The Conspiracy Hypothesis*

THE JUDEO/CHRISTIAN CYCLES

TIMING

| Millennial Cycles | Spiritual Growth | Epochal Timing | Chronological Prophecies In Daniel | S.D.A. | Millennia | World Government | My Own Fallibility | Doomsday | Reprieve |

“Demonstration of Righteousness”

Both the fact of and the timing of the Judeo/Christian millennial and bi-millennial cycles, as well as the time when the “sanctuary” shall be cleansed make it possible for us to know the exact beginning year of the New Revelation of Jesus. This New Revelation of Jesus is described more fully on this website elsewhere. But in essence it is to be the fulfillment of the second part of Jesus’ promise (which, by the way, didn’t limit itself to just the end-times in which we presently find ourselves, but apply to future end-times as well):

“The Father in heaven will not fail to visit you with an enlarged revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness, even as he already bestowed upon this world … Melchizedek, and in these days, the Son of Man.” (1914 C)

There are other indications of the nature of this era’s revelatory demonstration of righteousness elsewhere in The URANTIA Book:

“All Urantia (earth) is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael (Jesus), unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin, The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.” (1041 C)

Uniquely, this proclamation will not so much consist of preaching the message as it will of living it, although teaching will surely accompany it:

“What an awakening the world would experience if it could only see Jesus as he really lived on earth and know, first hand, his life-giving teachings!” (2083 C)

“The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of Spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men [and women] … Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus’ life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation.” (2084 A)

“High-gear spiritual performance must await the new revelation and the more general acceptance of the real religion of Jesus.” (2086 B)

What’s more, The URANTIA Book indicates that, even at the time it was delivered to mankind (c. 1935), the New Revelation of the living Jesus was in the relatively near future:

“What is now needed most is Jesus.” (2084 A)

“A new and fuller revelation of the religion of Jesus is destined to conquer an empire of materialistic secularism and to overthrow a world sway of mechanistic naturalism. Urantia [earth] is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment.” (2082 C)

“The time is ripe to witness the figurative resurrection of the human Jesus from his burial tomb amidst the theological traditions and the religious dogmas of nineteen centuries.” (2090 B)

Epochal Revelation Spacing: 2,000 Years

The beginning time of this high-gear operation of the Fifth Epochal Revelation can be foretold by the spacing of the last two epochal revelations. In B.C. 1980 Melchizedek appeared on earth as an unencumbered man of the realm (1015 A) to begin his teaching of what was the Third Epochal Revelation. Exactly 2,000 years later, in A.D. 21 , Jesus bade his family goodby and began the “second and home-detached” period of his life (1419 C), likewise as an unencumbered man of the realm. This was the actual beginning of his ministry, the Fourth Epochal Revelation. It was, at this time, person-to-person rather than the open, public teaching which came later (ref. 1424 D). These years were not just devoted to personal, intimate ministry but to the acquisition of experience, as well (Melchizedek had no such mandate). The year A.D. 2021 is, itself, exactly 2,000 years after Jesus’ home-detached ministry began.

Millennial Cycles: “Circular Simultaneity”

Viewed spiritually, time is “but the shadow of eternity cast by Paradise realities upon the panoply of space” (1117 C). Jesus taught that:

“as man ascends, as he progresses inwards, the enlarging view of [time’s] event progression is such that it is discerned more and more in its wholeness. That which formerly appeared as a succession of events then will be viewed as a whole and perfectly related cycle; in this way will circular simultaneity increasingly displace the onetime consciousness of the linear sequence of events.” (1439 B-C)

Further, the idea of millennial cycles is implicit in the following statement: “This new and oncoming social order will not settle down for a millennium” (1086 C) . The reference to the “oncoming” social order would indicate “the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world.” These thousand-year cycles seem to be projections of the Paradise-Havona day, which we are told “is just seven minutes, three and one eighth seconds less than one thousand years of the present Urantia leap-year calendar.” This millennial “day” is the “standard time measurement for the seven superuniverses” (153 C).

Also, the midwayer author of Part IV of The URANTIA Book, “The Life and Teachings of Jesus”, when explaining the meaning of Jesus’ parable of the unwise servant and the waste of his talents says, “What a sorry sight for successive generations of the professed followers of Jesus to say, regarding their stewardship of divine truth: ‘Here, Master, is the truth you committed to us a hundred or a thousand years ago ’” (1918 A).

