2. The Edenic teachings. The second "revelation" was when Adam and Eve materialized on earth from the planet Jerusem about 38,000 years ago. They were over 8 feet tall, and provided truth for 100 years until their "default" in following Caligastia. (UB, 828, 840, 1007)

3. Melchizedek of Salem. The third "revelation" occurred in 1980 B.C. when Machiventa Melchizedek materialized in Salem (later called Jerusalem). The Melchizedeks were a class of beings procreated as the "offspring" of the preincarnate Jesus (Michael of Nebadon) and his spirit consort. (UB, 384-385, 1007-1008, 1015)

4. Jesus of Nazareth. The fourth "revelation" occurred when the Creator-Son of our local universe (Michael of Nebadon) entered into the son of Joseph and Mary, and was incarnated on August 21, 7 B.C., as Jesus Christ. (UB, 1008, 1309-1317, 1346)

"5. The Urantia Papers. The papers, of which this is one, constitute the most recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia. These papers differ from all previous revelations, for they are not the work of a single universe personality but a composite presentation by many beings." (UB, 1008). The fifth "revelation" occurred in 1931-1935, and probably for some time after that, with the coming of the Urantia Book.

Second, note that most of the chief people the Urantia Book uses, persons whose names are taken from the Bible--Adam and Eve, Melchizedek, and Jesus Christ--are not protrayed as human beings or members of the human race. Instead, the UB depicts them as aliens who came to earth from other planets. (The Urantia Jesus halfway fits: he lived as 6 different lifeforms before coming to earth, but was at least born on this planet.)

Third, the Urantia Book concept of revelation is quite weak. In each of the four prior Epochal Revelations, the data supposedly "revealed" to these celestial beings was lost to history until the details came forth in the Urantia Book. Even in the case of Jesus, the Urantia Book asserts that the apostles distorted His identity and purpose, so that "revelation" was mangled as well.

By contrast, the biblical concept of revelation affirms that God has something to say, that God takes sovereign initiative in disclosing His nature, His law, His will, and His grace to mankind. When God sends His word "forth from My mouth, it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it" (Isa. 55:11).

The "revelations" allegedly given to Caligastia's staff, Adam, and the rest were not preserved. However, the Bible says God's word is "forever . . . settled in heaven" and that the Scriptures "cannot be broken" (Ps. 119:89, John 10:35). God's word in the Bible is efficacious in its results and is preserved by God's power. "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matt. 7:18).

"But no revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically adapted to local conditions in time and space." (UB, 1008)

The Bible says revelation is an act of God, not the guesswork of men. "I have put My words in your mouth," God told Jeremiah (Jer. 1:9). "For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet. 1:21). While revelation in Scripture is not exhaustive (e.g., not all the miracles of Jesus are recorded), it is nevertheless authoritative and inspired for the purpose of keeping us in the knowledge of truth and free from error (Mk. 12:24, 2 Tim. 3:16-17).

"The Hebrews had no written language in general usage for a long time after they reached Palestine. . .The Hebrews did little writing until about 900 B.C., and having no written language until such a late date, they had several different stories of creation . . . almost a thousand years after Moses' sojourn on earth the tradition of creation in six days was written out and subsequently credited to him. . . . But the contemporary Hebrews of around 500 B.C. did not consider these writings to be divine revelations . . ." (UB, 838)

"The Biblical story of Noah, the ark, and the flood is an invention of the Hebrew priesthood during the Babylonian captivity. There has never been a universal flood since life was established on Urantia." (UB, 875)

"The attempt to suppress freedom of speech led Elijah, Amos, and Hosea to begin their secret writing, and this was the real beginning of the Jewish and Christian Bibles." (UB, 1074)

A vessel with characters from the Phoenician alphabet--used by Palestinian and Semitic peoples--was discovered in the late 1930s, dating to 1800 B.C. In Gebal, inscriptions of kings have been found from the 12th to 14th centuries B.C. Excavations at Tell ed-Duweir have yielded Hebrew writing dated in the 16th and 13th centuries B.C. Also fatal to the theory that Moses had no written language available to him is the UB's own statement that Moses was an educated leader whose mother was from "the royal family of Egypt." Certainly he could have written in Egyptian, at least!

Moreover, the Pentateuch claims Mosaic authorship. "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. . . . Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people" (Ex. 24:4, 7). "So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi" (Deut. 31:9). Jesus affirmed that the Law came from Moses (Matt. 19:8), and stated that "he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" (John 5:46-47) If Jesus cannot be trusted when He says Moses wrote of Him, there is little reason to trust Him in other areas either.

In the UB, Jesus tells the apostle Nathaniel, "The Scriptures are faulty and altogether human in origin, but mistake not, they do constitute the best collection of religious wisdom and spiritual truth to be found in all the world at this time. Many of these books were not written by the persons whose names they bear . . ." (UB, 1767)

And again, "Nathaniel, never permit yourself for one moment to believe the Scripture records which tell you that the God of love directed your forefathers to go forth in battle to slay all their enemies---men, women, and children. Such records are the words of men, not very holy men, and they are not the word of God." (UB, 1768)

Jesus says again, "The thing most deplorable is not merely this erroneous idea of the absolute perfection of the Scripture record and the infallibility of its teachings, but rather the confusing misinterpretation of these sacred writings by the tradition-enslaved scribes and Pharisees at Jerusalem. . . . Many earnest seekers after the truth have been, and will continue to be, confused and disheartened by these doctrines of the perfection of the Scriptures." " (UB, 1768)

Jesus spoke of the Scriptures in the highest terms. He said the Scriptures "cannot be broken" (John 10:35), that they "must be fulfilled" (Luke 24:44), and that they contain "the commandment of God" (Matt. 15:3) and are "the word of God" (Mark 7:13, John 10:35). Jesus said God was the author of the words of Genesis 2:24 (Matt. 19:4-5). For Jesus, the Scriptures were the final way to resolve doctrinal questions ("What is written in the Torah?"--Luke 10:26) or to resist demonic temptation ("Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written . . ."--Matt. 4:3). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus upheld the validity of the written word: "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matt. 5:17).

