Vows Have Been Around for a Long Time
I once heard that commitment is the continued action of a vow. Let me say that again: Commitment is the continued action of a vow. Many individuals have an aversion to taking vows and oaths since so many oaths made by humans seem needless, foolish, immature, and actually false. But on a human level all vows or oaths are not negative; there are oaths taken that are noble and even sacred, helping to keep a person on his or her higher path of thinking, feeling, and doing.
Worthy and sacred human vows began 500,000 years ago in Dalamatia and have continued throughout the evolution of human life. For example, four thousand years ago Abraham and Machiventa Melchizedek’s other students of Salem made a pledge, an “oath of ordination,” to be true to certain ethics that forbade any type of exploitation in their positions as teachers of spiritual truths.1 Two thousand years ago Jesus’ apostles made vows of devotion and loyalty to their Master.2
On a more cosmic level, when mortals are mustered into the Corps of Finality within their ascension to Paradise, they take the “Trinity oath of eternity,” also referred to as “the finaliter oath” and “the oath of allegiance to the Paradise Trinity.” According to The URANTIA Book, this is “an oath of sweeping implications and eternal import.”3
Guess what! Celestial beings have been taking vows for a long, long time. Here are some examples:
- The Creator Michaels take a sacred oath to the Trinity to carry out certain responsibilities concerning their required seven bestowals.4
- Some Life Carriers and their associates take renunciation vows if they choose to remain to continue their service on an evolutionary world upon the arrival of a Planetary Prince and the initiation of a new planetary mortal epoch. That happened on this world about 500,000 years ago.5
- Adam and Eve—the Material Son and Daughter who came to this world about 36,000 years ago—took an “oath of allegiance to the Most Highs of Norlatiadek and Michael of Nebadon” before and upon arriving on Urantia to serve as rulers within Divine Administration.6
- When Mansion World Teachers—who are “once-embraced” cherubim and sanobim that have worked long on the morontia spheres—graduate to being “re-embraced” by the Universe Mother Spirit to emerge as “full-fledged seraphim,” they take an “oath of personality transformation” for higher service in a career as seraphim.7
- Many seraphic guardians who have “been permitted to go through the ascendant career with their human wards” join their human companions in taking the finaliter oath.8
Meanings of Commitment
At the beginning of this teaching I pointed out that commitment is the continued action of a vow. In support of that meaning is a dictionary definition of commitment: “to obligate or commit or pledge oneself.” The Bible tells us to commit your way to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will bring it to pass.
Another dictionary definition is: “to entrust,” and entrust implies “committing with trust and confidence.” Before Michael of Nebadon’s seventh bestowal as Jesus of Nazareth, his elder Paradise brother Immanuel told him, “In all other details of your oncoming bestowal we would commit [entrust] you to the leading of the indwelling Adjuster, the teaching of the ever-present divine spirit of human guidance, and the reason-judgment of your expanding human mind of hereditary endowment.”9
The URANTIA Book also tells us: “One thing you can depend upon: The Adjusters [fragments of the Universal Father that indwell our minds] will never lose anything that is committed to their care; never have we known these spirit helpers to default.”10 So, remember that we have been committed or entrusted to the care of our Thought Adjusters, and we can rely on them to remain loyal to their particular mission with the individual mortal soul they are assigned to.
At the beginning of his public ministry, when Jesus was praying before his great ordination sermon, he committed [entrusted] his apostles to the Universal Father’s care, just as today Christ Michael has committed his Divine New Order apostles, change agents of the Divine Administration, to the Father’s care. In that prayer of commitment, Jesus said:
My Father, I now bring to you these men, my messengers. From among our children on earth I have chosen these twelve to go forth to represent me as I came forth to represent you. Love them and be with them as you have loved and been with me. And now my Father, give these men wisdom, as I place all the affairs of the coming Kingdom in their hands. And I would, if it is your will, tarry on earth a time to help them in their labors for the kingdom. And again my Father, I thank you for these men, and I commit them to your keeping while I go on to finish the work you have given me to do.11
Today Christ Michael has committed [entrusted] his apostles and disciples of the Divine New Order to his Father’s keeping. Now Michael of Nebadon is here with us through his Spirit of Truth, which he bestowed after ascending from this world Urantia. And the Universal Father sojourns with each of us through the presence of the Thought Adjuster, which is “the most profound of all universe mysteries.”12
We who are committed to serve in Divine Administration have a tremendous responsibility, and the mandates today are the mandates of higher understanding, with much more responsibility today than the apostles and disciples had about two thousand years ago.
Another dictionary definition of commit is: “to pledge or assign to some particular cause.” The URANTIA Book tells us that as time passed, most of the apostles became even more committed to the work of the Kingdom because they had “staying power.” In order for someone to remain in his or her commitment to another person or work or whatever, he or she must have loyalty, which is continued action to a vow. That is the staying power.
After Jesus’ death and his morontia appearances, the apostles and about 120 believers and disciples were bestowed with the Spirit of Truth. With this new consciousness of spiritual strength, Peter proposed that they all remain loyal to the good news that had been committed and trusted into their hands. Today we in Divine Administration have the Fifth Epochal and Continuing Revelation committed into our hands, and we are to remain loyal to it.