Both lengths of time given in this statement appear to be more than incidental generalities. The millennial transition arrived, which he was, unfortunately, not alive on earth to see, was only a matter of months over 100 years after the end of his life in the flesh. And Jesus presented this 100-year span between his crucifixion and the end of the age as a discrete unit of time when he told his Apostles as they stood on Mount Olivet overlooking the city of Jerusalem:

“The things which you now look down upon are coming to an end, but this will be a new beginning … ” (1914 C)

“And now concerning the travail of Jerusalem, about which I have spoken to you, even this generation will not pass away until my words are fulfilled.” (1915 A)

He also had told them”

“You see these stones and this massive temple; verily, verily, I say to you: in the days soon to come there shall not be one stone left upon another. They all shall be thrown down.” (1912 B)

Those stones remained standing even after the fires accidentally set by the soldiers of Titus (c. A.D. 70) had burned away the wooden parts of the structure. They were not levelled until the time of Hadrian (c. 132), a century after Jesus made that prophecy. There is every reason to believe that some of the children alive when Jesus spoke those words were still alive at the time of their fulfillment. As partial evidence of this, the Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph, who was born ten years after Jesus’ crucifixion, was alive, teaching, and opposing Roman authorities even as the massive stones were being toppled. He lived to be 98 years old.

Also Peter Abelard and Arnold of Brescia, the “Elijah” and “Elisha” of the Middle Ages millennial transition, were condemned by the monolithic Roman Catholic Church almost exactly 1,100 (1,000 + 100) years after Jesus crucifixion. That number represents the remaining years of “lag time” (compare Table 2 and Table 7) plus one millennium of religious evolution. The actual year of the condemnation is coincident with the millennial transition of the Middle Ages. The papal reign of the pontiff who condemned the pair spanned the exact transition date.

More evidence, but again … not actual proof of a bi-millennial cycle, is resident in the following statement by the supernal authors of the Urantia Papers in A.D. 1935, as well:

“Less than a thousand years ago … Melchizedek, the onetime sage of Salem, was invisibly present on Urantia for a period of one-hundred years, acting as resident governor general of the planet; and if the present system of directing planetary affairs should continue, he will be due to return in the same capacity in a little over one thousand years.” (1025 D)

“Less than a thousand” plus “over one thousand” years can add up to two thousand years. The terms used do not, at least on the surface, seem to add up to the almost two and one half thousand years required if the twenty-four supervisors each serve on earth for one hundred years equally on a one to one basis.

There are, of course, twenty-four one-time Urantians, both mortal and super-mortal, who occupy positions on the Jerusem Board of Planetary Supervisors (1251 C), who choose one of their number to act as Resident Governor General of Urantia for terms of one hundred years. Of these, eight are temporary assignees, all of whom, we are told, “function just as fully as do the permanent members” (1251 D). Four of these eight members (seats 21, 22, 23, 24) fill the places held in reserve for “great teachers of other and subsequent ages” -- Magisterial, Daynal, and Light and Life -- while all the other members themselves either are (seats 1 through 16) or hold the places for (seats 17, 18, 18, 20) mortal ascenders of the present (up to the millennial resurrection, c. A.D. 1030 and including those translated but not those who died afterward) and past epochs (514 D). The second Christian resurrection will not be until A.D. 2030. It is not necessary to assume that the full functioning of these four who hold the seats for future ages requires them to preside on earth as Resident Governor General before those ages arrive. Even mortal board of supervisor members can and do function fully without functioning identically. The Jerusem twenty-four also oversee the supernal governments of other planets of rebellion.

Shortly before the time of the reception of The URANTIA Book the nineteenth Resident General was succeeded by the twentieth (1252 C). The next change of command is, then, scheduled to take place circa A.D. 2030 (2,000 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection) which will coincide with the millennial resurrection of survivors whose mortal lives ended since the last millennial transition era (ref. 568 C). At that time it is possible that either Peter Abelard or Arnold of Brescia, or both -- who will be resurrected then -- may assume their rightful places on the board. They would, then, claim one or two of the seats currently being held by the temporary members, the four who hold seats for the “ascending mortals from the present post-bestowal Son age on Urantia” (514 D) (seats 17, 18, 19, 20). Thus, it may be that the last four temporary members (seats 21, 22, 23, 24) -- those representing future ages -- will not actually ever be required to serve on earth, their turns being superseded by the continuing addition of new, mortal ascenders taking permanent positions. But this is all speculative on my part. In all events, it does seem entirely possible that the implication is that “present system of directing planetary affairs” is being carried out according to a bi-millennial cycle.

(see The Judeo/Christian Cycles” for more)

Spiritual Growth Takes Time

I do not want to make too much of the following, but if we consider the relationship of the launching year of this URANTIAGATE website promoting the “demonstration” phase of the Fifth Epochal Revelation, it compares one-to-one with the year, A.D. 1, in which Jesus was seven years old. This was the very year that the youth chose as his “birthday text” the following passage from the Prophet Isaiah:

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to set spiritual prisoners free” (1363 C).

