Global Change Teachings for the New Millennium

Presented by Gabriel of Urantia and Niánn Emerson Chase

to members and guests of Global Community Communications Church at a World-Wide Sunday Service

Teaching by Niánn Emerson Chase

I’ve realized that women’s issues are simply human beings’ issues. It’s not men’s issues, children’s issues, women’s issues; it’s human beings’ issues, and it’s how human beings view each other, how humans relate to each other. There is a spiritual paucity, a spiritual poverty in Western civilization that is a disease. It’s a most serious disease; it is the plague of the centuries. It has been a plague since the Lucifer rebellion and it’s just compounded now. The rebellion has influenced how people see and relate to each other.

Unlike the married couple that I described in Part 1 of this teaching, my mother and father had an appropriate relationship. They are both first-light souls, new souls. They shared similar spiritual values—they loved God the Universal Father within a Christian context. They both agreed in the implementation of their faith walk. They had the same goals and agreed on the lifestyle that they wanted to live. And they each had a strong sense of who they were as a man and a woman in relationship. The roles were clearly defined for my father, the breadwinner, and for my mother, the homemaker. Throughout my growing-up years I never sensed any competition between my parents, only cooperation. I saw love and honor shown to each other, and I do not recall ever seeing my parents arguing or fighting with each other, though I knew that they did not always agree on everything. I also was aware that the relationship wasn’t perfect, but I never, as a child, experienced them expressing anger with each other in front of me. My father consistently showed my mother respect, appreciation, and protectivness, and he did not tolerate any disrespect shown by us children to my mother. He showed that same respect and love and protectivness to us three girls, his daughters. And my mother showed my father respect, gratitude and cheerful submission. I said submission, not subversion, there is a big difference in those two realities. As I pointed out last week, subversion is a derivative of subvert, which means “to overthrow or destroy, to undermine, or corrupt.” Subversion is what happens in the fallen Caligastia mindset, and it doesn’t just happen with men towards women, but women can attempt to subvert men. Parents can attempt to subvert their children; children can attempt to subvert their parents; peers can attempt to subvert each other. Some of the children who were angry and picked up guns felt like they had been subverted by some of their peers, and they didn’t have the tools to deal with it in a higher way. They must have felt like they had no adults to go to, no option except in their anger and their hurt and their frustration to pick up those guns. Possibly, in the minds of those children, resorting to violence was what would work in this society—there are so many expressions of rage and violence in the music they hear, in the movies they watch, in the cartoons they watch, in the books they read, and in the news that describes what is happening all over the world, including in other schools in this country. What these children observe is subversion in many forms and people reacting to that subversion.

Submission is a derivative of submit, which means “to yield to authority; to surrender, to defer, or to consent to; to abide by the opinion or authority of another.” Submission within divine pattern does not mean automatically giving in to any form of authority, whether that so-called authority is an individual or is a social or governmental function. Many “authorities” within the dominant culture are within the Caligastia mindset of subversion rather than in divine pattern of acknowledging and respecting servant-oriented leadership and complementarity. So, we shouldn’t blindly submit to authority. We should question authority, especially within the dominant culture. We should question the authority of social mores, and we should question the authority of established religious mores. We should question the authority of political leaders who say one thing and their budgets say something else. Jesus said to submit one to another in love, and that is what I experienced as a child within the home and family that my father and mother created. They both submitted to each other in a complementary relationship, understanding that men and women are different and appreciating and valuing each other’s gender and personality differences. Because my father and mother were a mutual source of strength, rather than one dominating over the other, I grew up in a home where all of us in the family—parents and children—could grow, where our strengths were fostered and possibilities increased. In my home, the difference between males and females were affirmed without connotations of inferiority and superiority; therefore, I grew up with a sense of self-respect as a female, and I never wanted to be anything else but a female. I expected all males to treat me with the same kind of love, honor, protectivness, and dignity that my father did, and most of my male colleagues, neighbors, friends, and complements have.

I also knew as a result of my upbringing that I had many choices in composing my own life. I did not have to get married while still in my teens as my mother did, and I didn’t have to pursue a career outside of the home, or I could; it was all up to me. The possibilities were limitless for me; it was my choice. I don’t recall my parents ever verbalizing any of this to me; they didn’t ever talk about it. I just knew because of how they brought me up. In fact, I somehow understood that the kind of homemaking my parents did, for my dad was very much present in our home, is the kind of homemaking that should be happening in all homes, in all schools, in all workplaces. That kind of homemaking has to do with attitudes, values, and a sense of respect for self and for others. That kind of homemaking belongs to both men and women and allows for sustainable living which encourages, rather than discourages, continual growth, exploration, and spiritual ascension.

