“Can you not advance in your concept of God’s dealing with man to that level where you recognize that the watchword of the universe is progress?”1 I remember distinctly the first time I read that challenging question in The URANTIA Book more than thirty years ago. At that time it did challenge my state of consciousness to try to understand the truth of what that statement meant. I was very disappointed in the course of human affairs and had become quite unfulfilled and cynical. I had been an anti-war and anti-corporation demonstrating hippie-activist in the ‘60s and early ‘70s; then chosen to live alone in the extreme climate of the northern Canadian wilderness, off the grid for a few years; before becoming a corporate consultant and disco-dancing yuppie of the late ‘70s. By the ‘80s I had semi-dropped out of the mainstream dominant culture to live in the Sierra Nevada mountains and pursue extreme sports. Rock climbing became my favorite thing to do—even after my best friend fell to her death climbing the southeast face of El Capitan, in Yosemite Valley, while I was simultaneously climbing the southwest face. I had successfully figured out how to work as little as possible in order to have enough free time to pursue my favorite past times. For some reason, it seemed like being an extreme athlete had integrity. Many people envied my lifestyle and considered I had it made.
Though I was in denial, by the mid-1980s I knew I was missing something drastic. I had met Jesus in my heart when I was fifteen, and I knew I had lived before in other lives. At age 29, I had given my life to God and started asking each morning to know what His will for my day was. By 1986, at age 34, I still didn’t have the courage to give up the cushy-lifestyle I had carved out for myself to take a faith-leap into the unknown. My private life became increasingly depressed as I struggled to find meaning without changing anything. By 1989, though I had complete internal unrest and knew that I was supposed to make a major change in my life, I dallied. I filled time with more travel, more sports, more gardening, and remodeling my home. My home was a mecca for my friends, and life went on, though I was no longer energized by what had previously been exciting and adventurous. I kept searching.
Then one day, I learned about The URANTIA Book from a biologist friend who had seen it at a mutual friend’s home. He was excited to have discovered this book which gave information that the first two humans were twins. He had previously speculated that this was the case, so it was confirming for him as well as for me. I went to the bookstore and ordered it without ever seeing it. After reading this very large book the first time and knowing for sure that it was what it said it was—epochal revelation for our whole planet—I tried to locate other readers, as not one of my friends or family was interested in reading it. I went to a few conferences of URANTIA Book readers where I met many wonderful people from all walks of life. It was initially energizing and then wasn’t. Most readers that I met had not found peace and happiness either. Like many of them, I was still restless and still looking. I remember thinking how odd it was that I had now read and studied this epochal revelation, which is for the whole planet, for a number of years and yet felt so in need of more.
I read book after book and kept trying to allow myself to be led by God. Eventually I was led to take a journey to Sedona, Arizona where I found The Cosmic Family, Volume 1 on a bookstore shelf next to The URANTIA Book. The Cosmic Family volumes are the Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation (CFER), what many think are the continuation of The URANTIA Book, the Fifth Epochal Revelation (FER). After reading The Cosmic Family, Volume 1, I knew it was what I was searching for and that God had been beckoning me to Arizona since 1989, when Machiventa Melchizedek had returned to Urantia (Earth) and started working with Van of Urantia and Niánn Emerson Chase to establish the First Planetary Sacred Home and begin the process of bringing through Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation (CFER). The Spirit of Truth confirmed to me that I needed to move immediately, and I couldn’t get there soon enough.
Up until that point in time, my life had been a collection of contradictions. I was committed to opposing injustice and finding out God’s highest will for my life daily, but I was also committed to my own self-indulging sports and leisure. This insincerity in myself caused grave insecurity. More than anything I wanted to be trustworthy so that God could give me a big assignment, but I continued to be anything but trustworthy.
Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation (CFER) immediately expanded my understanding of The URANTIA Book and has now done so thousands of times over. In addition to many expansions of old concepts and introduction of new concepts and information, The URANTIA Book details the history of the Lucifer Rebellion and the cause of its origin in Lucifer’s mind, which was Godless self-proclaimed liberty and authority. I had understood that spiritual authority (true liberty) comes from above and is actualized within mortals through the beautiful hierarchy of God’s descending ministering spirits, as was explained in The URANTIA Book. Through CFER my understanding was expanded to include an extension of God’s hierarchy through mandated human Elders, which today encompasses human beings, or “Destiny Reservists,” who have been mandated to work as human-rights advocates and ministers with Celestial Overcontrol and lead the transition of earth out of the Rebellion and into the First Stage of Light and Life.
After twenty-four years of studying and living the teachings of FER (The URANTIA Book) and CFER (The Cosmic Family volumes) under the watch-care of the spiritual Eldership of the Mandate of the Bright and Morning Star, I have learned how to evaluate those feelings of self-importance within myself that cause low self-esteem, anger, and a sense of isolation. I can see the sophistries of the Lucifer Rebellion in my own heart and mind. I am now able to see and admit my lower thoughts such as jealousy, competition, resentment, and judgmentalism, to name a few of the spirit poisons. I know that eventually through this process I will become more mentally and emotionally stabilized, arrive at self-mastery, and ascend to more spiritualized levels of consciousness and completion of personality. I know that how long this will take depends upon my moment-to-moment thinking, feeling, and doing based on my moment-to-moment “hearing”, which is based on my moment-to-moment virtue and humility. I know that until we change ourselves, we cannot change the world.
Through my education in The Cosmic Family volumes, the supernatural has become scientific. Epochal revelation teaches truth, and to the degree that I can personally live truth, I am set free. My cynicism is passing away, and as I incorporate the absolutes of God into my reality, I am becoming a caring cosmic citizen. Through faith and living in a union of souls, all dedicated to living in the moment-to-moment will of the Father, my own attitudes have divinely progressed, and I have gained hope and assurance that progress is indeed the watchword of the universe.
ENDNOTES:
1 The URANTIA Book, Paper 4, Section 1