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Urantia Book Paper 134 The Transition Years
SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ...
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Paper 134 The Transition Years
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Introduction
DURING the Mediterranean journey Jesus had carefully studied the people he met
and the countries through which he passed, and at about this time he reached
his final decision as to the remainder of his life on earth. He had fully
considered and now finally approved the plan which provided that he be born of
Jewish parents in Palestine, and he therefore deliberately returned to Galilee
to await the beginning of his lifework as a public teacher of truth; he began
to lay plans for a public career in the land of his father Joseph's people, and
he did this of his own free will.
Jesus had found out through personal and human experience that Palestine was
the best place in all the Roman world wherein to set forth the closing
chapters, and to enact the final scenes, of his life on earth. For the first
time he became fully satisfied with the program of openly manifesting his true
nature and of revealing his divine identity among the Jews and gentiles of his
native Palestine. He definitely decided to finish his life on earth and to
complete his career of mortal existence in the same land in which he entered
the human experience as a helpless babe. His Urantia career began among the
Jews in Palestine, and he chose to terminate his life in Palestine and among
the Jews.
1. THE THIRTIETH YEAR (A.D. 24)
After taking leave of Gonod and Ganid at Charax (in December of A.D. 23), Jesus
returned by way of Ur to Babylon, where he joined a desert caravan that was on
its way to Damascus. From Damascus he went to Nazareth, stopping only a few
hours at Capernaum, where he paused to call on Zebedee's family. There he met
his brother James, who had sometime previously come over to work in his place
in Zebedee's boatshop. After talking with James and Jude (who also chanced to
be in Capernaum) and after turning over to his brother James the little house
which John Zebedee had managed to buy, Jesus went on to Nazareth.
At the end of his Mediterranean journey Jesus had received sufficient money to
meet his living expenses almost up to the time of the beginning of his public
ministry. But aside from Zebedee of Capernaum and the people whom he met on
this extraordinary trip, the world never knew that he made this journey. His
family always believed that he spent this time in study at Alexandria. Jesus
never confirmed these beliefs, neither did he make open denial of such
misunderstandings.
During his stay of a few weeks at Nazareth, Jesus visited with his family and
friends, spent some time at the repair shop with his brother Joseph, but
devoted most of his attention to Mary and Ruth. Ruth was then nearly fifteen
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years old, and this was Jesus' first opportunity to have long talks with her
since she had become a young woman.
Both Simon and Jude had for some time wanted to get married, but they had
disliked to do this without Jesus' consent; accordingly they had postponed
these events, hoping for their eldest brother's return. Though they all
regarded James as the head of the family in most matters, when it came to
getting married, they wanted the blessing of Jesus. So Simon and Jude were
married at a double wedding in early March of this year, A.D. 24. All the older
children were now married; only Ruth, the youngest, remained at home with Mary.
Jesus visited with the individual members of his family quite normally and
naturally, but when they were all together, he had so little to say that they
remarked about it among themselves. Mary especially was disconcerted by this
unusually peculiar behavior of her first-born son.
About the time Jesus was preparing to leave Nazareth, the conductor of a large
caravan which was passing through the city was taken violently ill, and Jesus,
being a linguist, volunteered to take his place. Since this trip would
necessitate his absence for a year, and inasmuch as all his brothers were
married and his mother was living at home with Ruth, Jesus called a family
conference at which he proposed that his mother and Ruth go to Capernaum to
live in the home which he had so recently given to James. Accordingly, a few
days after Jesus left with the caravan, Mary and Ruth moved to Capernaum, where
they lived for the rest of Mary's life in the home that Jesus had provided.
Joseph and his family moved into the old Nazareth home.
This was one of the more unusual years in the inner experience of the Son of
Man; great progress was made in effecting working harmony between his human
mind and the indwelling Adjuster. The Adjuster had been actively engaged in
reorganizing the thinking and in rehearsing the mind for the great events which
were in the not then distant future. The personality of Jesus was preparing for
his great change in attitude toward the world. These were the in-between times,
the transition stage of that being who began life as God appearing as man, and
who was now making ready to complete his earth career as man appearing as God.
2. THE CARAVAN TRIP TO THE CASPIAN
It was the first of April, A.D. 24, when Jesus left Nazareth on the caravan
trip to the Caspian Sea region. The caravan which Jesus joined as its conductor
was going from Jerusalem by way of Damascus and Lake Urmia through Assyria,
Media, and Parthia to the southeastern Caspian Sea region. It was a full year
before he returned from this journey.
