Episode:The Urantia Papers on the Reason for Revelation (Part 3)
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. Science deals with facts; religion is concerned only with values. Through enlightened philosophy the mind endeavors to unite the meanings of both facts and values, thereby arriving at a concept of complete *reality*.
Keywords: Urantia, Revelation, Science, Philosophy, Religion
Summary by Kermit
with final edits by Ann
101:5. Religion Expanded by Revelation
The opening sentence of our section reads, “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.” Here we have one of the primary reasons for revelation in general. In reflecting on the relationship between revelation and evolution, we see that our revelators must be particularly skilled in injecting revelation into the human evolutionary thought stream without subverting or disrupting the evolutionary process of the Supreme. In sorting and sifting the errors of evolution, it is the enlightened philosophy spawned by revelation that enables mind to unite the meanings of the facts of science and the values of religion into a concept of complete reality. So revelation is required for acquiring a real picture of things.
The attempt to interpret the initial grace-gift of faith experience almost always produces some degree of error. These errors are also encountered in the attempts to interpret revelation. We discussed several examples in the 5th ER of the revelators use of terms like theology, philosophy or metaphysics. Depending on the context of usage for example the word theology (philosophy of religion) can mean mere intellectual interpretation of one’s religion, or as mentioned in the prior week’s reading, where it is described as the province of faith AND technique of revelation that attains the level of true theology. Check out the archives of the broadcast for the complete discussion.
In discussing further the relationship between evolution and revelation we went rather far afield examining God’s techniques of creation. We see God the Mother’s creative process as evolution, a gradual coalescence of reality from within the whole. And God the Father’s technique of injection or initiation into evolution can be seen as revelation. Both techniques are the same process only viewed from a different perspective. In this creative process, the Father and the Mother are mutually dependent. The observation that the natural suddenlies (described as phase changes) seen in the evolutionary process (not injections or initiations of the Father), do foreshadow the Father’s revelatory creative injections from without. There is a naturalness to revelation that is foreshadowed by the phase changes (suddenlies) of evolution. The discussion of evolutionary suddenlies took us into a consideration of the term mutation which, while worthy of attention goes somewhat beyond the focus of this study. Here’s something else for you to check out in the archives.
One of the SoS team commented on the difficulty in approaching an understanding of the 5th ER from the perspective of evolutionary systems. This prompted a listener to inquire regarding the implications for an individual of holding an incomplete or even false metaphysics. The revelation is challenging everyone to reflect on their world-view (metaphysics). The unexamined world-view, unaided by revelation leads to misinterpretations of life’s experiences. While not separating you from God, it does impede progress Godward. Progress beyond the initial grace-gift that initiates us Godward is enabled by acquiring a greater world-view, informed by revelation. This requires philosophic reflection and the questioning of your initial assumptions. Further it requires letting go of false initial assumptions and false ideas of God in favor of true ideas of God contained in revelation. As one of our team reminds us [103:6.8, p. 1136] in the absence of mota, “Revelation authoritatively clarifies the muddle of reason-developed metaphysics on an evolutionary sphere.”
Our Melchizedek author discloses that there are two phases of manifestation of religion.
- Evolutionary religion deriving from the religious impulse of the 6th adjutant, the spirit of worship. In this primitive worship experience we find the origins of many a bizarre world-view.
- Revealed religion, a spirit derivative leading to the attainment of the cosmic Deity.
Note, this Deity is not the Father. The Father is our spiritual Father, not our cosmic Father. Deity is a philosophic word, and this cosmic Deity is God the Supreme. The attainment of the Father, goal of our ascension is only our First destiny. Our finite destiny is God the Supreme. How many religionists, including longtime readers of our revelation have properly understood this!? And before you get to God the Supreme, you must confront the personal purposeful aspect of God the Supreme—God-The Mother. To begin to recognize God the Mother in distinction to God the Father is to more fully recognize your actual finite destiny.
Philosophy is based upon the assumption of the reality of three things:
- The material body.
- The supermaterial phase of the human being, the soul, or indwelling spirit.
- The mind, the mediating mechanism for the associative bridge between spirit and matter.
Here the 5th ER provides a triune foundation for philosophy, in contrast with the dualistic evolutionary foundation of philosophy—body and mind. Does your theology (philosophy of religion) have these three elements or just spirit? Without the threefold foundation, you don’t have true religion, or personal spiritual experience, but mere spiritual experience, which because that experience is so powerful, generates a world view wherein the only thing that is real is spirit. And acknowledgement of the body is in contrast to the goodness of spirit and it becomes the evil of the body. Once again, the reason for revelation is to get the proper world-view for your religious consciousness, to go beyond the grace-gift initiation phase of recognition of sonship with God, which can blind you to the rest of reality. Exalting the spirit over the body or the inner life over the outer life is not true religion. We are challenged by revelation to reform all of our ideas about God and reality. Such reformation leaves our ideals intact.
Feeling and emotion are concomitants of religion, but they are not religion. Religion may be the feeling of experience, but hardly the experience of feeling. And we are reminded elsewhere in this same paper that, it is our thoughts not our feelings that lead us Godward. We had a great explanation of the relationship of feelings associated with religious experience and the LoM which everyone listening should revisit.
Evolutionary religion stems from the impulse and energy of the 6th adjutant. Such primitive religions are directly concerned with ethics and morals—human duty, and result in the stabilization of relatively ethical civilizations. Revealed religions stem from the bestowal spirits representing the Paradise Trinity and are concerned with the expansion of truth. The former fosters in the individual the idea of duty, the latter emphasizes the golden rule.
Evolutionary religion rests on faith. Revealed religion carries you through the door of faith to the additional assurance of expanded truth of divinity and reality, plus the actual experience of the fruits of the working union of human faith and divine truth. And all of this contributes to the development of a character well on the road to the acquirement of a morontial personality (soul consciousness). Remaining at the initial faith-gift stage ultimately renders such faith mere belief.
Yet, throughout the morontia progression the assurance of truth replaces the assurances of faith. It is not until we begin our career as spirit beings (and leave the local universe) that both of these assurances are replaced by the assurances of pure spirit insight. Or as Mr. Melchizedek says this pure spirit insight conjoins and is superimposed upon these former techniques of personality assurance.
We remember that science is the domain of knowledge, philosophy the realm of wisdom, and religion the sphere of the faith experience. [101:2.17, p. 1107]