Jesus even at that stage of his life had the vision, and that year he proclaimed it. Five years later, at twelve years of age, he both saw and prophesied his coming role as the “Elisha” of his era’s end-time, and dedicated himself to carry out its signature act:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, and the people thereof, what slaves you are -- subservient to the Roman yoke and victims of your own traditions -- but I will return to cleanse yonder temple and deliver my people from this bondage.” (1384 C)

If during the intervening years between A.D. 1 or A.D. 6 and A.D. 21, the young Jesus prepared himself for realizing his vision, why should not we do the same? That is NOT to say that we must slavishly imitate his life, or try to find year-by-year relationships between what we do and events in his life, but that we must not think it is too early at this moment to begin this adventure of spiritual growth, direction, and revelation. The URANTIA Book uses words such as the following to express the timing of the New Revelation of Jesus: “quivering on the very brink”, “is now most needed”, “the time is ripe”, and “the hour is striking”, and that was over sixty years ago! Are we waiting for someone other than ourselves to act on this? Is this something which we hope merely to take notice of in newspapers, or to provide a guest interview on late-night television?

My point is simply that like Jesus, those of us who wish to dedicate ourselves -- our very lives -- to the full realization of the projected epochal regeneration of man’s spiritual connection and the resulting transformation of our world, Urantia, likewise need years of preparation. This is NOT going to happen overnight! It is NOT magic! Spirit birth and dedication will induce growth in the right direction -- but growth takes time! We must attain the level of spirituality where we can truly say, “When you see me, you see Jesus!” Or -- more likely -- we must attain the level of spiritual awareness where we do not even need to say that at all because it will be so obviously manifested in every aspect of our ordinary behavior! THAT is what the world needs to see. NOT a situation fulfilling one of Jesus’ prophecies in the Bible concerning our end-times:

“Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many … For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insofar that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” (Matthew 24:4-24. Compare with 1913 D)

This prophecy like others of our own times and of the two preceding end-times became confounded with those concerning Jesus’ promised Second Coming. The “signs and wonders” perhaps link these “false Christs and false prophets” directly to Paul’s vision of the “Wicked One”, whose “coming is after the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders” (II Thess. 2:4-10), which itself may refer to a soon-to-appear physical, technological manifestation of secularism. In any event, the manifestation of the drama of each end-time, including our own, can be seen in those lines, because:

“The sectors of time are like the flashes of personality in temporal form; they appear for a season, and they are lost to human sight, only to reappear as new actors and continuing factors … ” (366 B)

It should be obvious that in making real the New Revelation of Jesus we are NOT to manifest the baby Jesus or Jesus the youth, but Jesus, the fully grown and spiritually accomplished Son of Man and Son of God -- both of which we in fact are -- who revealed the Father to mankind, who was able to say, “When you see me you see the Father”:

“The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men” (2984 A)

“And the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace” (2054 C) .

These “fruits” when manifested in people’s lives are, in essence, Jesus! And there is no short-cut to this kind of fruit bearing:

“My Father requires of the children of faith that they bear much spirit fruit. If, therefore, you are not fruitful, he will dig about your roots and cut away your unfruitful branches. Increasingly, must you yield the fruits of the spirit as you progress heavenward in the kingdom of God. You may enter the kingdom as a child, but the Father requires that you grow up, by grace, to the full stature of spiritual adulthood. And when you go abroad to tell all nations the good news of this gospel, I will go before you, and my Spirit of Truth shall abide in your hearts. My peace I leave with you” (2054 D)

And doing all this requires following “the natural, slow and sure way of accomplishing the divine purpose” (1521 A) .

(See also Paper 100, Sections: 1. “Religious Growth”, 2. “Spiritual Growth”, and 4. “Problems of Growth” (1094 A - 1097 C) for more on this subject.)

Epochal and Millennial Timing

The epochal age between the times of Jesus and Melchizedek are the length of two Paradise-Havona standard days (2,000 years). The inauguration of each new epoch took place in the “end-time” of the previous bi-millennium of evolutionary outgrowth from the epochal revelation initiating it (see Table 7). There are one hundred and eleven years between the inauguration of each epochal revelation and the evolutionary millennial turning points which follow them, as derived from the Book of Daniel (see Tables 5 and 6). Melchizedek’s took place at a time when then spiritual truth of the Adamic Mission was threatened with extinction after “the millennia which followed” its default (ref. 1014 C). There is no mystery in these numbers, they are just what the arithmetic shows.

Halfway through our bi-millennial, two Paradise-Havona day period (that is, after 1,000 years), there is a spiritual renewal wherein the original bestowal teachings or truths, which have become fossilized by that time, are restated and brought up to date (but not necessarily advanced). And the renewals, as the revelations had been, are then followed by a new “social order” which comes about as a result of the acceptance of these truths. (Compare Tables 3 and 3a directly below, with Table 6 and Table 7).