For Jesus this caravan trip was another adventure of exploration and personal
ministry. He had an interesting experience with his caravan family--passengers,
guards, and camel drivers. Scores of men, women, and children residing along
the route followed by the caravan lived richer lives as a result of their
contact with Jesus, to them, the extraordinary conductor of a commonplace
caravan. Not all who enjoyed these occasions of his personal ministry profited
thereby, but the vast majority of those who met and talked with him were made
better for the remainder of their natural lives.
Of all his world travels this Caspian Sea trip carried Jesus nearest to the
Orient and enabled him to gain a better understanding of the Far-Eastern
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peoples. He made intimate and personal contact with every one of the surviving
races of Urantia excepting the red. He equally enjoyed his personal ministry to
each of these varied races and blended peoples, and all of them were receptive
to the living truth which he brought them. The Europeans from the Far West and
the Asiatics from the Far East alike gave attention to his words of hope and
eternal life and were equally influenced by the life of loving service and
spiritual ministry which he so graciously lived among them.
The caravan trip was successful in every way. This was a most interesting
episode in the human life of Jesus, for he functioned during this year in an
executive capacity, being responsible for the material intrusted to his charge
and for the safe conduct of the travelers making up the caravan party. And he
most faithfully, efficiently, and wisely discharged his multiple duties.
On the return from the Caspian region, Jesus gave up the direction of the
caravan at Lake Urmia, where he tarried for slightly over two weeks. He
returned as a passenger with a later caravan to Damascus, where the owners of
the camels besought him to remain in their service. Declining this offer, he
journeyed on with the caravan train to Capernaum, arriving the first of April,
A.D. 25. No longer did he regard Nazareth as his home. Capernaum had become the
home of Jesus, James, Mary, and Ruth. But Jesus never again lived with his
family; when in Capernaum he made his home with the Zebedees.
3. THE URMIA LECTURES
On the way to the Caspian Sea, Jesus had stopped several days for rest and
recuperation at the old Persian city of Urmia on the western shores of Lake
Urmia. On the largest of a group of islands situated a short distance offshore
near Urmia was located a large building--a lecture amphitheater--dedicated to
the "spirit of religion." This structure was really a temple of the philosophy
of religions.
This temple of religion had been built by a wealthy merchant citizen of Urmia
and his three sons. This man was Cymboyton, and he numbered among his ancestors
many diverse peoples.
The lectures and discussions in this school of religion began at 10:00 o'clock
every morning in the week. The afternoon sessions started at 3:00 o'clock, and
the evening debates opened at 8:00 o'clock. Cymboyton or one of his three sons
always presided at these sessions of teaching, discussion, and debate. The
founder of this unique school of religions lived and died without ever
revealing his personal religious beliefs.
On several occasions Jesus participated in these discussions, and before he
left Urmia, Cymboyton arranged with Jesus to sojourn with them for two weeks on
his return trip and give twenty-four lectures on "The Brotherhood of Men," and
to conduct twelve evening sessions of questions, discussions, and debates on
his lectures in particular and on the brotherhood of men in general.
In accordance with this arrangement, Jesus stopped off on the return trip and
delivered these lectures. This was the most systematic and formal of all the
Master's teaching on Urantia. Never before or after did he say so much on one
subject as was contained in these lectures and discussions on the brotherhood
of men. In reality these lectures were on the "Kingdom of God" and the
"Kingdoms of Men."
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More than thirty religions and religious cults were represented on the faculty
of this temple of religious philosophy. These teachers were chosen, supported,
and fully accredited by their respective religious groups. At this time there
were about seventy-five teachers on the faculty, and they lived in cottages
each accommodating about a dozen persons. Every new moon these groups were
changed by the casting of lots. Intolerance, a contentious spirit, or any other
disposition to interfere with the smooth running of the community would bring
about the prompt and summary dismissal of the offending teacher. He would be
unceremoniously dismissed, and his alternate in waiting would be immediately
installed in his place.
These teachers of the various religions made a great effort to show how similar
their religions were in regard to the fundamental things of this life and the
next. There was but one doctrine which had to be accepted in order to gain a
seat on this faculty--every teacher must represent a religion which recognized
God--some sort of supreme Deity. There were five independent teachers on the
faculty who did not represent any organized religion, and it was as such an
independent teacher that Jesus appeared before them.