"Paul, in an effort to utilize the widespread adherence to the better types of the mystery religions, made certain adaptations of the teachings of Jesus so as to render them more acceptable to a larger number of prospective converts." (UB, 1337)

"Paul's theory of original sin, the doctrines of hereditary guilt and innate evil and redemption therefrom, was partially Mithraic in origin, having little in common with Hebrew theology . . . or Jesus' teachings. Some phases of Paul's teachings regarding original sin and the atonement were original with himself." (UB, 1339)

"In his last years Abner denounced Paul as the 'clever corrupter of the life teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the living God.' " (UB, 1832)

This attack on Paul also does not account for God's own sovereignty. The sovereign God of the Church controls the Scriptures which He sends to it. God is not only able but willing to protect His word from distortion (Deut. 29:29, Ps. 111:7-8, Prov. 30:5-6).

At the wedding in Cana, "there was no escaping the instantaneous appearance of wine. . . . But this was in no sense a miracle. No law of nature was modified, abrogated, or even transcended. Nothing happened but the abrogation of time . . ." (UB, 1530)

The lame man at the pool of Bethesda "was such a victim of the feeling of his own helplessness that he had never once entertained the idea of helping himself which proved to be the one thing he had to do in order to effect recovery---take up his bed and walk." (UB, 1650)

In raising the dead son of the widow of Nain, Jesus "vainly tried to explain that the lad was not really dead, that he had not brought him back from the grave, but it was useless. . . . Never was Jesus able to make even all his apostles fully understand that the widow's son was not really dead when he bade him awake and arise." (UB, 1645, 1646)

Likewise with the dead daughter of Jairus, Jesus "explained that the maiden had been in a state of coma following a long fever, and that he had merely aroused her, that he had not raised her from the dead. He likewise explained all this to his apostles, but it was futile; they all believed he had raised the little girl from the dead." (UB, 1699)

Regarding walking on the water, "Peter dreamed a dream; he saw a vision of Jesus coming to them walking on the sea. . . . To Peter this experience was always real. He sincerely believed that Jesus came to them that night." (UB, 1703)

Regarding the cleansing of ten lepers, "Though all ten of these men believed they had leprosy, only four were thus afflicted. The other six were cured of a skin disease which had been mistaken for leprosy." (UB, 1828)

The UB especially blunders by saying that in changing the water to wine at the wedding of Cana, no special miracle occurred except "the abrogation of time." The UB forgets that the six waterpots were filled with water, not grape juice (John 2:7). If the only miracle were the acceleration of time, then the ruler of the feast should have tasted old water! The miracle had to include the transformation of water into grape juice and some small degree of fermentation as well. It takes more than time to change water into wine!

Jesus' miracle of walking on water was not simply a dream that Peter had. The Bible records this in three Gospels as a literal event (Matt. 14:24-33, Mark 6:47-52, John 6:16-21). All three Gospels say that "the disciples" (Matthew) or "they" (Mark, John) saw Him walking on the sea. This was not a private fantasy of the apostle Peter. If so, why would John and Matthew also record it?

Denial of the Bible's miracles is in keeping with the Urantia Book's general embrace of the theories of "higher criticism." The New Testament was written by men who were with Jesus personally. "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty" (2 Pet. 1:16). The fact that a miracle is described in one of the Gospels but is not mentioned in the others is not to be taken as evidence that the author therefore made it up.

"Truth may be but relatively inspired, even though revelation is invariably a spiritual phenomenon. While statements with reference to cosmology are never inspired, such revelations are of immense value in that they at least transiently clarify knowledge . . ." (UB, 1109)

Science in the Urantia Book is indeed errant and clearly dates from the 1930s. It claims that our part of the galaxy was created 875 billion years ago (UB, 652); modern science estimates the age of the entire universe at 15-20 billion years. The UB claims there are now 11 planets in the solar system, with two beyond Pluto (UB, 656-658); astronomers know of only 9 planets. The UB gives the Sun a surface temperature of 6000 degrees Fahrenheit and an internal temperature of 35,000,000 °F (UB, 463); in fact, the solar surface is about 10,000 °F and its core about 27,000,000 °F. Martin Gardner's book Urantia contains two chapters on its scientific errors.

Moreover, the UB distinction between errant science and inspired history is artificial. Is its claim about the age of the galaxy a "scientific" or an "historic" statement? The UB gives the ID number of the cosmic "inspector" who allegedly "authorized" the creation of our part of the galaxy 987 billion years ago, and says the Milky Way headquarters issued a "permit" to begin construction--a permit still on file, by the way--87 billion years later! (UB, 651). This is clearly a statement about history, not "science," but its history cannot possibly be true.