Table 3

Each Epoch’s Primary Millennial Socio/Religious Evolutionary Cycle
BEGINNING DATE		TIME BETWEEN	HALFWAY POINT
Third Epochal (MELCHIZEDEK) Revelation:	B.C. 1869	<------- 1,000 years ------->	Elijah/Elisha c. B.C. 869
Fourth Epochal (JESUS) Revelation:	A.D. 132	<------- 1,000 years ------->	Abelard/Arnold c. A.D. 1132

Table 3a

Religion as a Catalyst for Social Growth
BEFORE	CATALYLIST	AFTER
Baalism	ELIJAH/ELISHA (Yahweh Worship)	Revival of Hebraic Law
“Bondage of ritualism and legalism” (1340 A)	JOHN/JESUS (Gospel of the Kingdom)	Christian West
Tyrannical and Dictatorial Church	ABELARD/ARNOLD (Proto-Secularism)	Modern Western Civilization
“Tyranny of political and economic bondage” (2081 C)	“Greater John the Baptist” (New Revelation of Jesus)	“Enthralling epoch of social readjustment” (2082 C)

Our present calendar acknowledges the millennial sequencing but, having been arbitrarily established, runs out-of-sync with the true Paradise-Havona day: our present third millennium A.D. has begun 131 years too early.

Chronological Prophecies in the Book of Daniel

The Bible’s Book of Daniel is unique in that it provides more names also found in The URANTIA Book than do any other of the Judeo/Christian scriptures: for instance, the “Most High”, the “Ancient of Days”, “Michael”, and “Gabriel”. The entire timing of the Judeo/Christian eras can also be derived from a prophetic chronology given in its chapters, as well as the astounding fact that it progresses in millennial cycles!

Daniel’s prophecies have been variously interpreted with mixed results. It is perhaps apocryphal, but it is said that a Jewish rabbi once showed the Book of Daniel to Alexander the Great, who was amazed to find himself described in the Hebrew text! Its accurate description of people and events during the history of Alexander’s empire through the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes has convinced many Bible scholars that it must have been written afterwards. It is true that apparently the Book of Daniel was not known until the time of the Maccabees, who restored Israel after Antiochus’ depredations, thereby initiating the celebration of Hanukkah. Nothing in The URANTIA Book, however, would seem to indicate that Daniel was anything but what he is purported to be, or that his book is otherwise than it seems. And the revelation does say such things about other books and writers in the Bible (see, for instance, 1070 D). It even points out that Daniel “fully understood” matters concerning the rule of the Most Highs within the social orders of mankind (488 D). Daniel’s visions appear to be the working out of the Most Highs’ overcontrol of grand-scale, mortal events, which include those of our own past, present and, even, future.

Seventh Day Adventist Connection

On the other hand, some of Daniel’s chronologies formed the basis of William Miller’s failed interpretation wherein, he believed, could be found the exact date of Jesus’ Second Coming. A reinterpretation, as seen later in a vision by Millerite leader, Hiram Edson, of Miller’s findings provided the rationale for the formation of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church out of the gloomy believers, disheartened by the failure of Jesus to return at that day and time calculated by Miller. Rather than pointing to the Second Coming this new vision merely revealed the supernal Jesus (Michael) entering a room in a spiritual temple in heaven, approximating the inner sanctuary of the Jerusalem Temple visited only by the high priest. This was acceptable to the Millerites, and the best thing about it was that it could not be successfully refuted. There would be no more days of reckoning (see also “Judeo/Christian Cycles: William Miller”), as far as they were concerned the chronological prophecies in Daniel had been wrung dry.

Ellen Gould White (nee Harmon), the SDA Church’s “prophetess”, whose work accounted for much of the denomination’s accelerated growth and many of its doctrines, seems oblivious to the fact that Edson’s vision might have been no more than a vivid form of subconscious rationalization. In any event its acceptance made any subsequent reinterpretation of Miller’s data a heresy against the fixed-beliefs of the church. The “prophetess” herself had suffered a severely traumatic head injury as a nine year old child when a stone thrown by a playmate struck her between the eyes and put her into a coma for three weeks. This event left her in a frail, sickly condition which dissipated when she had a dream about Jesus. Afterwards she began to have visions. Her mission to spread the Adventist message began when she was struck over the heart by something like a “ball of fire” . This occurred in the presence of a witness, “Father” John Pierson, a Baptist deacon.

For what it may be worth, I myself encountered something like a ball of light or energy perhaps four feet in diameter when I was a child. It hovered a few feet above the ground and extended a portion of itself to touch me on the lower chest (not over the heart), causing no pain but leaving a small mark not unlike a sunburn which remained visible for several weeks. There were no witnesses. This took place in a suburban neighborhood around the time or slightly before a similar phenomenon called “foo fighters” were observed by WWII pilots. To my knowledge I had never previously heard of anything like it. The day was clear and there was no lightening. I had no epiphany associated with that event, nor did it frighten me.