In order for men and women to become full-time homemakers, they will have to move out of their old ways of perceiving and relating to the opposite sex, as well as gaining a sense of self-respect that creates sustainable relationships and situations. Unfortunately, on our world called Urantia, sexual subversion and tyranny has been and is seen by many as normal and good. Throughout our history and “herstory” (after all, history is “his story,” but it’s “her story” too), cultures, religions, and language which reflect the consciousness of the people using it have oppressed women, and that tyranny continues today in many places. The URANTIA Book acknowledges that on page 778. “Man’s brutal treatment of woman constitutes one of the darkest chapters of human history.” On page 564 we are told that from divine mind perspective, “Sex equality prevails on all advanced worlds; male and female are equal in mind endowment and spiritual status. We do not regard a world as having emerged from barbarism so long as one sex seeks to tyrannize over the other.” Obviously from celestial perspective and from the divine mindset this world in many areas is very barbaric, regardless of the high technology that is present.

The main purpose of Divine Administration is to help bring about global advancement through a shift in consciousness. Higher relationships between men and women cannot happen until persons, male and female, understand that all people—men, women, black, yellow, red, brown, white, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Chinese, Russian, Iraqi, Palestinian, Israeli, Mexican, American, Socialist, Communist, Democrat, and so on—realize and recognize that the fragment of the Universal Father is in every other person, and that we are indeed one planetary family. So, let’s all become “homemakers,” with the planet as our home, nurturing and sustaining all of life. Here in Divine Administration, besides calling each other Minister so and so, or Elder so and so, you might want to add Homemaker so and so. Thank you.
Teaching by Gabriel of Urantia

In Ephesians in the New Testament, it says, “Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.” In Colossians, it says, “Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them.” Also in Ephesians it says, “Wives be subject to your own husbands as you are to the Lord.” In other translations it says be submissive. In Ephesians it also says, “But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.” In 1 Peter it says, “In the same way you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word that they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives.” Quite a responsibility for us husbands.

In The URANTIA Book on page 625, it states about another world higher in evolution than ours, “The majority of social and administrative posts were held jointly by men and women. Most of the teaching was also done jointly; likewise all judicial trusts were discharged by similar associated couples.” On page 744 of The URANTIA Book we learn that the Planetary Prince’s supermortal staff was composed of fifty men and fifty women, working as pairs.

On page 831 we learn,

On the fourth day, Adam and Eve addressed the garden assembly. From the inaugural mount they spoke to the people concerning their plans for the rehabilitation of the world and outlined the methods whereby they would seek to redeem the social culture of Urantia [Earth] from the low levels to which it had fallen as a result of sin and rebellion. This was a great day, and it closed with a feast for the council of men and women who had been selected to assume responsibilities in the new administration of world affairs. Take note! women as well men were in this group, and that was the first time such a thing had occurred on earth since the days of Dalamatia. It was an astounding innovation to behold Eve, a woman, sharing the honors and responsibilities of world affairs with a man. Thus ended the fourth day on earth [of Adam and Eve].

So, the first and second epochal revelations—the Planetary Prince and his one hundred supermortals and Adam and Eve—presented and practiced the concept of having men and women working together in leadership roles, with no gender lording it over the other.

Unfortunately, that has not been the case with the human beings on this world. On page 774, when discussing the specialized roles of men and women from primitive times to current situations, it says,

Woman’s work was derived from the selective presence of the child; women naturally love babies more than men do. Thus woman became the routine worker, while man became the hunter and fighter engaging in accentuated periods of work and rest.
All down through the ages the taboos have operated to keep woman strictly in her own field. Man has most selfishly chosen the more agreeable work, leaving the routine drudgery to woman. Man has always been ashamed to do women’s work. But woman has never shown any reluctance to doing man’s work. But strange to record both men and women have always worked together in building and furnishing the home.

On page 913 The URANTIA Book comments on the evolution of relationships between men and women.

Notwithstanding the personality gulf between men and women, the sex urge is sufficient to insure their coming together for the reproduction of the species. This instinct operated effectively long before humans expected much of what was later called love, devotion, and marital loyalty. Mating is an innate propensity, and marriage is it’s evolutionary social repercussion.

And on page 915 we read,

There always have been and always will be two distinct realms of marriage: the mores, the laws regulating the external aspects of mating, and the otherwise secret and personal relations of men and women. Always has the individual been rebellious against the sex regulations imposed by society; and this is the reason for this age-long sex problem. Self-maintenance is individual, but is carried on by the group; self-perpetuation is social, but it is secured by individual impulse.”

What is the difference is between self-maintenance and self-perpetuation? Niánn, do you want to tackle it? Niánn: Well, I’m thinking that “self-maintenance” is more the physical aspects of keeping alive, where “self-perpetuation” is those higher human aspects of caring—socialization, personal growth, intellectual growth, psychological growth, loving, receiving love, spiritual growth. That’s how I’m seeing self-perpetuation. That’s more of a group thing; you don’t usually engage in those activities totally by yourself; usually they involve some level of socialization. With any kind of inner growth or spiritization, there has to be interaction with other personalities, whether it’s interaction with the personality of God or interaction with the personalities of other humans. I think of the term “perpetuation” as going beyond mere maintenance, involving expansion and growth. Some people might think of self-perpetuation as having offspring to perpetuate your DNA, etc. Whether it is having children or expanding within personality circuitry, self-perpetuation involves at least one other human being. That’s why The URANTIA Book indicates that it is social, but each person has to take the initiative of wanting that. You don’t just sit passively like a bump on a log and expect socialization to happen; you have to participate in it.

Gabriel: What does individual impulse have to do with self-perpetuation? It could be to just survive, but I think God has put more in us than to just survive. There is a sense of destiny within us; there is a sense of responsibility that God places in us, and that responsibility is the social aspect. We have a responsibility as a society to help others reach their destiny. The government does. Divine Administration does. There are some individuals throughout history in positions of leadership who have been for the people, and there have been a few who tried to aid people in their spiritual and other aspects of growth.

Most of us should develop at some point in our lives a sense of knowing what we can do and what we can’t do. Fallen fourth-order starseed have the greatest problem thinking a lot of times that they can do something better than anyone else; that’s part of the rebellious mind. Starseed usually get bored on types of jobs that new souls do not get bored in. Not that new souls would not get bored if there is not any diversity or challenge, but usually native Urantians, new souls, can find fulfillment and interest in areas that starseed would not. In Divine Administration, starseed and Urantians alike are trained to do manual labor as well as possibly being musicians, artists, teachers, and administrators. In Divine Administration individuals can tap into many facets and areas of themselves.

Santeen: The fact is that we are in a fallen world, so to try to look at society’s responsibility verses the individual’s whether it be maintenance or self-perpetuation, in the sense of procreation which is the perpetuation of your genetics and your seed. We’re so far off the mark to try to even understand the perpetuation of higher genetics; in today’s setting most people are lost. Hence, the Fifth Epochal and Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation.

The early tribes needed to procreate; they needed the bodies; they needed the people for support. Not only the natural tendency that came as the human to procreate, not only because just of the sex urge, but for the need for family, the natural urge to experience family. Humans are the only animals on the planet who love their grandchildren. It’s a unique experience that belongs to humans. What I’m getting at is that what we are learning here is that if you take a look on Urantia (Earth) today, a lot of people should not be procreating. Look at the whole field of eugenics. We have not had the consciousness on the planet nor the leadership to be able to say who mates and who does not mate, and we are perpetuating such damaged strains. As an enlightened individual, trying to understand our place in terms of maintenance, in terms of perpetuation, without a relationship with God, without a relationship with a group of individuals who has a higher consciousness, it really can’t be done on Urantia with any degree of responsibility or kindness to the planet.

There are countries where literally you have to get licensed to have offspring, and if you have more than your allotted children you could be subject to punishment and/or imprisonment. That’s not a very light way to deal with population control. Those are the kinds of things I think are being addressed here on page 915 of The URANTIA Book.

Here in Divine Administration with these two wonderful couples who are coming together in marriage, they will be in a higher relationship than most couples, for there is an understanding what the relationship is, an understanding what their responsibility is before God first and then before one another. We begin to understand what real maintenance is, and what is real perpetuation because we have some genetics and we have some responsibility. To me, the power of the Mandate is the power for me to be able to actualize my destiny in God. That’s a big responsibility on the Mandate. It’s also a big responsibility for me to begin to understand and to begin to move into what my destiny is. My destiny determines the relationships I’m in. It determines my whole genetic, biological evolution in relation to the rest of you here in Divine Administration. There is so much that is here that we have that we are so blessed with that the rest of the world doesn’t even have a clue about. We are being given information here on page 915 of The URANTIA Book going back all the way back to the early tribes. There weren’t even nations yet, and look how bad we’ve mucked it up on Urantia thousands of years later.

Gabriel: Thank you. A higher society would promote the proper mating and procreation of offspring. On this fallen world responsible marriage and procreation is so necessary for the ultimate protection of every man, woman and child on the planet. That’s what Divine Administration will do someday on a planetary level, but the leaders have to be respected and the principles that are being implemented understood by the citizens. Leadership has no authority to implement divine administration principles unless the citizens allow it. Within divine administration procedure there is a social responsibility. Most citizens should get married to the appropriate complement, have and raise children in a happy, loving home and society. Individuals should also become personally fulfilled in their right livelihoods, whether it be as musicians, architects, administrators, builders, gardeners or whatever.