[When we, the midwayers, first prepared the summary of Jesus' teachings at
Urmia, there arose a disagreement between the seraphim of the churches and the
seraphim of progress as to the wisdom of including these teachings in the
Urantia Revelation. Conditions of the twentieth century, prevailing in both
religion and human governments, are so different from those prevailing in
Jesus' day that it was indeed difficult to adapt the Master's teachings at
Urmia to the problems of the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men as these
world functions are existent in the twentieth century. We were never able to
formulate a statement of the Master's teachings which was acceptable to both
groups of these seraphim of planetary government. Finally, the Melchizedek
chairman of the revelatory commission appointed a commission of three of our
number to prepare our view of the Master's Urmia teachings as adapted to
twentieth-century religious and political conditions on Urantia. Accordingly,
we three secondary midwayers completed such an adaptation of Jesus' teachings,
restating his pronouncements as we would apply them to present-day world
conditions, and we now present these statements as they stand after having been
edited by the Melchizedek chairman of the revelatory commission.]
4. SOVEREIGNTY--DIVINE AND HUMAN
The brotherhood of men is founded on the fatherhood of God. The family of God
is derived from the love of God--God is love. God the Father divinely loves his
children, all of them.
The kingdom of heaven, the divine government, is founded on the fact of divine
sovereignty--God is spirit. Since God is spirit, this kingdom is spiritual. The
kingdom of heaven is neither material nor merely intellectual; it is a
spiritual relationship between God and man.
If different religions recognize the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, then
will all such religions remain at peace. Only when one religion assumes that it
is in some way superior to all others, and that it possesses exclusive
authority over other religions, will such a religion presume to be intolerant
of other religions or dare to persecute other religious believers.
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Religious peace--brotherhood--can never exist unless all religions are willing
to completely divest themselves of all ecclesiastical authority and fully
surrender all concept of spiritual sovereignty. God alone is spirit sovereign.
You cannot have equality among religions (religious liberty) without having
religious wars unless all religions consent to the transfer of all religious
sovereignty to some superhuman level, to God himself.
The kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men will create religious unity (not
necessarily uniformity) because any and all religious groups composed of such
religious believers will be free from all notions of ecclesiastical
authority--religious sovereignty.
God is spirit, and God gives a fragment of his spirit self to dwell in the
heart of man. Spiritually, all men are equal. The kingdom of heaven is free
from castes, classes, social levels, and economic groups. You are all brethren.
But the moment you lose sight of the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, some
one religion will begin to assert its superiority over other religions; and
then, instead of peace on earth and good will among men, there will start
dissensions, recriminations, even religious wars, at least wars among
religionists.
Freewill beings who regard themselves as equals, unless they mutually
acknowledge themselves as subject to some supersovereignty, some authority over
and above themselves, sooner or later are tempted to try out their ability to
gain power and authority over other persons and groups. The concept of equality
never brings peace except in the mutual recognition of some overcontrolling
influence of supersovereignty.
The Urmia religionists lived together in comparative peace and tranquillity
because they had fully surrendered all their notions of religious sovereignty.
Spiritually, they all believed in a sovereign God; socially, full and
unchallengeable authority rested in their presiding head--Cymboyton. They well
knew what would happen to any teacher who assumed to lord it over his fellow
teachers. There can be no lasting religious peace on Urantia until all
religious groups freely surrender all their notions of divine favor, chosen
people, and religious sovereignty. Only when God the Father becomes supreme
will men become religious brothers and live together in religious peace on
earth.
5. POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY
[While the Master's teaching concerning the sovereignty of God is a truth--only
complicated by the subsequent appearance of the religion about him among the
world's religions--his presentations concerning political sovereignty are
vastly complicated by the political evolution of nation life during the last
nineteen hundred years and more. In the times of Jesus there were only two
great world powers--the Roman Empire in the West and the Han Empire in the
East--and these were widely separated by the Parthian kingdom and other
intervening lands of the Caspian and Turkestan regions. We have, therefore, in
the following presentation departed more widely from the substance of the
Master's teachings at Urmia concerning political sovereignty, at the same time
attempting to depict the import of such teachings as they are applicable to the
peculiarly critical stage of the evolution of political sovereignty in the
twentieth century after Christ.]
War on Urantia will never end so long as nations cling to the illusive notions
of unlimited national sovereignty. There are only two levels of relative sover-
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eignty on an inhabited world: the spiritual free will of the individual mortal
and the collective sovereignty of mankind as a whole. Between the level of the
individual human being and the level of the total of mankind, all groupings and
associations are relative, transitory, and of value only in so far as they
enhance the welfare, well-being, and progress of the individual and the
planetary grand total--man and mankind.
Religious teachers must always remember that the spiritual sovereignty of God
overrides all intervening and intermediate spiritual loyalties. Someday civil
rulers will learn that the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men.
This rule of the Most Highs in the kingdoms of men is not for the especial
benefit of any especially favored group of mortals. There is no such thing as a
"chosen people." The rule of the Most Highs, the overcontrollers of political
evolution, is a rule designed to foster the greatest good to the greatest
number of all men and for the greatest length of time.
