The Transition Bridge

Modern man is confronted with the task of making more readjustments of human values in one generation than have been made in 2000 years. And this all influences the social attitude toward religion, for religion is a way of living as well as a technique of thinking. Source: UB 92:7.14

The Urantia Community can provide a required transition bridge for making the necessary religious readjustments to evolve from the 4^th to the 5^th epoch of planetary spiritual progress. 

There is a lack of consistency between the terminology used by the New Age mouvement and that used by the Urantia Community. It is useful to have a lexicon of terms and concepts used in this article.

The Urantia Book offers us a rich lexicon that satisfies three great needs; the faith of religion, scientific research, and philosophical thought, without causing a disconnect from our past and present evolutionary progress. It offers us a valuable revelation without causing any continuity breaches, and with a minimum amount of cognitive dissonance. With over 7,000 languages causing confusion on this planet, the well-defined terms and concepts of the Urantia Book help promote clarity in communication, leading to a common understanding.

Lucifer eschewed personal responsibility in favor of unbridled self-liberty.

This is our challenge — to reverse this trend.

Many are coming from the 4^th Epochal Revelation and have not yet embraced the 5^th. There are 2 billion Christians and 1.6 billion Muslims that come from a place in 4^th Epochal Religion. The Jews are coming from 3^rd Epochal Religion.

They all require a redefinition in order to embrace the new way. Each must be viewed as unique, but it can be said that the "God of Abraham" unifies all of them. They all need a transition bridge into the 5^th Epochal Revelation. This bridge must provide for 7 primary readjustments.

This bridge must provide two types of transition tools. An exit toolset to assist with the transition out of the old static belief system. An entry toolset to assist with the transition into the new dynamic belief system. These toolsets must be grounded in the reality that religious experience is not pious. It is not morbid. It is not mystical or sacred. It is characterized by joy and the freedom attained through personal responsibility toward God and man as made possible by the methods of personal, prayerful, and practical application. In addition, both toolsets must provide tools for the edification of stable and progressive students, for the training of wise teachers, and for supporting mature Father Centered leaders.

The 5^th Epochal Revelation provides the uplift — we must provide the transition tools to help integrate the uplift into the evolutionary process. It is in this transition phase that lies our greatest challenge and creative opportunities! The religion of personal responsibility for attaining survival value is a path to actualizing the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man.

The essence of this religion is Spirit Value Capture — its path is the Jesus Syllabus. The tool makers are the Truth Beauty and Goodness Commission and like minded organisations that create and provide the appropriate transition tools that are Father Centered and rooted in the Jesus Syllabus.

It is not possible to simply add new truth or revelation to the current religious concepts and then go on with business as usual. Instead, the momentum of a paradigm shift requires people to fundamentally question and to re-build the old paradigm, which is the accepted truth and reality. 

By now it should be obvious that we have not really understood the one key attribute of Light and Life, the Kingdom of Heaven: the freedom of a Father centered life!

There is UNITY in these new concepts that overwrite the old ways of division. The stale, abusive, cult-like religion of old divisions must be moved forward in mind to become the dynamic, engaging, enjoyable Spirit Value Capture of new Unity and Brotherhood.

The old requires a re-conceptualization to show what it was always intended to be. The dead ways of rituals must be replaced by the living way of personal relationship with Father. We cannot separate the living example of Jesus from the hunger for Religion.

Until now — and even now — mankind perceives itself as isolated, unworthy sinners, and fearful of assumed divinity, of the warning of blasphemy. Because of this, mankind has tended to content itself with the verbal proclamation. Just as no recipe is worthwhile without the dish being cooked, the good news sits idle without its servants actively being its content.

It takes courage to work together to create yet better mechanisms for the promotion of the values of Truth, Beauty and Goodness. There are many exciting challenges ahead in the pursuit of such service adventures together. As some of you have already experienced, these will not always be easy, yet hard-won cooperation yields fruits of great sweetness and effectiveness. Such collaborative successes are worth all effort.

Our world doesn't need a new religion...but...we do need to reboot the religion that Jesus inaugurated nearly 2000 years ago, but became buried under centuries of evolutionary dogma, obfuscation, and brick and mortar temples. The challenge is to break off the barnacles of time, culture and politics, and give the path to the Kingdom of Heaven a fresh start, and an uplift worthy of our 5^th Epoch.

The term Spirit Value Capture summarizes what this religion is about with only 3 simple words. This effectively leaves the outward personality cult "about Jesus" dead in its tracks. It levels the playing field by balancing outward service to others with personal inner growth. It highlights the direct connection between man and God which leaves no room for the trespassing of middle men.

On this level playing field all players are both students and teachers.