"He is the creator and controller of the universe of universes. God is one God; he is alone and by himself; he is the only one. And this one God is our Maker and the last destiny of the soul." (UB, 1448)

"The concept of a semihuman and jealous God is an inevitable transition between polytheism and sublime monotheism." (UB, 67)

POLYTHEISTIC EVIDENCE--
"All spirit values and spiritual personalities are unceasingly drawn inward towards the abode of the Gods." (UB, 155)

". . . diffused throughout the central creation of the Gods, the Father acts, and creature personality appears. Then does the presence of the Paradise Deities fill all organized space and begin effectively to draw all things and beings Paradiseward." (UB, 91)

"That prayer which is inconsistent with the known and established laws of God is an abomination to the Paradise Deities. If man will not listen to the Gods as they speak to their creation . . . the very act . . . turns the ears of spirit personalities away from hearing the personal petitions of such lawless and disobedient mortals." (UB, 1638)

". . . the spirits of the Gods even now indwell you, hover over you, and inspire you to true worship." (UB, 304)

"In the persons of the Supreme Creators the Gods have descended from Paradise to the domains of time and space, there to create and to evolve creatures with Paradise-attainment capacity . . ." (UB, 1278)

"The Gods are my caretakers; I shall not stray; Side by side they lead me in the beautiful paths and glorious refreshing of life everlasting. I shall not, in this Divine Presence want for food nor thirst for water. . ." (UB, 552)

"Do you not recall how the Scriptures begin by asserting that 'In the beginning the Gods created the heavens and the earth'?" (UB, 1598)

This belief is like Mormonism, which also claims to be monotheistic because Mormonism says there is only one God over this universe. The Bible is clear that God created all that exists (Col. 1:16, Rev. 4:11), not simply all that we can see. Further, God says there are no beings like Him (Isa. 48:9), and there are no other Gods with Him or beside Him (Isa. 43:10, 44:6, 45:5). "There is one God, and there is no other but He" (Mark 12:32).

The UB revision of Genesis 1:1 ("In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth") and the 23rd Psalm ("The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want") to refer to "Gods" (plural) is an attempt to insert polytheism into the Bible.

"The Eternal Son is the original and only-begotten Son of God. He is God the Son, the Second Person of Deity and the associate creator of all things. . . . Paul confused Jesus, Creator Son of the local universe, with the Second Person of Deity, the Eternal Son of Paradise." (UB, 73, 1144)

"Not since the times of Jesus has the factual identity of the Paradise Trinity been known on Urantia . . . until its presentation in these revelatory disclosures. But though the Christian concept of the Trinity erred in fact, it was practically true with respect to spiritual relationships." (UB, 1145)

The result of this revisionism is that the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are reinterpreted as secondary creatures, both brought into existence at a point in time, which the Christian church mistakenly worships as truly God. The UB teaches that there are many Gods on par with, and above, Jesus Christ, and is in no way consistent or tolerant of classical Christian trinitarianism.

"The first three and past-eternal Deities of Paradise--the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit--are, in the eternal future, to be personality-complemented by the experiential actualization of associate evolutionary Deities--God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and possibly God the Absolute." (UB, 13)

The claim that additional Gods (plural) come into existence through God's evolutionary experiences is self-refuting. If they come into existence, they cannot be God. The creature is not the Creator (Rom. 1:25). It is also contradictory to refer to a possibly "impersonal" being which is not yet come into existence as Supreme, Ultimate, or Absolute.

"The monontia soul of an evolving mortal is really the son of the Adjuster action of the Universal Father and the child of the cosmic reaction of the Supreme Being, the Universal Mother." (UB, 1288)

"All Sons of God who take origin in the persons of the Paradise Deities are in direct and constant communication with the Eternal Mother Son." (UB, 88)

"The first act of the Infinite Spirit is the inspection and recognition of his divine parents, the Father-Father and the Mother-Son." (UB, 90)

"As God is your divine Father, so is the Supreme your divine Mother . . ." (UB, 1288)

"All soul-evolving humans are literally the evolutionary sons of God the Father and God the Mother, the Supreme Being." (UB, 1289)

The difference between UB concepts and biblical concepts is that the Bible presents one God, not two deities of different gender whose unions or parentage give rise to spirit offspring. This concept is more akin to paganism. Further, there is a logical contradiction in referring to an "Eternal Son" who can also be called a "Mother Son" or "God the Mother." The Bible never translates female metaphors into an androgynous (bisexual) statements of identity.

"[W]hen the Creative Mother Spirit . . . subordinated herself to Christ Michael upon the return from his final bestowal on Urantia, the Master Son thereby acquired jurisdiction over 'all power in heaven and on earth.' " (UB, 367)

"1. The effort to connect the gospel teaching directly onto the Jewish theology, as illustrated by the Christian doctrines of the atonement--the teaching that Jesus was the sacrificed Son who would satisfy the Father's stern justice and appease the divine wrath. ...

"2. The second great blunder of the Master's early followers, and one which all subsequent generations have persisted in perpetuating, was to organize the Christian teaching so completely about the person of Jesus. This overemphasis of the personality of Jesus in the theology of Christianity has worked to obscure his teachings, and all of this has made it increasingly difficult for Jews, Mohammedans, Hindus, and other Eastern religionists to accept the teachings of Jesus. We would not belittle the place of the person of Jesus in a religion which might bear his name, but we would not permit such consideration to eclipse his inspired life or to supplant his saving message: the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man." (UB, 1670)

Jesus asked the apostles who they said that He was (Matt. 16:15). Jesus said that one's salvation and eternal destiny depended on whether the sinner recognized Christ's true nature and person: "Unless you believe that I am, ye shall die in your sins" (John 8:24). In so claiming to be "I am", Jesus is identifying Himself with the covenant name of Yahweh, I AM, who spoke to Moses from the burning bush.

Likewise, the heart and summary of the Gospel is that "Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3). This is the essence of "the Gospel . . . wherein ye stand and by which also ye are saved" (1 Cor. 15:1-2). To deny the death of Christ in the place of sinners is to reject the Christian gospel.