An actual but little known Urantia movement-SDA connection is somewhat of interest to URANTIA Book readers: Doctor William Sadler, who could perhaps legitimately be called the “midwife” of The URANTIA Book, had been a former Seventh Day Adventist and friend of Ellen G. White and her children. Also, the Kellogg family (cornflakes were their vegetarian creation stemming from SDA dietary rules propounded by White), which was influential in SDA circles, was also instrumental in the reception of the Urantia Papers and their eventual publication as The URANTIA Book. Booten Herndon (The 7th Day: The story of the Seventh Day Adventists ) calls John Harvey Kellogg “the right hand of the [SDA] Church”. Sadler was actually married to a Kellogg, and another Kellogg -- Sadler’s brother-in-law -- was one of the contact commissioners which interacted with the invisible revelators by way of the sleeping contact personality, and to whom the revelation itself was entrusted.

It is possible that the supernal revelators used these very people because their SDA-formed beliefs made them more ready than most to accept the possible reality of an “angel-given” revelation to mankind. Such was, after all, the subject of Ellen White’s teachings concerning John’s vision of an angel “flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6). She points out that:

“the work of preaching the gospel has not been committed to angels, but has been entrusted to men. Holy angels have been employed in directing this work, they have charge of the great movements for the salvation of men; but the actual proclamation of the gospel is performed by the servants of Christ upon earth.” (The Great Controversy, by Ellen G. White, original pages 311-312).

It sounds a lot like the Urantia movement! The Urantia Papers, while revealing truth far beyond their imaginations, were not outside of the context of the human receivers’ already formed religious beliefs: angels give the gospel message to men, who are in turn to educate others concerning it. An ordinary Baptist, such as was Miller himself and as many if not most of his followers had been, might have been more taken aback by the whole thing, dug in his heels, and refused to go on with it. To those nurtured on White’s “prophecies”, the situation was believable.

On the other hand, however, the SDA Church itself had become so fixed in its beliefs that a new revelation could have only been received by people like Sadler, who had become disenchanted with White.

In many ways Sadler was perfect for the role. He had been intellectually primed to believe in the fact of ongoing revelation, although he was the last of his group to actually accept what was coming through the contact personality as being genuine, and then he did everything he could think of to debunk it, including engaging the services of a famous stage magician, acquainting himself with the fakery employed by spiritualist mediums, and locking the apparently physically materialized proto-Papers (a number of which were received before the text itself materialized) in a safe with ten-dollar bills interspersed between their pages. They disappeared anyway, as they always did, leaving the cash behind (at least he thereby proved that there were no politicians or lawyers involved). He even, it is asserted, undertook the study of psychiatry to determine if some sort of mental aberrations could be involved in the channelling-type phenomena which went on before the papers began materializing. His search found nothing amiss. He was unable to find any alternative logical explanation for what was happening, and only then did he believe!

The chronological tables in this webpage also have a direct connection to the SDA since they represent basically a reinterpretation of Miller’s data. I was in snail-mail communication (before the days of the ubiquitous PC and universal email) with a SDA representative who was attempting to educate me concerning Miller’s interpretations when I got the idea to see what would happen when I added the various chronologies of Daniel eight and twelve to the date of Antiochus IV Epiphanes’ depredations in Judea circa B.C. 169 (a date actually provided in the margin of my Bible (see Dan. 12:29)). When I did, the following is what I found:

Millennia and Bi-Millennia

Essentially Daniel’s chronological prophecies, which are to be found in Chapters eight and twelve, delineate a millennium beginning at a date in the Middle Ages. This date is not given but surrounded by three specific dates which are derived from the prophecy, all of which form a sixty-five year period. The prophecy does provide the precise year, A.D. 2132, which is exactly one millennium after the Middle Ages’ date (see Table 5 below).

In those prophecies the words “sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot” (see Dan. 8:13) and “from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination of desolation set up” (see Dan. 12:11) provide the clue to the starting date for the addition of the various numbers of “days” (“years”) in the prophecies of both Chapters eight and twelve. The reference is clearly to the depredations of Antiochus IV Epiphanes which took place circa B.C. 169, during which Antiochus outlawed temple worship (including daily animal sacrifices) and “set up” a statue of himself posed as Zeus (Jupiter) in the temple’s inner sanctuary. Such an act of desecration is defined in Jewish law as an “abomination of desolation”.

