My book “Light
of Truth” is finished except perhaps for a final editing; next comes the
business of getting it out to our sisters and brothers in need of a spiritual
uplift. While the book has been our main
focus for quite a while, we have done a bit of exploring. We visited a waterfall that is only about
three or four miles from our home. There
is one even closer, but we have not yet made it there. We spent some time at the church camp where
Betty Lou lived as a teenager. And yes, we have snow pictures. It is amazing how a coating of snow makes
things look so much better, as long as you have no pressing engagements down
the mountain someplace. We also have an
excerpt from chapter two of “Light of Truth.”
Later this
month I will have booklets available consisting of quotations from the book. I will let you know when are ready to send out.
We depart
somewhat from our usual procedure and start with a quotation from “Light of
Truth.” The distinction between true and
false liberty is vital to our gaining a full understanding of the various
implications of our revelation. There is
a wider discussion of this topic in my book.
“Light of
Truth:”
‘True liberty acknowledges everyone
has value, that everyone has a spark of God within. This presence of our Heavenly Father within
each normal minded individual has astounding implications; this means that each one of us has a chance
for eternal life, to go to Paradise and meet our Father in person. It also means that if anybody is degraded for
any superficial characteristic then it is God Himself who is being
degraded. If any individual loses
freedom because of any sort of bigotry then God is the subject of such unfair
treatment. How can we subject the
creator of all things and beings to such unfair treatment, to bigotry?’
{Pearson falls, less than three
miles from our house, but it took us nearly two years to visit it.}
We have
been so busy that we have not explored our immediate surroundings very much,
there always seems to be something else to do.
Late last summer we did take time out for some exploring and visited
these falls, which is a lovely place to spend time. I remember I had a particularly nasty case of
poison ivy then, but what else is new? Pacolet
falls are even closer but we have not been there yet. They are on private property but just over
the ridge from our lodge in Poplar Cove.
Last fall
Betty Lou and I went to central Tennessee where she grew up. We stayed about a week at the church camp
where her dad was the camp manager. Bethany
Hills covers 265 acres and the valley is fed by four springs. Naturally things have changed since she lived
there, but the place still has the charm that only a quiet place in the
wilderness can have. The buildings had
shown wear over the years, but one can feel the spiritual vitality of this
place. One can imagine decades of
exuberant youngsters swarming throughout the woods exploring and learning lessons
to last a lifetime.
{Interesting nest of mushrooms at
Bethany Hills}
We went up
one of the trails until it was lost in the changes of time. Along the way there was a circle of these
clumps of mushrooms that were quite distinctive. The small outdoor chapel by the lake was
still there, as well as the activities building where she would sneak to shoot
hoops. We helped clean the hall for a
wedding scheduled to take place just after we left. We also drove a couple hours west to the town
where she lived as a young girl; we also attended the church they attended at
that time. A couple of weeks ago we
returned to Bethany Hills for a ceremony in honor of the current camp manager
who had just retired; this is a special part of a special region of our
country.
As long as
we have no reason to go down the mountain, snow can be a beautiful
experience. When there is a forecast of
snow we stock up a couple days ahead so we can sit back and enjoy the view. The snow on the feeder shown below gives an
idea of how deep the snow got; we measured 11 inches of snow on the veranda
table. It was fun to walk the trails
with the camera and to fully appreciate the beauty of this space.
We have a
small network of trails through our woods.
The inner network is nearly complete; I just need to spread wood chips
on part of them. The current trail goes
to a small spring. We also plan a longer
trail around the back of the property.
There is always something to do here.
{First Christian Church (Disciples
of Christ), Union City, Tennessee}
{Following
is an excerpt from Chapter 2, Second Bringer of Light: Adam and Eve in “Light
of Truth”.}
On a normal planet untouched by rebellion, when the
evolutionary process has reached a certain level of
stability, a Material Son and Daughter, who are of the violet race and are
called Adam and Eve, are sent to
biologically uplift the mortal races.[1] These material sons and daughters reside in a
special region that is set apart from the evolutionary races. This area is artistically arranged with many
gardens and places of beauty and in our system of inhabited worlds, these are
called the Garden of Eden. Normally Adam and Eve remain in the Garden
while their family grows in size. Adam
and Eve instruct the surrounding evolutionary peoples, uplifting their culture.
Only after there are a large number of the violet race, the progeny of
Adam and Eve, are they allowed intermarrying with the evolutionary races.
By this means the evolutionary races are improved genetically by the
contribution of the violet races. On
these worlds the original pair, Adam and Eve, does not mate with the
evolutionary mortals of their world.
[1] Urantia Book, one column edition,
page .paragraph; 821.1, all references are to The Urantia Book unless otherwise noted.