"The primary or Creator Sons are brought into being by the Universal Father and the Eternal Son." (UB, 224)

"Paul confused Jesus, Creator Son of the local universe, with the Second Person of Deity, the Eternal Son of Paradise." (UB, 1144)

When the spiritual thoughts of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son join perfectly together, "... there flashes into full-fledged being a new and original Creator Son," who was created by "those divine creative potentials which united to bring this Michael Son into existence." (UB, 235)

"The Eternal Son is the original and only-begotten Son of God. He is God the Son, the Second Person of Deity and the associate creator of all things. . . . Had the New Testament writer referred to the Eternal Son, he would have uttered the truth when he wrote: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.' . . . On your world, . . . this Original [Eternal] Son has been confused with a co-ordinate Creator Son, Michael of Nebadon, who bestowed himself upon the mortal races of Urantia." (UB, 73, 74)

"Before a Creator Son may engage in the creation of any new type of being, any new design of creature, he must secure the consent of the Eternal and Original Mother Son." (UB, 236)

Many sects will occasionally call Jesus "God," but when it comes down to asking what they mean by this term, they will not credit Jesus Christ with absolute and true deity.

"The Creator Sons are the makers and rulers of the local universes of time and space. These universe creators and sovereigns are of dual origin, embodying the characteristics of God the Father and God the Son. . . . These primary Paradise Sons are personalized as Michaels. As they go forth from Paradise to found their universes, they are known as Creator Michaels. . . . Sometimes we refer to the sovereign of your universe of Nebadon as Christ Michael." (UB, 234)

"Our Creator Son is the personification of the 611,121st original concept of infinite identity of simultaneous origin in the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Michael of Nebadon is the 'only-begotten Son' personalizing this 611,121st universal concept of divinity and infinity." (UB, 366)

(6) The UB also denies that Christ is the true Creator. The Bible declares that Jesus is the creator of all things in heaven and earth (John 1:3, 1 Cor. 8:6, Col. 1:16), and the Scripture does not limit His creative work to merely one part of the galaxy, which is what the UB contends. (7) The UB also denies the supremacy of Christ. The Scripture declares that Jesus has supreme and final authority "in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come" (Eph. 1:20-21).

On Michael's fourth incarnation 450 million years ago, he appeared as "what you might denominate a private secretary, to twenty-six different master teachers, functioning on twenty-two different worlds." (UB, 1313)

Further, when Jesus became human He also became mortal or able to die. At the resurrection, He became immortal or unable to die (1 Cor. 15:53-54). This means that if Jesus had died and resurrected on other planets, He should have been immortal when He came here. If the manner of incarnation was similar, He would have had to dispense with not only His "other" physical body but His immortality as well.

"[T]hough he was not the Davidic type of Messiah, he was truly the fulfillment of the prophetic utterances of the more spiritually minded of the olden seers." (UB, 1532)

"[Jesus] knew he was not to become the expected Jewish Messiah, and he concluded that it was next to useless to discuss these matters with his mother ..." (UB, 1396)

"And now he [Jesus] made his final decision regarding those Scriptures which his mother had taught him, such as: 'The Lord has said to me, "You are my Son; this day have I begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." ' "Jesus of Nazareth reached the conclusion that such utterances did not refer to him." (UB, 1522)

"Peter persisted in making the mistake of trying to convince the Jews that Jesus was, after all, really and truly the Jewish Messiah. Right up to the day of his death, Simon Peter continued to suffer confusion in his mind . . ." (UB, 1552)

Jesus in the Urantia Book rebukes his apostles because "you have developed a concept of the kingdom of heaven as a glorified rule of the Jewish people over all the peoples of the earth with Messiah sitting on David's throne and from this place of miraculous power promulgating the laws of all the world. But, my children, you see not with the eye of faith, and you hear not with the understanding of the spirit." (UB, 1588)

"Most of the so-called Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament were made to apply to Jesus long after his life had been lived on earth. . . . [M]any figurative passages found throughout the Hebrew scriptures were subsequently misapplied to the life mission of Jesus. Many Old Testament sayings were so distorted as to appear to fit some episode of the Master's earth life." (UB, 1347, 1348)

The UB claim that Jesus was not the Messiah also fails to observe that the Hebrew word "Messiah" is interchangeable with the Greek word "Christ," each of which means the Anointed One. The NT records that the apostle Andrew "said to his brother, 'We have found the Messiah,' which is translated, the Christ" (John 1:41). We may safely say that every biblical statement that Jesus is the Christ is also an affirmation that Jesus is the Messiah. For example, "These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ" (John 20:31). In light of these facts, the UB falls under the judgment of 1 John 2:22, "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son."

"Gabriel's announcement to Mary was made the day following the conception of Jesus and was the only event of supernatural occurrence connected with her entire experience of carrying and bearing the child of promise." (UB, 1347)

"At first Joseph had doubts about the Gabriel visitation. . . . How could the offspring of human beings be a child of divine destiny?" (UB, 1347)

"Even the passage, 'a maiden shall bear a son,' was made to read, 'a virgin shall bear a son.' " (UB, 1348)

The UB's denial that Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus is a holdover from liberal skepticism, which appears in large doses in the Urantia Book. Though the UB affirms that some of the miracles recorded in Scripture actually took place, it often denies many others outright or reinterprets them as natural events.

The key prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 ("Therefore, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son...") is said to have been distorted and applied to Jesus after His birth. However, the Hebrew word for "virgin" used in this verse is alma and can refer to a young woman of pre-childbearing age. When the Jews translated the OT into Greek about 250 B.C. (as the Septuagint) they used the word parthenos to translate alma at Isaiah 7:14, and parthenos means a true virgin. A typical pregnancy could hardly qualify as a sign from God!

Matthew's gospel clearly records that Joseph "knew her not until after" she brought forth Jesus (1:25). Luke's gospel agrees that Mary was a virgin (1:27,34). Other Old and New Testament allusions (Gen. 3:15, John 8:41, Gal. 4:4) also help to corroborate Mary's virginity.

