CHAPTER 29

The hand of destiny guided the path of The Urantia Papers, from their earliest inception, until their publication, and distribution to the world. Destiny continues to guide that path.
 

Emma Louise Christensen, (Christy), the adopted daughter of William and Lena Sadler, was a major instrument in that destiny unfolding, but not in the manner she, or anyone else, expected.
 

Christy was born January 29, 1890 in Gem Township, Brown County, South Dakota. She was the sixth of eight children born to Nels Christensen and Rosalia Thora Nana Bald. She attended a country elementary school through the eighth grade, and went to high school in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and took a two-year extension course at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, where she majored in English. She held two secretarial jobs while attending the University. Christy spent two years as Office Manager for the Bureau of the Comptroller of the Currency in its Minneapolis office. She then transferred to the Chicago office where she held the position of Office Manager of the National Bank Examiners office of the Seventh Federal Reserve District for a period of 28 years until her retirement around 1950. She never married.
 

Christy came to Chicago in November, 1922. While walking in Lincoln Park on Chicago's north side she was struck by a taxicab in July, 1923. She was knocked unconscious and taken by the taxi driver to Columbus Hospital a short distance away. When she awoke she was looking into the faces of William and Lena Sadler who were attending physicians at the Hospital.
 

Little did anyone realize how that accidental meeting would determine the direction of destiny.
 

According to an anecdote which is told concerning this event, Lena Sadler was struck by the strange coincidence of Christy appearing in the hospital as one of their patients, and a vivid dream she had shortly before.
 

The Sadlers had no daughters. Their first son, Willis, died as an infant. Their second son, born in 1907, was Bill Sadler, Jr. Lena had always desired a daughter. In her dream Lena saw a daughter come into their home. The episode with Christy convinced her this was the daughter. Christy was soon adopted, as a 33-year old adult!
 

The adoption at that age strongly suggests that Lena was driven by more than a passing desire to have a daughter. The act was not to provide succor to a helpless child. It was not done from motherly instincts for a mother-child relationship in which the mother could nurture the child and watch it grow. In 1923 Lena was 48 years old, merely 15 years older than Christy. At their ages the difference in possible mother-child relationship would have been reduced even more. In fact, all normal motherly criteria for adoption fails to explain this act.
 

Christy had a comfortable job, was on her own, and had learned to live away from home. Raised in a large family, with both parents living, she would not have felt a need for a mother, unless she did not have a good relationship in her family. Her lively personality denied the possibility that she came from a background with deep family psychological trauma. As a South Dakota native, with all the rigors of weather and farm life, she would have learned to adjust to physical hardships. Therefore, dependency criteria of a child-mother relationship also fails to explain this act.
 

What, then, led to the adoption? The motivating factors on the part of Lena must have been her long desire to have a daughter, and the vividness of her dream. Perhaps Christy felt a natural bond with the Sadler's, with their warm and unaffected personalities. They struck it off, and thus were amenable to one another. Even so, she could have lived with the Sadler's without the legal act of adoption. The driving need for adoption must have derived from Lena.
 

The act of adoption had repercussion on two levels. One was legal and one was social. Christy acquired right to material inheritance.; she assumed the same legal status as Bill Sadler, Jr. She also had claim to equivalent status in family relationships; she became one with the Sadlers. Through this act Lena sealed a bond of psychological obligation which would create within Christy a desire to remain with the family.
 

Several passages in The Urantia Papers describe the lives of men modified as the result of dreams. Both Zacharias and Joseph, pages 1345 and 1347, had impressive dreams which altered their lives. Peter had a vivid dream, page 1713, which also modified his attitudes and subsequent decisions. I personally cannot believe Lena's dream was a mere floating chemical accident. Somehow, by whatever process, she was presented with a dream which caused her to view the appearance of Christy as the hand of God, and to convince her husband that they should adopt her. When Christy joined the household in December, 1923, she became more than an intimate member, with contribution to the mechanical processes of the Revelation; she also became an instrument for destiny which still ripples through many lives.
 