We know that there is loyalty to ideas, beliefs, groups, and individual persons. In fact, we in Divine Administration have a day (July 17) set aside as “Loyalty Day” to honor not only persons who have remained loyal to their vows to serve God in His perfect will but to the concept of any loyalty that is within divine pattern.
Misplaced Loyalties
Celestial Overcontrol has often spoken to us about true loyalty and false loyalty. We have learned that we need to relinquish our various false loyalties and obligations, and hold fast to our first true loyalty. That first loyalty is to the Universal Father, and all other true and right loyalties will then appropriately fall into place.
What are some of those false loyalties that we need to relinquish? Firstly, there is loyalty to our lower selfish nature, which is the big one, and that is the one that Lucifer introduced and accentuated in his Manifesto 200,000 years ago.
Then there is loyalty to someone who is out of God’s perfect will and divine pattern, whether it be family members, friends, employers, government officials, movie stars, rock musicians, famous scientists, writers, artists, and so on. Jesus had to go against his biological family’s and friends’ wishes and expectations in order to remain loyal to his destiny and ministry.
There is loyalty to false beliefs because we are comfortable with them, and we get some form of personal power and prestige in our so-called knowledge in those false belief systems. Jesus often spoke very strongly to the religious and powerful Sadducees and Pharisees of his day who wanted to remain steadfast in their false belief systems and superstitions. That is where their personal power lay, and if they gave that up they would lose their personal power and status.
That is why a lot of so-called spiritual leaders today are not willing to embrace epochal revelation and move a step higher in their own understanding of spirituality. They are comfortable in their personal place of power. They are leaders and teachers there, but if they walked into this revelation, they would have to become a student to learn it in order to become a teacher again, and most of them aren’t willing to do that.
There is the loyalty to tradition, which can be family traditions and other social traditions such as certain national celebrations. From childhood on, Jesus would not participate in any of his family’s traditions that went against God’s reality and against the true teachings of God. The Fourth of July, Independence Day, is just one example of celebrating nationalism and bombs bursting in air. Though there is nothing wrong in celebrating the gaining of independence from a tyrannical government, it can be celebrated in a much higher way than it is presently, and that is why Divine Administration set aside July 5 for Global Interdependence Day, which celebrates global brotherhood and sisterhood rather than mere nationalism.
There is loyalty to lower religious forms, which many people have found comfort in and want to remain in them. Jesus refused to take part in any Jewish tradition, ritual, or ceremony that perpetuated false superstitious beliefs, and he taught that people should progress beyond any religious form that was steeped in falsehood. In order to truly move into a higher fourth-dimensional consciousness, we have to move out of those forms, keeping only that which is of truth and goodness.
Within the New Age movement there are hundreds of sincerely seeking people who are getting temporary comfort and a little bit of growth from religious forms that are really quite old and traditional but do not bring any new revelation. Those old religious forms can be a jumping off point, or a window or a door to help someone move into a higher revelation that is now available to the planet, but if individuals remain loyal to just their Native American spirituality, or their Buddhist tradition, or their Hinduism, or their Christianity, or whatever it is in a fundamentalistic mindset, then they cannot embrace the powerful epochal revelation that is here now on the planet.
If we are going to really contribute to this world moving forward into light and life, it is crucial that we in Divine Administration move on from the various false loyalties to which we have become attached, and, for some, even addicted to.
Loyalty to God and the Outworking of His Will on Urantia (Earth)
Of course The URANTIA Book does speak very highly of true and right loyalties, as long as those loyalties do not replace or take priority over our first loyalty to the Universal Father. There is loyalty to our beloved family and friends and loyalty to our employer, our community, our government, and so on.
Unfortunately on this planet Urantia, because of the Lucifer Rebellion 200,000 years ago, almost all human institutions are at some level based upon Luciferic teachings. Thus any loyalties to any of these individuals, groups, and institutions that are of the third dimension could become false loyalties to some degree if they detract from our being in the perfect will of the Universal Father and meeting our destiny in the highest manner.
Our commitment and loyalty to our First Father, the First Source and Center, is easier to carry out in this Divine-New-Order culture that we are struggling to create here in Divine Administration. Celestial Overcontrol’s plan is that eventually this fourth- and fifth-dimensional culture, which we are attempting to live, will evolve into transforming or even replacing the existing cultures and governments of the world. That vision may seem to be a long ways from manifesting, but it begins with this model that we of “the goodly company” are creating together.
Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines loyal as “unswerving in allegiance; faithful in allegiance to one’s lawful sovereign or government; faithful to a private person to whom fidelity is due; faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution or product.”
It is very important now that our first faithfulness is to the Divine Administration and its principles and ethics. Our loyalty and allegiance to the U.S. government or the British government or the Brazilian government or the Australian government or the Saudi Arabian government or the Israeli government must be within the true laws of God and divine administration principles.