Sovereignty is power and it grows by organization. This growth of the
organization of political power is good and proper, for it tends to encompass
ever-widening segments of the total of mankind. But this same growth of
political organizations creates a problem at every intervening stage between
the initial and natural organization of political power--the family--and the
final consummation of political growth--the government of all mankind, by all
mankind, and for all mankind.
Starting out with parental power in the family group, political sovereignty
evolves by organization as families overlap into consanguineous clans which
become united, for various reasons, into tribal units--superconsanguineous
political groupings. And then, by trade, commerce, and conquest, tribes become
unified as a nation, while nations themselves sometimes become unified by
empire.
As sovereignty passes from smaller groups to larger groups, wars are lessened.
That is, minor wars between smaller nations are lessened, but the potential for
greater wars is increased as the nations wielding sovereignty become larger and
larger. Presently, when all the world has been explored and occupied, when
nations are few, strong, and powerful, when these great and supposedly
sovereign nations come to touch borders, when only oceans separate them, then
will the stage be set for major wars, world-wide conflicts. So-called sovereign
nations cannot rub elbows without generating conflicts and eventuating wars.
The difficulty in the evolution of political sovereignty from the family to all
mankind, lies in the inertia-resistance exhibited on all intervening levels.
Families have, on occasion, defied their clan, while clans and tribes have
often been subversive of the sovereignty of the territorial state. Each new and
forward evolution of political sovereignty is (and has always been) embarrassed
and hampered by the "scaffolding stages" of the previous developments in
political organization. And this is true because human loyalties, once
mobilized, are hard to change. The same loyalty which makes possible the
evolution of the tribe, makes difficult the evolution of the supertribe--the
territorial state. And the same loyalty (patriotism) which makes possible the
evolution of the territorial state, vastly complicates the evolutionary
development of the government of all mankind.
Political sovereignty is created out of the surrender of self-determinism,
first by the individual within the family and then by the families and clans in
relation to the tribe and larger groupings. This progressive transfer of
self-determination from the smaller to ever larger political organizations has
generally proceeded unabated in the East since the establishment of the Ming
and the
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Mogul dynasties. In the West it obtained for more than a thousand years right
on down to the end of the World War, when an unfortunate retrograde movement
temporarily reversed this normal trend by re-establishing the submerged
political sovereignty of numerous small groups in Europe.
Urantia will not enjoy lasting peace until the so-called sovereign nations
intelligently and fully surrender their sovereign powers into the hands of the
brotherhood of men--mankind government. Internationalism--Leagues of
Nations--can never bring permanent peace to mankind. World-wide confederations
of nations will effectively prevent minor wars and acceptably control the
smaller nations, but they will not prevent world wars nor control the three,
four, or five most powerful governments. In the face of real conflicts, one of
these world powers will withdraw from the League and declare war. You cannot
prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with the
delusional virus of national sovereignty. Internationalism is a step in the
right direction. An international police force will prevent many minor wars,
but it will not be effective in preventing major wars, conflicts between the
great military governments of earth.
As the number of truly sovereign nations (great powers) decreases, so do both
opportunity and need for mankind government increase. When there are only a few
really sovereign (great) powers, either they must embark on the life and death
struggle for national (imperial) supremacy, or else, by voluntary surrender of
certain prerogatives of sovereignty, they must create the essential nucleus of
supernational power which will serve as the beginning of the real sovereignty
of all mankind.
Peace will not come to Urantia until every so-called sovereign nation
surrenders its power to make war into the hands of a representative government
of all mankind. Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world.
When all the peoples of Urantia create a world government, they have the right
and the power to make such a government SOVEREIGN; and when such a
representative or democratic world power controls the world's land, air, and
naval forces, peace on earth and good will among men can prevail--but not until
then.
To use an important nineteenth- and twentieth-century illustration: The
forty-eight states of the American Federal Union have long enjoyed peace. They
have no more wars among themselves. They have surrendered their sovereignty to
the federal government, and through the arbitrament of war, they have abandoned
all claims to the delusions of self-determination. While each state regulates
its internal affairs, it is not concerned with foreign relations, tariffs,
immigration, military affairs, or interstate commerce. Neither do the
individual states concern themselves with matters of citizenship. The
forty-eight states suffer the ravages of war only when the federal government's
sovereignty is in some way jeopardized.
These forty-eight states, having abandoned the twin sophistries of sovereignty
and self-determination, enjoy interstate peace and tranquillity. So will the
nations of Urantia begin to enjoy peace when they freely surrender their
respective sovereignties into the hands of a global government--the sovereignty
of the brotherhood of men. In this world state the small nations will be as
powerful as the great, even as the small state of Rhode Island has its two
senators in the American Congress just the same as the populous state of New
York or the large state of Texas.
