Open Letter of Hope

To all my sibling students of the revelation, greetings:

I set about this message with a light heart. We have had revealed to us that we are approaching an eventual age of Light and Life on this world, and also we have had revealed to us that we have the potential to realize this Light and Life in our own lives. Through the inspiration of the revealed truths of this remarkable text we are given the challenge, purpose, and power to be spiritual leaders of the world. Our course is clear, to preach and to live the gospel of love and service to God and to our fellows who still live more in shadow than we. I would wager that most of you reading this have already made your choice for God. Now is the time to renew your allegiance to our inspired and inspiring purposes.

Some were raised with Jesus, in a church or a family which, despite mortal shortcomings, did not thwart the voice of the Spirit of Truth as it led to Jesus, and Jesus in turn revealed our Father, so progress into understanding of the revelation's truths was relatively smooth. For others, the change of comprehension was a more dramatic shift. But all of us who have been given the understandings of this revelation have the same challenge, to live our lives with such drawing power that these understandings which we can communicate are attractive to others. The revelation very much depends on our exhibiting the fruits of the spirit. Our grasp of truth may be good but our transmission of truth depends on grace.

For nearly twenty-five years now, I have met and studied with students of the revelation. I have witnessed a progression of generations, a transformation of purpose and personalities. The fellow students whom I earliest met were mostly relatively staid and mundane, the direct descendents of the original readership, reserved but confident in faith, quietly heroic in their willingness to soldier the forward evolutionary dispersal of the revelation. Looking back, I seem to have been part of a transitional generation who came to the revelation independently through a combination of forces, some of which were the general spiritual reawakening of the times and some of which I suspect were the specific guidings of our personal spiritual teachers. Now it seems we have another generation, even less attached to the previous eras, with new interpretations, and a new spirit of inspiration and enthusiasm for the purposes of this revelation, for its power to transform the world of the cross into the jewel in Michael's crown. Whatever turbulence the main clot of adherents of the teachings may suffer, there is a thriving worldwide awakening to the revelation which should encourage every one of us.

As each of our generations becomes "old fogeys" of the company of followers of the newly revived gospel of love and ministry, we should celebrate the success of the combined efforts of mortals and celestials in bringing new blood to the cause. As we struggle to tame excessive enthusiasm, let us not dampen the evangelistic fires. As we present our hard-won understandings of the teachings to the new generations, let us listen carefully for the new insights and fresh perspectives the fresh readers bring not just to interpretation of the work but to the tactics of evangelism. Let our conservative spirits of the churches and our liberal spirits of progress be united in joyous purpose of spreading the gospel to the whole world.

Social and political problems may entangle our institutionalized organizations, but never let those complications cause us to doubt for a moment the world-changing power of our mission. Differences in strategies and tactics may hobble groups in working toward presentation of the Urantia Papers to the world, but every individual who believes this gospel can be an immediate saving force for the people we deal with each day. We live on a world saddled with difficulties rooted in two hundred thousand years of rebellion, default, betrayal, evil, sin, and iniquity, a full dispensation and more behind what we might have been, yet we have working with us and within us the Spirit of a Master Michael, who is even our own Urantian sibling, Prince of our world, and we have the revelation of truth even to the Central and Superuniverses which is usually given only to Post-Teacher Son worlds. The authorities who permitted this revelation demonstrated that same confidence in us which Jesus showed in choosing his apostles and missionaries. We are worthy of their confidence, and we will be positive and constant in our faith and in our preaching. We can accomplish what they expect of us because we are the children of the Almighty Source of all existence, and the siblings and children of the completed Master of a universe. We will make this world fit for Michael's return.

We stand on the brink of a new era of enlightenment and life. We can rise above the dark times and materialistic distractions of the age in which we are born and live today as if already our Father, Brother, Teacher, and Master has returned, in us, to transform the entire human race. No betrayal by some misguided Lanonandeks stops us -- the devils have been ordered behind us and cannot touch us. No default of our Material Son and Daughter hampers us -- their efforts were partial but not completely in vain and we are able to make up for that which they failed to achieve. No lack of connection to the circuits of the universe bothers us -- we are directly connected to the Heart and Soul of all the universe. We are the seed of the age of Light and Life, the harbingers of the Teacher Sons, the students of the Melchizedeks, the children of Christ Michael, and the offspring of God the Universal Father. We are the very vanguard of the Fifth Epochal Revelation to planet Urantia, and as we present a united front to the world, so we are the fulfillment of the promise of this newest presentation of truth.

Our world is fantastic, unique, exciting, wonderful. Our world is unsettled, even primitive in some areas. Yet here we are, with the truth of Paradise. The best of all worlds. Ripe for change. A harvest of souls for the Father. A sudden majestic symphony penetrating a long and frightening silence, a brilliant double rainbow sparkling as a long storm passes in the evening, a cry of new life after an arduous labor, we ourselves are the very Revelation, as it lives in us.

As we grow and preach and teach, we will turn a corner and delight to find fellow teachers and preachers, some inspired by our revelation, some simply surfing forward with us on this wave of the age of spiritual awakening, and we will embrace one another and be amazed together at how the Holy Spirit works to heal our damaged world. As experience in preaching the gospel gives us growing strength of confidence and renewed faith, the small things that trouble us now will grow even smaller, the insignificant difficulties we fret about now will disappear as the illusions they are, and the serious challenges we face will inspire us to new solutions and new answers the world has never seen. No matter if it is a day or a thousand millennia until Machiventa Melchizedek takes the throne of Planetary Sovereign, until the children of Adam and Eve may come back to us, until Michael graces us once more with his presence, because we are already in the presence of God, and we have joy and wonder in our hearts, light and life in our souls, and love and service to bestow on our fellows of this world.

Sing harmonies of joy, shout gladly, and praise God with all our might, for we have seen the beginnings of an age that all the ages have longed for, a day when truth will rule, fellowship will embrace all people, and goodness is the motivation of every heart. We know the truth and we are free. We live the age of light and life here and now. We transcend our environment and escape the limitations of the world of our origin with the insight of divine love. Truth, beauty, and goodness are our heart and glory, our purpose and our motivation to righteousness. The Spirit of Truth fills the minds of all our fellows in the world, this Spirit shines its spotlight on the everlastingly true, beautiful, and good attractiveness of the Master Jesus, and Jesus is our way, truth, and light to our Father Source and Center. Always remember, "the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail."