Philippine and Indonesian Libraries Receive Urantia Books

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In the last issue of Newsflash we reported on the work Foundation Field Representative Mark Bloomfield has been doing in China, Burma, and South Korea. Mark is in the process of placing books in libraries around the world. He has recently completed placing 221 books in the Philippines, 60 books in Singapore, and 248 in Indonesia. Here is his report about his experience in the Philippines:

Of the 221 hard covers recently placed, 84 were distributed to all provincial libraries and nearly all city libraries in the Philippines, courtesy of a very helpful National libranJ in Manila (which helped me complete my mission here ahead of schedule). Another ten were placed in the greater Manila cihJ libraries, courtesy of Manila city libranJ headquarters. Eighty-eight were placed by hand, and thirty-nine were mailed to important libraries in outlying regions with an accompanying introductonJ letter. All of the principal universities now have The Urantia Book (most of which are Catholic in this nation which is 80% Catholic), as do many of the larger seminaries, both Catholic and Protestant.

This nation's directory of Catholic institutions is as large as any phone directonJ I have ever seen. The task of bringing The Urantia Book to the Christian faith here, which requires a delicate touch so as not to take anything away, but rather give, will take an enormous effort. This should constitute tire Philippines an area of vital need from our movement's perspective.

The first great tidal wave of fifth epochal truth has now just flooded this nation's centers of faith and learning, but it will take long years of tears and turmoil before the unadulterated Jesusonian gospel succeeds in taking the place of the outward church.

Mark is presently in Indonesia placing books. Following is an extract from his latest report which expresses his opinion about the loss of the copyright and the impact it may have on the world:

Now that the copyright is up in the air, all hell is poised to break loose if anything other than the complete and inviolate text reaches the major religions of the world. Part IV on its own will be laughed out of Christendom and kicked out of Islam. While it is an open question as to whether Islam will overtake Christianity in the embrace of fifth epochal truth, these last twelve months have removed all doubt in my mind that it will be largely due to the Urantia Book's wholeness, its perfectly integrated, beautifully balanced and all-encompassing nature, together with endless amounts of tact and sensitivity in its personal presentation.

East Java, the President's home turf, is really tense right now, and for a lone Westerner to walk onto an Islamic university campus with annfuls of religious books is to test both messenger and message to the limit. This is where any sticking points show up clearly. Whilst you can lead with the book's harmonization of things, meanings, and values, or its ability to stand among all faiths in promotion of inter-religious harmony, first sight of Part IV almost invariably puts me in a defensive posture until I can clarify the book's stance.

To the Muslim (a word that means 'obedient to God'), the fact that The Urantia Book is not a Christian book, together with its message of the individual's yielding to the leadings of the spirit within (the will of God), is readily appealing. Monotheistic Islam will, I believe, embrace the Trinity concept and warm to tire idea of a knowable and loving Heavenly Father. I think it will happily embrace the Jesusonian gospel itself (so long as it doesn't have to embrace Christianity so long as no variant or abridgement causes Islam to reject the revelation so vehemently as to never allow it (in the form of the inviolate text) a second chance.

Likewise, the reflective and reasonable Christians I have met with will allow The Urantia Book when they know it has strengthened my faith in and love for Christ, whilst also answering my many remaining questions on a host of other topics, giving me a balanced overview of the rest of the picture. Part IV on its own here will raise more questions than it answers and be seen as a direct and level threat to the Bible; something the full text can be shown not to be. If a Christian gives a Bible to a Muslim, he'll throw it back in his face; but to give a Urantia Book will more likely culminate in a new friendship. (Try this with just Part IV at your peril!)

The word from the road is that the Urantia Book's unifying mission to Christianity of dissolving the many boundaries of the religions about Jesus (through having twenty different Bibles) into the one religion of Jesus will instead exacerbate the chaos exponentially if there exist twenty different Urantia Books. The loss of the coptpight threatens to unravel all that the revelators planned to accomplish.

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