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The limited (state) sovereignty of these forty-eight states was created by men
and for men. The superstate (national) sovereignty of the American Federal
Union was created by the original thirteen of these states for their own
benefit and for the benefit of men. Sometime the supernational sovereignty of
the planetary government of mankind will be similarly created by nations for
their own benefit and for the benefit of all men.
Citizens are not born for the benefit of governments; governments are
organizations created and devised for the benefit of men. There can be no end
to the evolution of political sovereignty short of the appearance of the
government of the sovereignty of all men. All other sovereignties are relative
in value, intermediate in meaning, and subordinate in status.
With scientific progress, wars are going to become more and more devastating
until they become almost racially suicidal. How many world wars must be fought
and how many leagues of nations must fail before men will be willing to
establish the government of mankind and begin to enjoy the blessings of
permanent peace and thrive on the tranquillity of good will--world-wide good
will--among men?
6. LAW, LIBERTY, AND SOVEREIGNTY
If one man craves freedom--liberty--he must remember that all other men long
for the same freedom. Groups of such liberty-loving mortals cannot live
together in peace without becoming subservient to such laws, rules, and
regulations as will grant each person the same degree of freedom while at the
same time safeguarding an equal degree of freedom for all of his fellow
mortals. If one man is to be absolutely free, then another must become an
absolute slave. And the relative nature of freedom is true socially,
economically, and politically. Freedom is the gift of civilization made
possible by the enforcement of LAW.
Religion makes it spiritually possible to realize the brotherhood of men, but
it will require mankind government to regulate the social, economic, and
political problems associated with such a goal of human happiness and
efficiency.
There shall be wars and rumors of wars--nation will rise against nation--just
as long as the world's political sovereignty is divided up and unjustly held by
a group of nation-states. England, Scotland, and Wales were always fighting
each other until they gave up their respective sovereignties, reposing them in
the United Kingdom.
Another world war will teach the so-called sovereign nations to form some sort
of federation, thus creating the machinery for preventing small wars, wars
between the lesser nations. But global wars will go on until the government of
mankind is created. Global sovereignty will prevent global wars--nothing else
can.
The forty-eight American free states live together in peace. There are among
the citizens of these forty-eight states all of the various nationalities and
races that live in the ever-warring nations of Europe. These Americans
represent almost all the religions and religious sects and cults of the whole
wide world, and yet here in North America they live together in peace. And all
this is made possible because these forty-eight states have surrendered their
sovereignty and have abandoned all notions of the supposed rights of
self-determination.
It is not a question of armaments or disarmament. Neither does the question of
conscription or voluntary military service enter into these problems of main-
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taining world-wide peace. If you take every form of modern mechanical armaments
and all types of explosives away from strong nations, they will fight with
fists, stones, and clubs as long as they cling to their delusions of the divine
right of national sovereignty.
War is not man's great and terrible disease; war is a symptom, a result. The
real disease is the virus of national sovereignty.
Urantia nations have not possessed real sovereignty; they never have had a
sovereignty which could protect them from the ravages and devastations of world
wars. In the creation of the global government of mankind, the nations are not
giving up sovereignty so much as they are actually creating a real, bona fide,
and lasting world sovereignty which will henceforth be fully able to protect
them from all war. Local affairs will be handled by local governments; national
affairs, by national governments; international affairs will be administered by
global government.
World peace cannot be maintained by treaties, diplomacy, foreign policies,
alliances, balances of power, or any other type of makeshift juggling with the
sovereignties of nationalism. World law must come into being and must be
enforced by world government--the sovereignty of all mankind.
The individual will enjoy far more liberty under world government. Today, the
citizens of the great powers are taxed, regulated, and controlled almost
oppressively, and much of this present interference with individual liberties
will vanish when the national governments are willing to trustee their
sovereignty as regards international affairs into the hands of global
government.
Under global government the national groups will be afforded a real opportunity
to realize and enjoy the personal liberties of genuine democracy. The fallacy
of self-determination will be ended. With global regulation of money and trade
will come the new era of world-wide peace. Soon may a global language evolve,
and there will be at least some hope of sometime having a global religion--or
religions with a global viewpoint.
Collective security will never afford peace until the collectivity includes all
mankind.
The political sovereignty of representative mankind government will bring
lasting peace on earth, and the spiritual brotherhood of man will forever
insure good will among all men. And there is no other way whereby peace on
earth and good will among men can be realized.