Dispensation

One of the most talked about subjects in religious circles (mostly Christian) is the possibility of a coming apocalypse. A definition of this event would be the end of the world as we know it and the beginning of a new and hopefully better world. This concept has been talked about for over two thousand years and we can find it debated in every type of modern media. I still vividly remember an early morning religious radio program where the hosts were gleefully discussing events in Israel and interpreting them as signs of the imminent return of Jesus. These people saw the injuries and deaths that were occurring on a daily basis over there as a positive sign. It made my skin crawl. The Urantia Book tells us that a new age is coming. The book refers to it as a dispensation. I think it’s good for us to ask the question; how is this coming dispensation similar and dissimilar from the common view of the biblical apocalypse?

The concept of dispensations in the Urantia Book is similar to the common conception of apocalyptic thought when we look at what happens when a roll call is made on the Mansion worlds. The day of the dispensation is a day of joy and judgment. All people who still have the capacity to choose to follow the will of God will wake up from the sleep of death at some point in the future. Those who have sufficient spiritual development will awake on the mansion worlds three ‘days’ after death (341.1). We’ll call them the fast track people. Most people, however, are on the slow track. They will wait until the next dispensation. Dispensations don’t come around very often. The last one to occur on our planet was on the day of Jesus’ resurrection and the previous one was the day Adam and Eve arrived. A dispensation is a day of joy, but also a day of judgment. Those who are “sin-identified individuals” who have irrevocably turned away from God have become “unreal” to our heavenly Father (37.1). These individuals sealed their fate when they died. However the legal procedures are followed until the next dispensation arrives when their personalities become no more. Thus the dispensation becomes for us the great Day of Judgment in which some move on and others cease to exist.

The dispensation looks at lot like most peoples notion of the apocalypse – yes? Well, maybe not. The first dispensation occurred when the Planetary Prince arrived on our planet and the next was when Adam and Eve began their ministry (587.5). Both events were celebrations. When Adam and Eve appeared there was cheering and the release of pigeons (829.6). It was the beginning of a new era. “Each dispensation, each mortal epoch, receives an enlarged presentation of spiritual truth and religious ethics (591.3).” Surely, these sound like happy times? But most people think that the end of this age and the beginning of the next one will be accompanied with war, and famine and suffering. These ideas come from the Bible and have been expounded by preachers throughout the centuries. And yet, there is no evidence in the Urantia Book that a terrible day of God’s wrath is coming. The day of Jesus’ resurrection was a happy time in the universe capital. It was also a nonevent in the lives of all but a few on the planet (2024.4). Clearly the past dispensations have not looked, even remotely, like the common idea of the Day of Judgment.

What really puts a dagger in the heart of any die hard fan of the apocalypse is this statement by Jesus, “when the world has passed through the long winter of material mindedness and you discern the coming of the spiritual springtime of a new dispensation, should you know that the summertime of a new visitation draws near (1915.3).” This statement from the mouth of Jesus and recorded in the Urantia Book states quite clearly that our world will be in the midst of a spiritual rebirth when the next dispensation draws near. And I don’t think I am stretching things when I say that our world still seems to be locked in a winter of materialism with no spring in sight. In my mind it is clear that the new age is far away. So when it does arrive what does God have planned for us? Spring leading into summer with no wrath of God in sight. After reading this passage I don’t think any student of the Urantia Book can believe in a coming apocalypse. Humanity can certainly reap havoc, but responsibility for the terrible things that happen on our world lies with us and not our heavenly father. God’s plans for us are wonderful, not wrathful.

There is also in the pages of the Urantia Book the idea of a personal dispensation. A new age for every person who strives to be godlike. Jesus says that we all face judgment but we enjoy the promise of a new life and “service in the eternal plan of the Father (1915.4).” We don’t just live in a planetary epoch, but our own epoch. Each phase of our existence is a personal new age. And we will continue to grow and change throughout the long ages as we move heavenward.

So for those who can’t wait for the world to end I say, sorry. The Urantia Book does not support apocalyptic theology. Instead, the Urantia Book pictures a future for our planet that is bright and beautiful. It may be difficult to see right now, what with dark and dreadful things happening. But I am heartened that someday a new age of light and life will come upon our world.

God Bless You,

William Whitehead