Christy had a keen sense of humor, a flashing smile, and rollicking laughter. She probably brought balance into the staid Sadler household. She also brought talents and training which were of great use to William Sadler in his execution of a divine mandate. She possessed robust health and great vitality, right up to her last days. In March, 1982 she was admitted to St. Joseph's hospital, a few blocks from 533 Diversey Parkway, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She died on May 2, after two months of illness. A memorial service was held at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago where 150 people from all over the country attended. She had requested that two men speak at her funeral. The first was Meredith Sprunger; the second was Vern Grimsley.
 

Meredith Sprunger, in his eulogy stated:
 

When Christy became a member of the Sadler household she also became a member of the Contact Commission. She helped serve as a liaison between the Revelators who presented The Urantia Papers and the Forum. She undertook a major share of the administrative chores, and performed a monumental job in typing, proof reading, and otherwise preparing the Papers for publication. These arduous tasks, while attending to a full-time managerial job, spanned more than thirty years. After publication she also served as a major individual in formulating and executing policy for the establishment and maintenance of the Urantia Foundation and the Urantia Brotherhood.
 

She was one of the founding Trustees of the Urantia Foundation which began in 1950 where she assumed the position of Secretary. She remained a Trustee until 1971, when she was elected Trustee emeritus. She was also a founding member of the General Council of the Urantia Brotherhood in 1955 and remained a member until her death. She held positions on the Executive Committee of the Brotherhood continuously from 1955 to 1982. She also served in executive positions of several other committees during this period. She was a charter member of the First Urantia Society in Chicago in 1956, and remained active in that organization until shortly before her death.
 

In a talk given on January 27, 1963 she relayed a message which had been given the Contact Commission and the Forum by the Revelators. We do not know the date nor the divine personality making these remarks.
 

This statement by the Revelators illustrates the type of communication given Sadler, the Contact Commission, and the Forum. How truly unfortunate all individuals involved failed to grasp the true portent of this exhortation.
 

Little, indeed, did Christy or the Sadlers or members of the Forum realize how the revelation would unfold, and the human crises necessary to open it to the world.
 

Some estimate of the attitude which prevailed throughout the Urantia community, something of the relative indifference, and how the revelation was subverted to human desires, is expressed in other remarks Meredith Sprunger. In his eulogy he quoted from an address given by Christy on July 30, 1971. She said:
 

The great difficulty in perception was this: Everyone, everywhere, without exception, understood The Urantia Papers as a mechanism for improving the current world order. In spite of our historical revelations, and in spite of clear statements within the Papers, no one could comprehend the truly epochal nature of the revelation of which they were so intimate a part, and with which they were entrusted. They expected to salvage the present social order; they did not expect they would be subject to the devastating revolutions attendant upon the birth pangs of a new world age. They could not conceive The Urantia Papers as the precursor to a dramatic new world order.
 

This attitude may be seen in the remarks by Christy.
 

We are the torchbearers for a new age of religion on this world.

It is plain that Christy borrowed phrases from the previous exhortation, and perhaps from others unknown to us. They served as a guide in her life and her decisions. But they were subject to her views of reality. When she said "new age of religion" she thought in terms of slow evolutionary growth out of the present world order.

We each have our part to play in the effort to spiritually uplift the planet.

When Christy said "the planet" she meant this present planetary social order. "Spiritually uplift" was understood as an improvement in our current religious thinking, not a dramatic shift to a new and revitalized faith in God.
 

It is our task to help bring about a spiritual renaissance and assist in the eventual triumph of the religion of Jesus.

When Christy said "spiritual renaissance" she meant a renaissance of the present religious system. She did not conceive of a total revamping of all religious attitudes on this world, and dedicated devotion to the larger kingdom of heaven.
 

This view of reality is reinforced by a remark from Bill Sadler, Jr. about the "spectacular episodes of epochal revolution" from another instruction. He commented that we should not interpret this as a major world upheaval, but should regard it in the same sense that we do the "industrial revolution."
 

The stage has been set and now we must act our part to step out into the vanguard of progress.

When Christy said "the vanguard of progress" she meant progress of the present civilization. The word "progress" contained within it a large range of conceptual ideations of how the current world order would be improved materially and religiously.
 

We are in association with a revelation of truth which is also part of the natural evolution of religion on Urantia.

