Q. What is the opinion of the New Covenant Church of the "Book of Urantia"?

The Book of Urantia, first published in the 1950's, is a brilliant work of historical, religious and philosophical fiction mixed with fact. It is without doubt New Age in conception, reducing God the Father to little more than a "racial deity", denying the Virgin Birth and the physical resurrection. It was produced by an intelligent and sensitive man under the influence of demonic guides. Like most counterfeit Gospels, it masterfully combines sublime truth with pernicious and spiritually crippling error, and adopts a quasi-scientific style to appeal to the mind-frame of the late twentieth century.

Despite its grandiose intellectual tones and "superior" knowledge of creation and the created world, its apparent spiritual richness and nobility is puerile compared with that of the Bible. This is an extremely dangerous book to readers not born-again of the Holy Spirit.

It has tended to be outshone by a more scientifically up-to-date New Age gospel called The Book of Knowledge: The Keys of Enoch by J.J.Hurtak which blends more recent discoveries in biochemistry, physics, information technology and mathematics. Whereas The Keys of Enoch is more written for the New Ager with a scientific background, there is no doubt that The Book of Urantia will have a greater appeal to those with a classical background or to those unacquainted with the scientific developments of the last half century.

Completing this unholy "trinity" of New Age deceptions is the masterfully written Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by "Levi" which attempts to more closely imitate the New Testament style and content and is more attractive to those who have some kind of Biblical upbringing. In many places it is very beautiful and conveys sublime truth, but intermingled with this sugary bait is the oft repeated lie of the veracity of reincarnation, Egyptian mysticism, and a "spiritual resurrection" which everyone -- you and I included -- can attain to by our own works.

Naturally, all three books contradict each other although they broadly harmonise in the fundamental tenets of New Age teaching. All typically deny the physical resurrection. Interestingly, the doctrine of "resurrection" in Urantia most closely resembles that of the Jehovah's Witnesses who, like the Urantian Brotherhood, teach that Jesus was "spiritually resurrected" and that his body was "dissolved" in the tomb by accelerating the decomposition process. Both also maintain that Jesus could "materialize" Himself to give the impression of physicalness.

There is possibly a relationship for the word Urantia and Uriel, which in occultism is one of the Steganographic demons recorded by Trithemius (not to be confused with the angel Uriel); also Urthona, also known as Zoa, meaning "living creatures", from which we obtain our English word zodiac. According to the Book of Urantia, the word Urantia is another name for our earth. The etymology of the word is uncertain, but may be connected to ur, meaning "primitive", or may have connections with the planet Uranus. Urania is an old word coming from Greek mythology and means "the heavenly one", the Greek muse of astronomy (one of the nine goddess daughters of Zeus). Considering the Book of Urantia shows a definite leaning towards Greek culture, even maintaining that Jesus was favourably impressed by Greek pagan customs (to the horror of his "conservative" Jewish father), it seems to the author that Greek mythology and mystery religion is the most likely origin of Urantia. It is, if you like, a sophisticated 20th century version of the ancient Greek religion, treating Jesus as one of its own much as Hinduism does. He is one of many divinities, according to both, and not the "only begotten Son of God", the only way to God, as the Bible teaches.

The Book of Urantia is therefore a dressed-up pagan work whose origin is the pit.

This page was created on 24 April 1998 Last updated on 24 April 1998

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