and much more.  In each case, the “new and better” was created upon the foundation of the best of the old.  “These wise beings know better than to undertake the sudden transformation, or the en masse uplifting, of the primitive races of that day.  They well understood the slow evolution of the human species, and they wiselyrefrained from any radical attempts at modifying man’s mode of life on earth.”  (UB 749:5).

A Simple Example Of Jesus Building Upon Bible Scriptures

During the fourth revelation, Jesus expanded many of his life themes from gems of truth in the Old Testament.  He took an evolutionary quote or concept and embellished it with revelatory truth.  For example, at age seven, Jesus chose a Scripture from Isaiah for his birthday text.  He read, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news to the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to set the spiritual prisoners free.”  (The Bible, Isaiah 61.1).  On Page 1391:1 of The Urantia Book you see Jesus embellish Isaiah 61:1 with other philosophically compatible Old Testament Scriptures in his first sermon at age 15.

During Jesus’ ministry, he restated and dramatically expanded upon Isaiah 61:1.  Here is an example of how he taught new truth by sorting, censoring, and compiling human knowledge, including the Isaiah quote.  Said Jesus, "But, Nathaniel, there is much in the Scriptures which would have instructed you if you had only read with discernment….  ‘As a father shows compassion for his children, so is the Lord compassionate to those who fear him.  He knows your body; he remembers that you are dust.'  ‘He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.’  ‘He is the hope of the poor, the strength of the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the devastating heat.'  ‘He gives power to the faint, and to them who have no might he increases strength.'  ‘A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax he will not quench.'  ‘When you pass through the waters of affliction, I will be with you, and when the rivers of adversity overflow you, I will not forsake you.'  ‘He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to comfort all who mourn.'…”  (UB 1662:2).

In Jesus’ Ordination Sermon, he restated the Isaiah theme, “I send you forth to proclaim liberty to the spiritual captives, joy to those in the bondage of fear, and to heal the sick in accordance with the will of my Father in Heaven.”  (UB 1570:3).

In Jesus’ resurrection appearance to the two brothers from Emmaus, he greatly enhanced the Isaiah story line.  Jesus said, “And have you never read in the Scriptures concerning this day of salvation for Jew and gentile, where it says that in him shall all the families of the earth be blessed; that he will hear the cry of the needy and save the souls of the poor who seek him; that all nations shall call him blessed?  That such a Deliverer shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.  That he will feed the flock like a true shepherd, gathering the lambs in his arms and tenderly carrying them in his bosom.  That he will open the eyes of the spiritually blind and bring the prisoners of despair out into full liberty and light; that all who sit in darkness shall see the great light of eternal salvation.  That he will bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives of sin, and open up the prison to those who are enslaved by fear and bound by evil.  That he will comfort those who mourn and bestow upon them the joy of salvation in the place of sorrow and heaviness.”  (UB 2035:1).

The above example of Jesus sorting, sifting, and expanding upon human truth is just a peek into the way Jesus, the revelation, utilized human thought gems as the scaffolding to enlarge truth.  Take any one of Jesus’ major sermons and carefully study its sentences and structure.  Then choose key words or phrases from Jesus’ sermons and look them up in a Bible Concordance.  You shall quickly discover how much truth that Jesus expanded upon from the Jewish Scriptures.  Jesus was like a master jeweler creating the most beautiful ruby and diamond ring.  In the center, he placed familiar truth as the ruby center stone.  Then he surrounded the ruby with brilliant diamonds of new truth, accentuating and illuminating the inner stone.

Once you start studying The Urantia Book from this perspective, you shall be amazed at the exquisite revelatory compilation abilities used in weaving revelation into the tapestry of human evolution.

Conclusion

When I first heard about the human source research, I got a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I wondered if the discoveries would cause uncertainty in my belief system.  Then I began to worry about other readers.  Would the realization of human contribution to The Urantia Book cause people to question its authenticity?  And how would we explain the book’s authorship to new readers and to critics?

One evening after I had started writing this document, I looked through the house to find my most notated Urantia Book.  After searching three rooms, I realized that book was at my office.  So I picked up another Urantia Book that I have not regularly used for 15 years.  I turned to the first page of the first Paper and saw handwritten notes annotating the Biblical chapter and verse next to the exact quote in The Urantia Book.  Those twenty-year old notes put a big smile on my face.  The fact that the revelators had used human words and concepts was not new.  I had penciled in references years ago.  Then I remembered that in the 1980’s I had helped publish The Paramony, a book written by my friend, Duane Faw.  The Paramony is a parallel and a harmony between The Bible and The Urantia Book.  In Duane’s work, he shows hundreds of similar or exact quotes between the two books.

I remember my feelings when I first started reading The Urantia Book 31 years ago.  A dear friend had begged me to read it.  Reluctantly, I proceeded even though I was deeply bothered by its purported origin that sounded unbelievable, flaky, strange, and in direct conflict with my Biblical heritage.  With skepticism and extreme caution I started reading Page 21 regarding The Universal Father.  A wave of comfort and reassurance filled my mind as familiar Bible quotes poetically flowed throughout the first pages.  Maybe The Urantia Book was safe to read after all.

Writing this paper has been enlightening.  As I have scratched the surface for better understanding of the human sources in the revelation, the more I have learned, the better I feel.  This book is a masterpiece blending truth from heaven and earth.  And at the end of the day, I may never fully understand the complete reasoning for how and why revelations occur the way they do.  But more importantly, no matter how The Urantia Book was written its teachings have directly led to the most transforming and real experiences in my life.  The Urantia Book has given me knowledge and encouragement in pursuing a personal relationship with God.  I feel certain that from on high, the right way of doing things has happened again.  God is in the heavens and all will be well on earth.

Looking out my window, I see the snow capped peaks of the Colorado Rockies.  Many feet of deep snow has piled on top of the granite mountains.  Maybe, I think, revelation is like those mountains.  The deep snow is the new truth of superhuman knowledge sitting upon the granite base of human thought. 

Mo Siegel, United States of America