"Jesus himself onetime publicly denied any connection with the royal house of David." (UB, 1348)

"[T]he many genealogies of both Joseph and Mary . . . were constructed subsequent to Michael's [i.e., Jesus'] career on earth. . . . on the whole they are not genuine and may not be depended upon as factual." (UB, 1348)

"David and Solomon were not in the direct line of Joseph's ancestry, neither did Joseph's lineage go directly back to Adam." (UB, 1344)

"Was he [Jesus] or was he not of the house of David? His mother averred he was; his father had ruled that he was not. He decided he was not." (UB, 1390-1391)

"1. His material or physical body was not a part of the resurrected personality. When Jesus came forth from the tomb, his body of flesh remained undisturbed in the sepulchre. He emerged from the burial tomb without moving the stones before the entrance and without disturbing the seals of Pilate.

"2. He did not emerge from the tomb as a spirit . . .

"3. He did come forth from this tomb of Joseph in the very likeness of the morontia personalities . . ." (UB, 2021)

"After the resurrected Jesus emerged from his burial tomb, the body of flesh in which he had lived and wrought on earth for almost thirty-six years was still lying there in the sepulchre niche, undisturbed and wrapped in the linen sheet . . ." (UB, 2021)

The apostles' discovery of an empty tomb "led to the formulation of a belief which was not true: the teaching that the material and mortal body of Jesus was raised from the grave." (UB, 2023)

First, early Judaism believed in physical resurrection and Jesus never corrected this. The books of Job and Daniel taught a resurrection of the flesh (Job 19:26-27, Dan. 12:2). David predicted a resurrection of Jesus' "flesh" (Ps. 16:8-11, Acts 2:25-32). The Pharisees taught a physical resurrection (Acts 23:6-8), as did Jesus himself (John 5:25).

Second, logically that which dies must be that which is raised again. The NT uses the words "rise again," "raised back," "raised again" and other terms besides "resurrection." Since it is the body which dies, it must be the body which is raised back to life. The Bible confirms this in Isa. 26:19, Matt. 27:52 and Acts 9:40.

Third, Jesus took pains to teach that His body would be returned to life. "Destroy this temple," He said, "and in three days I will raise it up." The apostle notes that "He spoke of the temple of His body" (John 2:19-21). Jesus told disciples that His resurrected body was made of "flesh and bones, as you see I have" (Luke 24:39). Whatever a "morontia body" is, it is a replacement for "flesh and bones," not the same flesh and bones.

"The mortal remains of Jesus underwent the same natural process of elemental disintegration as characterizes all human bodies on earth except that, in point of time, this natural mode of disintegration was greatly accelerated, hastened to the point where it became well-nigh instantaneous." (UB, 2024)

It would also contradict Jesus, who challenged the Jews by saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). Since "the temple" was a metaphor for Jesus' body, it would make little sense for Jesus to say, in effect, "Destroy this temple and in three days it will disintegrate completely." Jesus intended to raise His body, not replace it.

"[T]hat very moment, the Infinite Spirit springs full-fledgedly into existence. . . . The first act of the Infinite Spirit is the inspection and recognition of his divine parents, the Father-Father and the Mother-Son." (UB, 90)

"His coming into being completes the Father's liberation . . ." (UB, 98)

"In your sacred writings the term Spirit of God seems to be used interchangeably to designate both the Infinite Spirit on Paradise and the Creative Spirit of your local universe. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual circuit of this Creative Daughter of the Paradise Infinite Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a circuit indigenous to each local universe and is confined to the spiritual realm of that creation; but the Infinite Spirit is omnipresent." (UB, 95)

"Since the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, man is subject to the teaching and guidance of a threefold spirit endowment: the spirit of the Father, the Thought Adjuster; the spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Truth; the spirit of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit." (UB, 2061)

The UB claims the Holy Spirit is the influence (not the person) of one of many "Creative Daughter Spirits," which are the product of an earlier created being, the Infinite Spirit. In so saying, the UB effectively denies the both the personality and the full deity of the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a personal being who says "I" (Acts 13:2), not just the work of a personal being. Further, the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:4) and thus is uncreated and has always existed.

"From Paradise come the [local] Universe Mother Spirits, the cocreators of local universes. . . . This [Creator] Son and his Spirit associate are your creator parents." (UB, 162, 367)

The local universes contain "the local universe Mother Spirits, the Holy Spirit of your world." (UB, 177)

"The Mother Spirit of Salvington knows you fully, for the Holy Spirit on your world 'searches all things' . . ." (UB, 313)

"The [local] Universe Mother Spirit acts as the universe focus and center of the Spirit of Truth as well as of her own personal influence, the Holy Spirit." (UB, 378)

After Jesus' resurrection, "the triumphant Creator Son elevates the Universe Mother Spirit to cosovereignty and acknowledges the Spirit consort as his equal." (UB, 204)

"The Father in heaven treats the Spirit Mother of the children of the universe as one equal to himself." (UB, 1471)

In the Urantia Book, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are creatures made by higher deities, with 700,000 pairs just like them. They are then given creative powers, but the fact remains that in the UB, both Jesus and the Holy Spirit ("Mother Spirit") were brought into existence at a point in the past.

According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit is God--not simply a "local" deity over part of the galaxy. In Acts 5:4-5, Peter equates the Holy Spirit with God. In Acts 28:25, we are told that "the Holy Spirit spoke through Isaiah the prophet," yet in the passage referred to, it is Yahweh speaking through Isaiah (chap. 6). Thus, the Holy Spirit is identified with the sacred covenant name of God. The Holy Spirit is also known as the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2, Matt. 3:16); the Spirit of Yahweh (Isa. 59:19, 61:1); and the Spirit of your Father and of adoption (Matt. 10:20, Rom. 8:15). God never identifies a creature as being "equal to himself."