When Christy said "the natural evolution of religion on Urantia" she meant evolution of the present religious system. She did not conceive that this evolution would bring a total collapse of the present religious systems and theologies. She did not perceive of the dramatic revolutions in the physical world, the social world, and the spiritual world necessary to achieve such goals.
 

This list of remarks are those offered by Christy, some of which are paraphrases of revelatory material.
 

But Christy should have known better. The instruction offered by the Revelators should have alerted everyone to the prospect of unfolding world events.
 

Did none of Sadler's family, or member of the Forum, recognize the significance of this statement? "Emergency selectmen" means individuals who are working under emergency conditions. If the social order will progress in an orderly, casual, relaxed and easy-going manner why would they be considered to be emergency selectmen? Secondly, did they not realize what was meant by "selectmen?" They had been selected for their role. They were chosen ones. In the old biblical phraseology, they were elect ones. They were members of a corps of individuals who served in an emergency environment. They were called to a trust in the care of a divine revelation. They were instrumental in the unfolding of planetary destiny. They had been set aside for this task. They were a reserve corps. "Emergency selectmen" means membership in a "reserve corps of destiny."
 

But their actions demonstrated that they did not fully understand what this meant. Most member of the Forum were casual in their feelings of responsibility to the revelation.
 

If they little realized the import of their doing they could not have a good estimate of the results of their actions. They were acting blindly, as children in the darkness of night. They did not understand how the Revelation fit with unfolding world events.
 

But even more, this means that their personal plans for their lives could not be aligned with our planetary administrators, except through sheer accident. But blind direction rarely, if ever, serves ultimate good, except as it is used by superior celestial personalities.
 

They were directly told they would live and die without fully realizing their participation in the birth of a new age of religion.
 

What can one say? The entire group, from Sadler, to Christy, to the members of the Forum, did not fully realize what they were doing. They were participants in the birth of a new age, an epochal age -- not perpetration of the old age. The new age would see the birth of a new religion on our world. It would not be Christianity, nor Judaism, nor any other current religious order. Yet Christianity would serve as the womb out of which the new world order would bloom.
 

How could Sadler, or Christy, or members of the Forum, recognize the true cosmic portent of such remarks, with their conservative, mid-western mind-sets?
 

This reduced view of "epochal revolutions" conditioned everyone's attitude about the social significance and cultural meaning of the new revelation. Many individuals desired to contribute to the outworking of the revelation, based on improvements in the current world order. They were judged on their potential contributions to the current social system, on their traditional social appeal, and on their personalities, as so well demonstrated by Vern Grimsley. They were not judged on their spiritual worth in the accomplishment of a grand new world order. If individuals came along who dared to claim that the present order was destined to destruction those individuals were judged as fringe personalities. No heed was given to the fact of clear and bald statements within the Revelation.
 

A new world order is coming; it is at our doorstep. The world changes will be so dramatic that it will take a thousand years for the new social order to settle down.
 

This was a deadly fault. Everyone took the attitude that divine planetary judgments could be avoided. These attitudes then led to concentration on activities of an academic nature, and on philosophical discussions within the Urantia community. The community never reached true theological or eschatological explorations of the revelatory material. Corporate organizations became substitutes for true religious trust. Spiritual leadership became lost in organization, and in secular formulations; Urantians could not grasp true spiritual dedication.
 

Only dramatic spiritual and social crises will lead men to understanding of this birth of a new age. Only the birth pangs of that new age will truly bring their hearts to God.
 

Given that men will not act in accordance with the magnitude of the trust placed in their hands, our planetary supervisors, in long anticipation of this striking default, prepared the way for the revelation to be salvaged, and to be ready for the time of deep and deadly planetary crises. How easy it is to view the personalities of the Sadler household, and the episodes surrounding them, as part of the circumstances created by our planetary overseers. Those supermortal beings know each of us intimately. They can reliably calculate our contributions to unfolding planetary destiny. Their activities did not cease with publication of the Revelation; they created further conditions and brought other persons who would carry us to this present state.
 

Christy's key position in crucial decisions, and her mental orientations, helped destroy the very Urantia community which had been so carefully nurtured and prepared by Sadler. She had no inkling how her choices would accomplish the breakdown of the Urantia legal and social organizations, to better prepare the revelation for the world. The revelation was a gift from God; it did not belong under the legal control of men, nor in the hands of secular social organizations.
 