THE PROPHECIES IN DANIEL The End of the Christian Bi-millennium A.D. 2132 [Transition Date to the “Jesusonian Epoch”] “Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days [2,300 “years”]; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”(Dan. 8:13,14) The End of the First Christian Millennium (Three Dates) A.D. 1092 [Opening of Conditions Allowing the Crusades] “And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? “And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half [1,260 “years”]; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. “And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? “And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. (Dan. 12: 7-10) A.D. 1122 [Way Opens Allowing Gregorian Reform Implementation] “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days [1,290 “years”] (Dan. 12:11). A.D. 1132 [1,000 years before A.D. 2132 (above)] This date is not included in the prophecy but is central to those which are. It is the transition date into the Second Christian Millennium. A.D. 1167 [International Cathari Church Organized] “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days [1,335 “years”]. (Dan 12:12)

Table 5

Projected Millennium According to Daniel’s Chronological Prophecy: A.D. 1132 to A.D. 2132 Chapters 8 and 12
Antiochus IV Epiphanes B.C. 169 ---------- +1,260 years ---------> A.D. 1092*
B.C. 169 ---------- +1,290 years ---------------> A.D. 1122*
The year A.D. 1132 is central to the three Middle Ages dates given.
B.C. 169 ---------- +1335 years ----------------------> A.D. 1167*
B.C. 169 ---------- +2,300 years ------------------------------------------------> A.D. 2132*
*The apparent anomaly of one “extra” year is due to there being no equivalent of a “zero” year between B.C. and A.D. . This has often confused would-be interpreters.

When this 1,000 year increment (see Table 6) is extended back into the past, one millennium per step, it comes to rest at very important turning points in history, and it even has its beginning right at the start of the Judeo/Christian religion during the time of Abraham (c. B.C. 1869).

The URANTIA Book reveals how a restatement of Jesus’ teachings in the very lives and activities of born-of-the-spirit individuals who “rely solely” on Jesus and his teachings and who are wholly dedicated to the spiritual regeneration of mankind, will make sweeping changes in the social order of the world (refs. 2082 D to 2083 A). Basically something completely analogous to those changes is what Daniel’s chronological prophecies, when extended (see Table 6), show is repeated at the end-beginning of each millennial cycle. And the relationship of this evolutionary “social order” cycle to the two Paradise-Havona days (2,000 years) revelation cycle appear to be one of cause and effect (see table 7).

Table 7

CAUSE EPOCHAL REVELATION	LAG TIME	EFFECT RELIGIOUS EVOLUTION	LENGTH OF CYCLE
Melchizedek B.C. 1980	---- 111 years ----->	JEWISH DISPENSATION B.C. 1869	---------- 2,000 years ---------->
2,000 years
Jesus A.D.21	---- 111 years ----->	CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION A.D. 132	---------- 2,000 years ---------->
2,000 years
New Revelation of Jesus A.D.2021	---- 111 years ----->	JESUSONIAN DISPENSATION A.D. 2132	---------- 2,000 years ---------->
Each new epochal revelation is presented in the “end-time” of the old religious evolutionary period.

It is certainly not an extraordinary statement to say that epochal revelations bring about social growth. The URANTIA Book says: “True religion must ever be, at one and the same time, the eternal foundation and guiding star of all enduring civilizations” (1013 D). That these societal epochs are of a cyclic nature is proved by history while also being supported by The URANTIA Book and the Bible. And where else should we find the prophecy of such cycles and events if not in a book by a man -- a prophet -- who understood more than most of his kind the workings of the Most Highs in the affairs of men? According to the Bible, Daniel did not come upon his chronology on his own but was given it in conjunction with a visit to earth by Gabriel, himself:

“And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel make this man to understand the vision.
“So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell on my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision … ” (Dan. 8: 16,17)

Gabriel’s informative visitation to Daniel should be seen in the same context as his similarly informative appearances to Mary and Elizabeth, respectively Jesus’ and John the Baptist’s mothers, during which he foretold the roles to be played by their children (ref. 1345 C, 1346 A). The URANTIA Book teaches that, “true prophetic vision is a superpsychologic presentment. Such visitations are not pseudo hallucinations, neither are they trancelike ecstasies”(1000 C).

“New World Order” vs. Planetary Government

Daniel was also both shown and told that:

“the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever” (Dan. 7:18)

And the meaning of this statement was then even more completely explained to him: The government -- more of a hegemony (if the vision in Revelations may be taken at face value (see Rev. 13:2)) of a “beast”, was to be taken away, consumed and destroyed. Thereafter all government would be given to “the people of the saints of the most High”, and every earth nation would acknowledge supernal overcontrol by the Most Highs:

Bible vision: “But the judgement shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end. “And the Kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven [literally, “sky”], shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High” (Dan. 7:26-27).

Or as The URANTIA Book puts it:

“And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world” (2082 D).

[coupled with:]
“someday civil rulers will learn that the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men”(1488 A).

It also teaches that :

“Urantia will not enjoy lasting peace until so-called sovereign nations intelligently and fully surrender their sovereign powers into the hands of the brotherhood of man -- mankind government” (1489 A).

The URANTIA Book warns us that “with scientific progress, wars are going to become more and more devastating until they become racially suicidal” (1490 A). But we hardly need to be told that today! The threat of nuclear annihilation has been a sword of Damocles hanging over our necks since the end of WWII. The book also teaches that “global wars will go on until the government of mankind is created. Global sovereignty will prevent global wars -- nothing else can.” (1490 D)

Two little-known prophecies, visions purportedly received by George Washington and General George McClellan, an American Civil War Union General of the Armies, and which I discovered published as early as 1942 in The Book of Gold, by Robert Gorden Collier, who attributed the Washington vision account to Wesley Bradshaw, published in the “National Tribune” in December, 1880.