"1. The bestowed spirit of the Universal Father--the Thought Adjusters.

"2. The spirit presence of the Eternal Son--the spirit gravity of the universe of universes and the certain channel of all spirit communion.

"3. The spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit--the universal spirit-mind of all creation, the spiritual source of the intellectual kinship of all progressive intelligences.

"4. The spirit of the Universal Father and the Creator Son--the Spirit of Truth, generally regarded as the spirit of the Universe Son.

"5. The spirit of the Infinite Spirit and the Universe Mother Spirit--the Holy Spirit, generally regarded as the spirit of the Universe Spirit.

"6. The mind-spirit of the Universe Mother Spirit--the seven adjutant mind-spirits of the local universe.

"7. The spirit of the Father, Sons, and Spirits--the new-name spirit of the ascending mortals of the realms after the fusion of the mortal spirit-born soul with the Paradise Thought Adjuster and after the subsequent attainment of the divinity and glorification of the status of the Paradise Corps of the Finality." (UB, 2062)

"Andon and Fonta were the most remarkable pair of human beings that have ever lived on the face of the earth. This wonderful pair, the actual parents of all mankind, were in every way superior . . ." (UB, 711)

"Adam and Eve arrived on Urantia, from the year A.D. 1934, 37,848 years ago. It was in midseason when the Garden was in the height of bloom that they arrived. At high noon and unannounced, the two seraphic transports, accompanied by the Jerusem personnel intrusted with the transportation of the biologic uplifters to Urantia, settled slowly to the surface of the revolving planet in the vicinity of the temple of the Universal Father." (UB, 828)

Jesus Christ confirmed this when He said that "[God] who made them at the beginning made them male and female" (Matt. 19:4), quoting the first chapter of Genesis as authoritative about the origin of mankind. 1 Cor. 15:45 says "the first man Adam was made a living soul," establishing that it was Adam who was the first man, not Andon.

"Adam and Eve did default, but no mortal subsequently born on Urantia has suffered in his personal spiritual experience because of these blunders." (UB, 761)

"... sin is not transmitted from parent to child. Sin is the act of conscious and deliberate rebellion against the Father's will and the Sons' laws by an individual will creature." (UB, 2016; note plural possessive Sons' in the text, i.e., "the laws of the Sons")

"Mankind was not consigned to agricultural toil as the penalty of supposed sin. "In the sweat of your face shall you eat the fruit of the fields" was not a sentence of punishment pronounced because of man's participation in the follies of the Lucifer rebellion under the leadership of the traitorous Caligastia." (UB, 751)

"The Christian teachers perpetuated the belief in the fiat creation of the human race, and all this led directly to . . . the theory of the fall of man or superman which accounted for the nonutopian condition of society. These outlooks . . . were predicated upon a belief in retrogression rather than progression, as well as implying a vengeful Deity, who had vented wrath upon the human race in retribution for the errors of certain onetime planetary administrators." (UB, 838)

The Bible affirms that death is a literal consequence of the sin of Adam and Eve. "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Through the sin of Adam, many others were affected: "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men . . . For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Rom. 5:12, 19). The great suffering and pain inflicted by humans upon one another throughout recorded history is obvious and empirical truth of the validity of the Bible on the sinfulness of man.

Note that the UB defines sin as rebellion "against the Father's will and the Sons' laws," i.e., the laws of the local universe Michael Sons (or creators). Though this has echoes of the biblical definition of sin as transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4), it wedges polytheism into its definition. There are not many creators over other local universes (Rev. 4:11). Moreover, the Bible also defines sin as a principle or inclination which dwells within mankind, not merely as an act of disobedience. "But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Rom. 7:17). "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts" (Rom. 6:12). This aspect of biblical teaching is rejected by the Urantia Book.

"The doctrine of the total depravity of man destroyed much of the potential of religion for effecting social repercussions of an uplifting nature and of inspirational value. Jesus sought to restore man's dignity when he declared that all men are the children of God." (UB, 1091)

No passage of the New Testament says that all men are the children of God. There is a necessary condition for this privilege: "But as many as received Him [Jesus], to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name" (John 1:12).

"Man is spiritually indwelt by a surviving Thought Adjuster. . . . The indwelling Thought Adjusters are a part of the eternal Deity of the Paradise Father. . . . God lives in every one of his spirit-born sons." (UB, 63, 62, 64)

"The divine presence cannot, however, be discovered anywhere . . . so fully and so certainly as in your attempted communion with the indwelling Mystery Monitor, the Paradise Thought Adjuster. What a mistake to dream of God far off in the skies when the spirit of the Universal Father lives within your own mind! "It is because of this God fragment that indwells you that you can hope, as you progress in harmonizing with the Adjuster's spiritual leadings, more fully to discern the presence and transforming power of those other spiritual influences that surround you . . ." (UB, 64)

The only biblical cases when multiple spirits dwell within a single person occur when the person is indwelt by "unclean spirits" (Mk. 1:27, 3:11, 5:13, etc.) or "evil spirits" (Acts 19:13), which can be cast out with authority in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:7).