Divine revelations are not subject to human commercial laws, copyrights, or trademarks. Only the transient scaffolding of human institutions delude men to believe they can control something so mighty as The Urantia Papers.
 

The two crucial decisions made by Christy were her choices of Vern Grimsley and Martin Myers for positions of influence and control within the Urantia community and Urantia Foundation affairs. She believed they were members of the Reserve Corps of Destiny, and told them so. This mightily elevated their egos, influenced their subsequent decisions, and eventually led to breakdown of the Urantia community.
 

Vernon Bennom Grimsley first heard of The Urantia Papers from Meredith Sprunger. Grimsley enrolled in Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana in 1955, where he was a student, until 1958 when he moved to the University of Kansas. While in Culver he came into contact with Sprunger where the latter was pastor of the Grace United Church of Christ. Sprunger was not hesitant to introduce The Urantia Papers to anyone who might exhibit a slight interest, and had introduced some of his parishioners to the Papers. One of those parishioners told Grimsley of the Papers, who then sought out Sprunger to learn more.
 

When Grimsley moved to the University of Kansas he joined a fraternity. He introduced his fraternity brothers to the Papers, and four of them came to espouse an interest in the revelation. They were Martin Myers, Richard Keeler, Hoite Caston, and David Gray. Groups of two or three would travel to Chicago to visit at 533 in the mid-1960's to learn more about the revelation. They became familiar faces to Christy, who envisioned their bright youth as the next generation of caretakers of the revelation.
 

Three of those five fraternity brothers became highly instrumental in the eventual destruction of a cohesive Urantia community, and in attempts to suppress the revelation.
 

Vern Grimsley settled in San Francisco where he established a Urantia community he called the Family of God. He also developed a weekly radio address on religious subjects and personal exhortations which reached international listeners. David Gray was his vice president, chief accountant, and office manager.
 

Hoite Caston went into television productions, an occupation he still pursues at the time of this writing. At the request of Martin Myers he became a Trustee of the Urantia Foundation, but has since resigned.
 

Richard Keeler was heir to a rich oil corporation and occupied himself with buying and selling on the futures market at the Chicago Board of Trade. He also became a Trustee of the Urantia Foundation at the election of Martin Myers, and is now their primary financial support.
 

Martin Myers went to Chicago to a position he had been offered in the banking business. But he needed a place to live. As Sadler grew older and more infirm he needed someone to care for him. He and Christy often prayed that some young man would come into their household. She and Sadler would refer to this individual as "that boy." On Saturday, July 20, 1968, Martin visited 533, and stayed with the Sadler's while looking for an apartment. Sadler and Christy quickly recognized that Martin might be "that boy." They felt he was the answer to their prayers. They proposed that he live in a third floor apartment and help with the chores of Sadler's care, who was then ninety-three years old. Myers would read The Urantia Papers to Sadler, lift him in and out of bed, attend to his physical needs, and otherwise help with the failing old man.
 

Myers was present when Sadler died on April 26, 1969. He stayed on in the apartment, and was with Christy when she died on May 2, 1982. He continued to live in the apartment until he was kicked out by Richard Keeler, his fraternity brother, in 1993.
 

Shortly after Christy's death the structure of the Urantia community began to unravel. Events leading to dissension and distrust were triggered by Vern Grimsley in San Francisco and independently by Martin Myers in Chicago.
 

In a brochure entitled The Family of God Foundation and the Urantia Book, Vern Grimsley advertised his operation this way:
 

From such noble aspirations Grimsley went on to bring disaster to his operation, and profound disillusionment throughout the Urantia community.
 

Christy died in May, 1982. She was the last member of the Contact Commission, and the "old-timers" associated with the miracle of the Revelation.
 

Six months later, in December, Vern Grimsley announced that he had received "messages" by hearing "voices," either from midwayers or from angels, he was unsure. With those simple declarations he initiated fragmentation of the Urantia community, and uncertainty among many of its members to this day.
 