Men and women together as teams are very powerful, thus the examples given in The URANTIA Book of the fifty pairs of supermortals in the first epochal revelation; the Material Son and Daughter, Adam and Eve, as the second epochal revelation; the men and women working in pairs as administrators and teachers on a higher world. Yes, relationships between men and women are very important, and in this community it is hoped that marriages will far surpass most third-dimensional marriages, for we intend to become better people as we continue growing and ascending in our relationships with God and with each other.

Marriage has been many times in jeopardy, and the marriage mores have drawn heavily on both property and religion for support; but the real influence which forever safeguards marriage and the resultant family is the simple innate biologic fact that men and women positively will not live without each other, be they the most primitive savages or the most cultured mortals. (ibid., 922)

Marriage has always been, and still is, man’s supreme dream temporal ideology. Though this beautiful dream is seldom realized in it’s entirety, it endures as a glorious ideal, ever luring progressing mankind onto greater striving for human happiness. But young men and women should be taught something of the realities of marriage before they are plunged into the exacting demands of the interassociations of family life. Youthful idealism should be tempered with some degree of premarital disillusionment. (ibid., 930)Each sex has its own distinctive sphere of existence, together with its own rights within that sphere. If woman aspires really to enjoy all of man’s rights, then, sooner or later, pitiless and emotionless competition will certainly replace that chivalry and special consideration which many women now enjoy, and which they have so recently won from men will be lost. (ibid., 238)

I’ve been in a relationship with women where there is a tug-of-war going on, where the woman tries to take the place of the man in the relationship, neither one understanding each other’s special sphere of functioning and being. There can only be a tug of war when that happens. A man has to know when to submit and back off, and so does a woman. Ultimately, it’s the man’s responsibility to make a final decision if a final decision cannot be made together. This is a hard one because it gets into a lot of areas in relationships with two people. Ideally, the man should be the spiritual elder, but both should honor each other. When you are on the same level or a closer level to each other, the relationship works better and it can be so beautiful.

The URANTIA Book, says on page 939, “Men and women need each other in their morontia and spiritual, as well as in their mortal careers.” So, our need for each other is not going to just end when we get off this planet; we’re going to keep on needing each other. On page 939 it goes on to state, “The differences in viewpoint between men and female persist even beyond the first life and throughout the local and superuniverse ascensions.” Will our conflicts as a result of our differences ever get easier? “Are you going to talk to me in five minutes or ten or thirty, or do you want to take three days to talk to me again?” “Are you going to forgive me? Are you going to honor me?” “Am I going to be more patient with you?” “When can I get over that?” That’s relationships. That’s marriage. We all go through conflicts and misunderstandings and some level. But as we mature and ascend, our differences create stimulation and complementarity rather than conflict. Our responses to each other become less harsh and angry as we realize our immediacy to God’s forgiveness. “Quick, give me a shot of Spirit.”

And even in Havona, the pilgrims who were once men and women will still be aiding each other in the Paradise ascent. Never, even in the corps of the Finality will the creature metamorphose so far as to obliviate the personality trends that humans call male and female; always will these two basic variations of humankind continue to intrigue, stimulate, encourage, and assist each other, always will they be mutually dependent on co-operation in the solution of perplexing universe problems and in the overcoming of manifold cosmic difficulties. (ibid., 939)

This is on page 1546, “The apostles were at first shocked by, but early became accustomed to, Jesus’ treatment of women. He made it very clear to them that women were to accorded equal rights with men in his kingdom.”

Have you men ever wondered, “What is she talking about? Why doesn’t she understand me?” Have you women ever complained, “You don’t understand me? You don’t really care.” And you men come back, “What are you talking about? I understand everything.”

While the sexes can never hope fully to understand each other, they are effectively complementary, and though co-operation is often more or less antagonistic[boy, that’s encouraging], it is capable of maintaining and reproducing society. Marriage is an institution designed to compose sex differences, meanwhile effecting the continuation of civilization and insuring the reproduction of the race. (ibid., 939)

That wisdom was presented by the Chief of Seraphim stationed on Urantia. We have quite a challenge, us men and women, us ascending sons and daughters in Divine Administration to be the examples of what a true marriage within divine pattern is. Niánn and I feel honored to officiate at the upcoming weddings of two beautiful couples in our community. We look forward to your growth with each other and your increasing happiness in a healthy, spiritual marriage.

March 11, 2001