"Between the time of planetary death or translation and resurrection on the mansion world, mortal man gains absolutely nothing aside from experiencing the fact of survival. You begin over there right where you leave off down here." (UB, 533)

"This child of persisting meaning and surviving value is wholly unconscious during the period from death to repersonalization . . . You will not function as a conscious being, following death, until you attain the new consciousness of morontia on the mansion worlds of Satania." (UB, 1234)

"While some of your records have pictured these events as taking place on the planets of mortal death, they all really occur on the mansion worlds." (UB, 569)

"On the mansion worlds the resurrected mortal survivors resume their lives just where they left off when overtaken by death. . . . you would hardly notice the difference except for the fact that you were in possession of a different body; the tabernacle of flesh and blood has been left behind on the world of [your] nativity." (UB, 532)

That humans are indeed conscious after death is shown by several passages. The unjust dead are kept by God "for a day of judgment, being [still] punished" (2 Pet. 2:9, literal translation). The Greek text of this verse shows that God's punishment is ongoing. This is also apparent in Jesus parable of the unregenerate rich man (Luke 16:19-31). On the other hand, Christians anticipate that when they are "absent from the body" (i.e., disembodied), they are "present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8), and that even at death, separated from "the flesh" they are present "with Christ" (Phil. 1:23). The book of Revelation shows the martyrs of the Tribulation period, not yet resurrected, in communion with and rewarded by God (Rev. 6:9-11). Finally, Christians are promised that we "shall never die" and now possess "everlasting life" (John 5:24, 11:26). If we went out of existence, even temporarily, this would nullify Christ's promise to His children in Scripture.

Jesus rebuked the apostle Peter for saying Jesus did not need to die: "Get behind Me, Satan! . . . for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men" (Matt. 16:23). After His resurrection, Jesus reminded the disciples that His death was ordained in the Scriptures. "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things . . . ?" (Lu. 24:25-26) Peter's perspective was altered when he was filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost; he proclaimed that Jesus was crucified according to "the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23).

"... the Son of Man did not offer himself as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of God and to open the way for sinful man to obtain salvation." (UB, 2016)

"Jesus did not die to ransom man from the clutch of the apostate rulers and fallen princes of the spheres. . . . Neither was the Master's death on a cross a sacrifice which consisted in an effort to pay God a debt which the race of mankind had come to owe him." (UB, 2016)

"Though it is hardly proper to speak of Jesus as a sacrificer, a ransomer, or a redeemer, it is wholly correct to refer to him as a savior. He forever made the way of salvation (survival) more clear and certain." (UB, 2017; parentheses in original)

"The whole idea of ransom and atonement is incompatible with the concept of God as it was taught and exemplified by Jesus of Nazareth. . . . All this concept of atonement and sacrificial salvation is rooted and grounded in selfishness." (UB, 2017)

"This entire idea of the ransom of the atonement places salvation upon a plane of unreality; such a concept is purely philosophic. Human salvation is real; it is based on two realities ... the fact of the fatherhood of God and its correlated truth, the brotherhood of man." (UB, 2017)

"The cross is not the symbol of the sacrifice of the innocent Son of God in the place of guilty sinners and in order to appease the wrath of an offended God ..." (UB, 2019)

John the Baptist called Jesus "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), an allusion to the Passover Lamb slain to save the Israelites. Jesus taught His followers, "The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28). At the Last Supper Jesus said, "This [cup] is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:28).

The statement that "Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8), or in place of us, is repeated dozens of time in Scripture. The Book of Hebrews says Jesus "offered one sacrifice for sins forever" (10:12); Peter says "Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Pet. 3:18); while John affirms, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 4:10).

"The barbarous idea of appeasing an angry God, of propitiating an offended Lord, of winning the favor of Deity through sacrifices and penance and even by the shedding of blood, represents a religion wholly puerile and primitive, a philosophy unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth. Such beliefs are utterly repulsive to the celestial beings and the divine rulers who serve and reign in the universes. It is an affront to God to believe, hold, or teach that innocent blood must be shed in order to win his favor or to divert the fictitious divine wrath." (UB, 60)

However, God's just anger is also joined with His deep mercy, so that "He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 4:10). Through the death of Jesus on the cross, He was able "to make propitiation for the sins of the people" and "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb. 2:17, 9:26).

The concept of "celestial beings" and "divine rulers" (i.e., gods) who reign over various local universes is another reference to the UB's belief in polytheism. See the previous section on the Doctrine of God.

"Simon Zelotes asked, 'But, Master, are all men the sons of God?' And Jesus answered: 'Yes, Simon, all men are the sons of God, and that is the good news you are going to proclaim.' " (UB, 1585)

"Salvation should be taken for granted by those who believe in the fatherhood of God. . . . Human salvation is real; it is based on two realities . . . the fact of the fatherhood of God and its correlated truth, the brotherhood of man." (UB, 2017)

"[T]hose children of time and space who have espoused the leading and teaching of the indwelling Adjuster . . . have been truly 'born of the Spirit.' . . . Those who have received and recognized the indwelling of God have been born of the Spirit." (UB, 380, 381)

"Your mission to the world is founded on . . . the truth that you and all other men are the sons of God. . ." (UB, 2043)

However, the Bible never says all men are sons of God. We achieve the status of son or daughter only through faith in Jesus Christ. "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:26). "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His [Jesus'] name" (John 1:12). Moreover, before a person receives Jesus and becomes a child of God, the Bible says such people "are by nature the children of wrath" (Eph. 2:1) or "children of disobedience" (Eph. 5:6, Col. 3:6). The relationship whereby God adopts us as His children is conditional, but open to any who will turn to Jesus: "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5:1), and thus becomes a new member of God's spiritual household.

The New Testament doctrine of justification means we not only have "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" but that also "we have access" directly to God (Rom. 5:1-2, Eph. 2:18). There is no need for additional training experiences on other worlds to qualify us for fellowship and access to God, since the blood of Jesus gives us access to the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:8, 10:19). The reward and goal of our faith is not fellowship with a spirit being (which is not the Holy Spirit), but fellowship with God. The UB hope of being "united with your indwelling Adjuster" pales in comparison with the Paul's Christian hope: "But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him" (Phil. 3:8-9).