{Snow on the bird feeder with upside
down nuthatch}
However our planet is not normal.
Our planetary prince had betrayed the trust placed in him and was
openly working against them, which created problems for our Adam and Eve. They were cut off from the system lines of
communication and were opposed at every turn by Caligastia {our planetary prince until he joined a
rebellion against universe authority} and his followers. Their task on our planet was exceedingly
difficult.
The Garden of Eden had been prepared for them by Van who was a loyal member of Caligastia’s staff
and who had remained on Urantia until the time of Adam and Eve. The Garden was well laid out and prepared for
their arrival which took place more than 37,800 years ago. Just for fun, let’s compare the Garden in its
day with our state of Maine today.
The Garden had space and facilities for a population of one million.[1] Our state of Maine today has a population of 1.3 million[2]. The Garden had more than twelve thousand miles of paved paths and roads[3] while Maine today has 22,830 miles of roads[4]. Imagine what archaeologists would say if they found an area roughly the size of Maine (30,800 square miles) that nearly forty thousand years ago had half as many miles of paved roads and paths that Maine has highways today. One final thought on this subject, there is ample area in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for a peninsula the size of Maine. Perhaps there are remnants of the Garden there.
The Garden had space and facilities for a population of one million.[1] Our state of Maine today has a population of 1.3 million[2]. The Garden had more than twelve thousand miles of paved paths and roads[3] while Maine today has 22,830 miles of roads[4]. Imagine what archaeologists would say if they found an area roughly the size of Maine (30,800 square miles) that nearly forty thousand years ago had half as many miles of paved roads and paths that Maine has highways today. One final thought on this subject, there is ample area in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for a peninsula the size of Maine. Perhaps there are remnants of the Garden there.
[1]
824.5
[2]
http://www.maine.gov
[3]
824.6
[4]
http://www.maine.gov
Adam and Eve
struggled mightily to bring civilization to Urantia but there was very little
to build these advanced teachings upon.
The major problem was the establishment of
law and order in a world of savages, barbarians, and semi-civilized human beings. Aside from
the cream of the earth’s population, assembled in the Garden, only a few
groups, here and there, were at all ready for the reception of the Adamic
culture.[1] Even some of those dwelling in the
garden believed in Caligastia’s teaching of unbridled personal liberty[2]
and this sophistry continues down to our very own times.
Caligastia offered crafty and effective
opposition to the Adamic mission; … this archrebel, by a wily stratagem,
outmaneuvered the Edenic pair and entrapped them into a violation of the
covenant of their trusteeship
as the visible rulers of your world. The traitorous Planetary Prince did succeed in
compromising your Adam and Eve, but he failed in his effort to involve them in the Lucifer rebellion.[3]
{Our magical lodge in the Smokies}
Adam had set up the
Garden so that it was functioning reasonably well, but when he went outside the
Garden he met with resistance that was instigated by Caligastia.[1] This constant struggle kept Adam fully
occupied. While Adam was thus busy with
affairs of the garden, Eve would meet with Serapatatia {a leader of the
neighboring tribes}; these private
meetings gradually increased in nature and the confidentiality of the subjects
discussed. This entire process proceeded
so gradually that Eve was caught off guard.[2] Over history how many times has someone taken
a series of innocent little steps and at the end of this process become the antithesis
of who he or she really desired to become?
Serapatatia worked
diligently for the affairs of the Garden, even becoming the associate chairman
of the Edenic commission on tribal relations.[3] He also had many meetings with Adam and Eve
discussing ways to improve their methods; during one of these talks, which more
frequently involved only Eve, Serapatatia got the idea of doing something to
immediately help the needy tribes without waiting for large numbers of the
violet race to be ready.[4] He wanted to make a shortcut in the plans, to
seek the easy way out and mix the violet race with the evolutionary races
before they were ready. He fully
supported the long-term goal but he was impatient and wanted to see something
in his lifetime.[5] Again the process was quite gradual; these
plans were secretly discussed for five years before Eve agreed to meet Cano who
was a handsome and sincere spiritual leader of the friendly neighboring
Nodites.[6]
Without laboring
the point any further, the deed was done.
The
shadow of a hair’s turning, premeditated for an untrue purpose, the slightest
twisting or perversion of that which is principle — these constitute falseness[7].
It
may have seemed such a small thing, a way to improve on the Devine plan for our
world. Eve thought there was a way to
find a short cut, a way to make faster progress. God whispers into our soul the true way and if we faithfully follow His
guidance, we will prevail and leave this world a better place. There are no shortcuts, no easy path toward
the doing of God’s will.
If we dedicate ourselves to doing His will in all things, we will
prevail and leave this world better for our being here.