The two visions are internally linked and contain the following statements:

U.S.A. Under an Angelic “Azure Standard”

[“The Banner of Michael (Jesus), the material emblem of the Trinity government of all creation, the three azure blue concentric circles on a white background” (606 A) ]

“Then once more [after the third war on American soil] I beheld the villages, towns and cities, springing up where I had seen them before, while the bright angel, plating the azure standard he had brought in the midst of them, cried with a loud voice: “While the stars remain, and the heavens send down dew upon the earth, so long shall the Union last.” And taking from his brow the crown on which was blazoned the word “Union,” he placed it upon the Standard, while the people, kneeling down, said “Amen.” [George Washington’s Vision]

Universal Republic

“But her mission will not then be finished for ere another century shall have gone by [after the Civil War], the oppressors of the whole earth, hating and envying her exaltation, shall join themselves together and raise up their hands against her. But if she shall be found worthy of her high ccalling they shall surely be discomfitted, and then will be ended her third and last great struggle for existence. Thenceforth shall the [American]Republic go on, increasing in power and goodness, until he borders shall end only in the remotest corners of the earth, and the whole earth shall beneath her shadowing wing become a Universal Republic. Let her in her prosperity, however remember the Lord her God, her trust be always in him, and she shall never be confounded.” [General McClellan’s Vision]

The so-called “New World Order” or “One World Government”, derived by Bible exegetists from prophecies in both Daniel and Revelations, and so feared by Christians, is NOT the sort of intelligent surrender of national sovereignties indicated by The URANTIA Book. Neither is it the representative, planetary government (federal republic) which the book exemplifies in this context by reference to the democratically elected government of the United States of America, which describes a world federalism based upon or similar to the one achieved by America’s Thirteen Colonies. It is, instead, a dictatorship or hegemony of the “Beast”, a title which refers in this case to either the system which the individual who will be identified by the numbers 666 personifies, or to that individual himself, or -- what is most likely -- to both! In Daniel, our era’s “Beast” appears as a little horn which grows on the head of a governmental “beast” which represents the fourth world power in the “One World Government”(ref. Dan. 7:24).

This “New World Order” was shown to Daniel in Chapter 7:3-8 and 23-27 as well as in a corresponding vision to John in Revelations 13:2, as a composite of world powers symbolized as a “leopard” (possibly the Third World nations where that animal ranges, and which is currently building its nuclear arsenal); a “bear” (most likely Russia, which still retains much of its nuclear arsenal); a “lion” (and in Daniel this lion stands up like a man -- as a world power, the anglo, imperial lion of the Middle Ages was replaced first by, “John Bull”, and then in America by “Uncle Sam” -- whose nuclear capabilities are well known); and behind the throne is the power of the “dragon” (Japan, China, or a combination of Asian nations, which are also building their nuclear arsenals). In Daniel, the dragon’s species, which is not named as such, must be derived from the description of his “fourth beast” alone (Dan. 7:7), as well as from the specific reference to the corresponding dragon in Revelations. It is entirely possible that Daniel simply had no name for a beast which we would instantly identify as a dragon. It is this animal-symbol upon which grows the little horn (above) which symbolizes the Antichrist (666) -- the “Beast” of our particular end-time drama.

This autocratic association of powers -- a “New World Order” but hardly a “One World Government”, or if so, a de facto hegemony rather than a de jure republic -- is allowed by the Most Highs to provide the initial structure for the planetary democracy envisioned in The URANTIA Book, which is to take over after the One World Government has been seized by the Most Highs, possibly on the cusp of nuclear war (“Armageddon”), and which apparently -- if this is not reading too much into the prophecy, which after all consists mainly of symbolism -- will be recognized as somehow being a human extension of the overcare of the Most Highs.

Daniel wrote:

“ I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve him” (Dan. 7:13,14).

Jesus decided that the above prophecy did NOT refer to him (ref. 1390 D), but The URANTIA Book does inform us that:

“A Most High observer is empowered, at his discretion, to seize the planetary government in times of grave planetary crisis the Most Highs may intervene at any time in the affairs of the inhabited worlds, interposing the superior wisdom of the constellation rulers in the affairs of the Kingdom of men.” (1253 D)

This seizure, however, may take place by purely human means such as did the carrying out of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and Hadrian. And such a seizure of the global dictatorship seems to be what Daniel’s vision indicates. Thus planetary democracy will develop in association with the growing development of the brotherhood of man -- the kingdom of Heaven -- which will result from the New Revelation of Jesus. It will be a political effect of the worldwide restatement of the actual gospel of Jesus (see Daniel’s vision above) when interpreted for him by an apparently supernal being in it becomes:

“The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever” (see Dan. 7:17)).