"There is a long, long road ahead of mortal man before he can consistently and within the realms of possibility ask for safe conduct into the Paradise presence of the Universal Father. Spiritually, man must be translated many times before he can attain a plane that will yield the spiritual vision which will enable him to see even any one of the Seven Master Spirits." (UB, 62)

"Very plainly Jesus explained that the kingdom of heaven was an evolutionary experience, beginning here on earth and progressing up through successive life stations to Paradise." (UB, 1603)

Also, the Bible records Jesus telling the thief, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). The UB moved the comma to be after the word "today," even though the introductory phrase "truly I say to you," followed by a comma and a full independent clause, appears dozens of time in Scripture. Adding the word "sometime" in this passage is an unwarranted attempt to undercut Jesus' promise to the repentant sinner.

"You will not function as a conscious being, following death, until you attain the new consciousness of morontia on the mansion worlds of Satania." (UB, 1234)

"While some of your records have pictured these events as taking place on the planets of mortal death, they all really occur on the mansion worlds." (UB, 569)

"On the mansion worlds the resurrected mortal survivors resume their lives just where they left off when overtaken by death. . . . you would hardly notice the difference except for the fact that you were in possession of a different body; the tabernacle of flesh and blood has been left behind on the world of [your] nativity." (UB, 532)

Also, the Bible says the dead are raised with physical bodies, not "morontia bodies," which are non-physical. At the resurrection of the just, Jesus "will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body" (Phil. 3:21). Since believers will have a body like Jesus and since His body is physical (Luke 24:39), their bodies will also be physical. Finally, since Jesus will return to earth (Rev. 19:11-19), the resurrected believers will also be with Him on earth, not on the "morontia" planets (John 14:3).

"That which mercy cannot rehabilitate justice will eventually annihilate." (UB, 241)

"We await the flashing broadcast that will deprive these traitors of personality existence" and "will effect the annihilation of these interned rebels." (UB, 612)

Other passages talk about those who are cast into hell, "where their worm does not dies and the fire is not quenched" (Mk. 9:43), or those who are punished such that "the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever" (Rev. 14:10). The Bible speaks of "everlasting contempt" (Dan. 12:2) and "unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3:12), and so it appears that the language of Scripture excludes annihilation or extinction of consciousness. However, since the UB channeler was raised in an Adventist home, the presence of these denials is not surprising (i.e., the Adventists deny eternal punishment).

"The early Christians (and all too many of the later ones) generally lost sight of the Father-and-son idea embodied in Jesus' teaching of the kingdom, while they substituted therefor the well-organized social fellowship of the church. The church thus became in the main a social brotherhood which effectively displaced Jesus' concept and ideal of a spiritual brotherhood." (UB, 1865)

"Likewise, the Christian churches of the twentieth century stand as great, but wholly unconscious, obstacles to the immediate advance of the real gospel--the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. . . . Jesus did not found the so-called Christian church, but he has, in every manner consistent with his nature, fostered it as the best existent exponent of his lifework on earth." (UB, 2085)

"Paul learned of the existence of the morontia worlds and of the reality of morontia materials, for he wrote, 'They have in heaven a better and more enduring substance.' " (UB, 542)

Christian response
Note that on page 539 of the UB, the "quotation" from Paul's writings is actually a corruption of Hebrews 12:22-23. In the second quote, the UB states that Paul wrote the passage in Hebrews 10:34. Clearly, the UB is saying that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. It seems the UB authors (or editors) forgot this later on, because on page 2091 it states that Hebrews is one of the books of the NT which does not portray Paul's "personal religious convictions."

"The devil has been given a great deal of credit for evil which does not belong to him. Caligastia has been comparatively impotent since the cross of Christ." (UB, 610)

"The Negroid--the secondary Sangik type, which originally included the orange, green, and indigo races. This is the type best illustrated by the Negro, and it will be found through Africa, India, and Indonesia wherever the secondary Sangik races located." (UB, 905)

"Even such inferior races as the African Bushmen, . . . " (UB, 1132)

"The green race was one of the less able groups of primitive men, and they were greatly weakened by extensive migrations . . . The southern nation entered Africa, where they destroyed their almost equally inferior orange cousins." (UB, 724)

"As the red men were the most advanced of all the Sangik peoples, so the black men were the least progressive. . . . Isolated in Africa, the indigo peoples, like the red man, received little or none of the race elevation which would have been derived from the infusion of the Adamic stock. . . . Notwithstanding their backwardness, these indigo peoples have exactly the same standing before the celestial powers as any other earthly race." (UB, 725)

"The blue man most of all profited by these early social teachings, the red man to some extent, and the black man least of all. In more recent times the yellow race and the white race have presented the most advanced social development on Urantia." (UB, 763)

". . . the best of the early Andonites had been preserved. And both of these superior races of culture and character were absorbed by the northward-moving Adamites." (UB, 870)

"The indigo race was moving south to Africa, there to begin its slow but long-continued racial deterioration." (UB, 871)

". . . the people eagerly look forward to the day when announcement will be made that those who have qualified as belonging to the superior racial strains may proceed to the Garden of Eden and be there chosen by the sons and daughters of Adam as the evolutionary fathers and mothers of the new and blended order of mankind." (UB, 585)

"The church, because of overmuch false sentiment . . . has led to the unwise perpetuation of racially degenerate stocks which have tremendously retarded the progress of civilization." (UB, 1088)

". . . most worlds seriously address themselves to the tasks of race purification, something which the Urantia peoples have not even yet seriously undertaken. . . . It is the false sentiment of your partially perfected civilizations that fosters, protects, and perpetuates the hopelessly defective strains of evolutionary human stocks." (UB, 592)