We do not need to pledge allegiance to anything outside of divine pattern, anything that is corrupt and exploits other human beings and natural resources. We can honor and be loyal to anything within a human-made government that is within the laws of God and are based upon principles of progress within divine pattern. However, our first loyalty is to our celestial sovereign, Christ Michael of the universe of Nebadon, not the mortal politicians in power. Of course we should always support and be loyal to those statespersons who are true to principles and ideals within the laws of God.
Any loyalty that we have to any individuals must be a faithfulness to whom fidelity is due. They too must be faithful to the Universal Father of All, and His laws and principles. If we have a loyalty to someone who is not, that person will become a distraction from our higher aspirations and calling. We can love them and show them respect, honor, and courtesy where all of this is due, but our first loyalty is to our heavenly Father and to the destiny that He has for us in coordination with the Sovereign of Nebadon, Christ Michael.
Most of us aligned in Divine Administration have experienced to some degree our biological family’s anger and frustration with us because of our commitment to follow our vows of loyalty and dedication to this great work. Most of our family do not understand our commitment and confuse it with other lower evolutionary religions and “cultish” commitments. Many of our biological family members and past friends are upset that our loyalties have switched. Though in our hearts we consider ourselves still their family and friends, and we still love them (even more now), we have placed our loyalty in something beyond them. And that is difficult for most of them to comprehend or accept fully. Even Jesus experienced misunderstanding and disappointment from his biological family. Basically he said to his apostles: “If you place your love and your allegiance to your biological family over your allegiance to me, then you do not really love me.”
The cause, the ideal that we in Divine Administration need to be loyal and faithful to now is the cause of bringing the fourth and fifth dimension, the first stage of light and life, into existence on this planet, by us becoming purified and of fourth- and fifth-dimensional thinking, feeling, doing, and being.
Another way to put this is that the level of God that an individual or society experiences does depend upon our commitment and loyalty to the divine pattern of the Universal Father, and that divine pattern manifests within our personal beings as well as in all interactions on the physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual levels.
How amazing to consider that the power of God—and all of the multi-dimensional ways that it manifests in the universes of time and space—the beauty and the reality of God is here, within us and on this planet. But how we and others experience it depends upon our loyalty to being in the perfect will of God, being receptive of the many, many gifts and blessings of God.
It is our responsibility, first as individual creational units, to remain loyal to our vows to Christ Michael and have that staying power. Then it is our responsibility, as a cosmic family unit, to remain loyal to Divine Administration, working side by side with celestial beings to manifest the vision and ideal of the beginning stages of light and life.
It is important to educate ourselves as to the reality of divine government at a universe and superuniverse levels—all paralleled in some manner here on this world at our very human level. This is why we study this in our University of Ascension Science and the Physics of Rebellion. It is our responsibility to bring this message to the world, as we can become the change point for the great shift into a better world. It is getting a certain number of people to pledge their loyalty to Christ Michael in a higher understanding that can cause the shift, the quantum leap of this planet into the first stage of light and life.
Broken Vows and Betrayal of Trust
As we know, our system sovereign Lucifer broke his oath of loyalty to Christ Michael and the Universal Father, and that broken loyalty has resulted in broken circuitry, broken worlds and broken people who are caught up in false loyalties to non-reality, that which is not of eternal value, that which is not of the beauty, truth, and goodness of divine pattern.
The URANTIA Book states that: “. . . of all forms of evil, none are more destructive of personality status than betrayal of trust, and disloyalty to one’s confiding friends.”13 Lucifer, Satan, Caligastia, and Daligastia (to name a few) betrayed the trust of Christ Michael, and they betrayed all of those whose well-being was entrusted to their care.
That poison of broken commitment and disloyalty is the legacy of the Lucifer Rebellion for all individuals and all worlds who have participated for the last 200,000 years. We know that this world Urantia (Earth) participated in it, and the fourth-order starseed from three other universes participated in it too. There has been broken loyalty, broken commitment, and broken circuitry. It is now the final settling of the Adjudication of the Bright and Morning Star versus Lucifer, and in this Adjudication it is time for us to correct any disloyalty that we have committed.
Is loyalty—devotion to highest duty—desirable? Then must man [people] carry on amid the possibilities of betrayal and desertion. The valor of devotion to duty consists in the implied danger of default.14
And so let us carry on in our reestablished loyalty to the Universal Father and to Michael of Nebadon.
[1]The URANTIA Book, Paper 93, Section 5
[2] Ibid., Paper 138, Section 9 and Paper 190, Section 1
[3] Ibid., Paper 27, Section 7; Paper 30, Section 4; Paper 31, Introduction and Sections 1 and 9; Paper 117, Section 7
[4] Ibid., Paper 21, Sections 3 and 4; Paper 119, Introduction
[5] Ibid., Paper 36, Section 3 and Paper 65, Section 1
[6] Ibid., Paper 74, Sections 1 and 2
[7] Ibid., Paper 38, Section 8
[8] Ibid., Paper 31, Section 4
[9] Ibid., Paper 121, Section 3, #8
[10] Ibid., Paper 108, Section 5
[11] Ibid., Paper 140, Section 2
[12] Ibid., Paper 1, Section 4
[13] Ibid., Paper 67, Section 1
[14] Ibid., Paper 3, Section 5