“And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him (see Dan. 7:27))

My Own Fallibility

I don’t, however, pretend that my current understanding of these matters is either complete or written in stone, especially where it is more than a simple matter of history and arithmetic. Frankly, there are just too many variables involved. One is Jesus’ statement, made only in the Bible but not in The URANTIA Book, that “except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved” (Matthew 24:22, and Mark 13:20).

Only since the advent of nuclear, biological, electromagnetic wave, and other modern, secret and perhaps even more horrific weapon technologies, coupled with planet-killing pollutions of industrial societies and the threat of genetic-research-gone-bad coupled with possible terroristic nuclear and biological strikes, has that statement been factually possible on a worldwide scale.

“Mechanical inventions and the dissemination of knowledge are modifying civilization; certain economic adjustments and social changes are imperative if cultural disaster is to be avoided” (1086 C)

It does in no way appear that all Jews -- let alone all flesh -- could have been exterminated by Titus and Hadrian during the Jewish Dispensation end-time. Neither did the Roman persecutions seriously threaten the existence of Christianity, nor does the Inquisition seem in any way to have been cut short, and it did not even come close to wiping out even all “heretics” (that is, all bearers of renewed truth) during the considerably extended, not “shortened” end-time of the Middle Ages. Therefore this cutting short of time could indicate that, in just the same way that the fifth epochal revelation (The URANTIA Book) was given to our planet before the expected A.D. 2021 date, so may this “consummation” and “destruction” of the “Beast” take place before A.D. 2132, that is, everything could be pushed up in time so that we get through the major events necessary to the drama before we actually destroy ourselves. If we have the means of planetary destruction in our hands now, imagine what another hundred years of technological development might bring! Hastening the process may head off the invention of some even more horrible doomsday weapon or technology (rather than speeding up mankind’s spiritual evolution, which may not be short cut). Even at the time of this writing science is bombarding the planet’s protective ionosphere with huge amounts of high energy radiations, in spite of having no more than the vaguest concept of possible consequences.

It should be pointed out that the exact words of the prophecy are “except those days should be shortened”, and that could be a direct reference to the number of “days”, which are to be regarded as years in the chronological prophecy of Daniel which gives us the A.D. 2132 date (above). This provides additional reason for suspecting that A.D. 2132 represents an outside date by which time the transition will have taken place and the curtain shall have fallen on our end-time drama! But life and political/social evolution will go on:

“This new and oncoming social order will not settle down for a millennium. The human race must become reconciled to a procession of changes, adjustments, and readjustments. Mankind is on the march toward a new and unrevealed planetary destiny. (1088 C)

Prophecies of Doomsday

But if nothing is done to cut short the time leased out for planet-affecting scientific meddling and the proliferation of modern weaponry, catastrophic terrorist attacks, as well as to stem profit-motivated pollutions and geo-physical rape denuding Urantia of its rain forests and other bio-cyclic life necessities, the very vivid picture drawn in Revelations of multiple catastrophic horrors -- symbolized by angels pouring out vials (Rev. Chap. 16) -- spreading across the face of our planet could become a reality, and the end of mankind, at least as resident on earth (see 582 C), could result. So there may be a contingency put into operation which could key the main events of our own end-time (or are presently keying them) before their scheduled times, and, indeed, the time may have already been shortened in the early presentation of the Urantia papers, which arrived 86 years before A.D. 2021. We will just have to wait and see.

Still, A.D. 2021 is not that far away. But it nearly fractures the imagination to believe that, without major social changes, Urantia (earth) could survive until the future date of A.D. 2132! (But it must be pointed out that I felt the same way about the date A.D. 2021 some two decades ago, when I began this study).

Reprieve

In considering the likelihood of the planetary horrors in Revelations ever becoming a fact of life, we should not overlook the lesson to be drawn from the story of Jonah (Bible), where catastrophic prophecies were made concerning Ninevah, but which were avoided when the people listened to Jonah’s preaching, abandoned their evil ways, and turned to the Lord. Our leaders MUST pray for spiritual guidance, as must we ourselves.

Some Bible and other prophecies of disaster serve as warnings and will NOT be fulfilled if they are heeded! They are like a sign that says, “DANGER: BRIDGE OUT AHEAD!”, and are meant to be heeded rather than ignored until it is too late for the brakes to work. And a similar lesson is also to be gained from the example of Jehoshaphat who trusted God rather than in the use of weapons and discovered a better way of averting a present threat. Or on the other hand, if we heed the danger sign and proceed with caution, if, when we arrive at the chasm we find that a new bridge has been built for our crossing, we thank God and proceed upon the way that lies before us.

“But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

(NEXT:)END-TIMES (c. B.C. 869, A.D. 132, 1132, 2132)