In a lengthy report on Vern's default, dated June 17, 1984, Hoite Caston, his fraternity brother, said:
 

Caston then went into full investigation of Vern's "messages" and "voices," concluding that they were the machinations of Vern's mind, and that his private "revelations" were a hoax, perpetrated to bring personal allegiance, and to acquire control within the Urantia community.
 

It was well known throughout the Urantia community that Christy believed Vern was a member of the Reserve Corps of Destiny. Caston had called a meeting of interested persons on November 1, 1983. Against his expectations Vern attended the meeting and was accorded the opportunity to give the first presentation. In the course of discussion of his remarks, and his proposals, Julie Fenderson, one-time intimate in the Sadler household, made the following remark:
 

Duane Faw, attendee at the meeting, a retired Marine Corps General who had once been in charge of all Marine Corps legal activities, and prominent in Urantia Brotherhood affairs, then remarked that he had heard it directly from John Hales.
 

Although Vern shied away from a direct admission he never denied such ascription from Christy.
 

No human mortal would know whether another human mortal was or was not a member of the Reserve Corps of Destiny. Such knowledge is not within our capacity. But Christy was held in such high regard, with her history, and then in a leading position as the primary source of information on the origin of the Revelation, that her spoken thoughts and speculations became gospel.
 

She felt likewise about Martin Myers. But in speaking such thoughts, from her position, she led both men to believe they truly were members of the Reserve Corps, and thus set them up for immature ego expressions and claims of divine mandate.
 

These events set the stage for an invitation from Martin Myers for Hoite Caston to visit him in Chicago where they held a meeting with the conclusion that something must be done to bring Vern back to reality, and to blunt his influence upon the Urantia community. His behavior was obviously delusional; the last thing anyone wanted was to have him acquire control of Urantia operations. This decision led to Caston's report.
 

The Family of God had about forty devoted members at the time, together with an outreach that permeated much of the Urantia community in the United States. The many talented individuals who were members included Marvin Gawryn, a licensed psychologist who wrote Reaching High: The Psychology of Spiritual Living, his wife Francyl, an outstanding musician, David Kantor, a long-time intellectual contributor to the Urantia community, Bob and Sara Blackstock, Lee and Chrissy Smith, and others.
 

Some were caught up in Vern's mania. For example, Sara Blackstock believed she was seeing "visions" associated with the coming world tribulation.
 

Vern was teaching that among his "messages" were warnings of an imminent World War III, and that much of the United States would be destroyed in nuclear holocaust. He advised individuals to build fall-out shelters that should be stocked with food and survival necessities. Many did so, at considerable personal expense. John Hay, cofounder of Celestial Seasonings Tea, wealthy man, and well-known leader within the Urantia community, bought a cave in Arkansas wherein he built a lavish residence, little recognizing the miseries attendant upon an actual holocaust. (The irony of the lack of common sense exhibited by such actions is attested by a law suit brought against Hay when he later sold the cave and its fancy furnishings. The cave leaked water!) Vern also taught that Chicago was a prime target and that if the Urantia organizations were to be salvaged they should move to his new location just outside San Francisco. He had recently purchased the buildings and grounds of an old religious institute, and was in the process of moving his operations there. As Caston pointed out in his analysis, Vern seemed unaware that the San Francisco Bay area was also a prime nuclear target, and that Vern's center would be equally exposed to devastating destruction.
 

Eventually sense righted itself. Caston's lengthy analysis and report brought a break-up of Vern's operation. Many of the members scattered to other locations. Vern was ostracized from the Urantia community. After a period of divorce his wife returned to live with him, and they now reside in a small town in northern California close to Yosemite National Park.
 

This episode brought a hardening of attitudes and loyalties within the community. The result was a maturing of many individuals to the dangers of charismatic "leaders."
 

There was a strong possibility that I had personally contributed to Vern's delusion. In 1980 and 1981 I had circulated a series of papers among prominent individuals in the Creationist, Charismatic, Christian Evangelical and Urantia communities. Those papers discussed theological contradictions and eschatological episodes from the Bible. Among other matters I described the coming nuclear judgment. Vern Grimsley was on my mailing list. I had good reason to suspect that perhaps he picked up ideas from my discussions for his personal ends.
 

Vern Grimsley was a catalyst to destroy easy acceptance of human authority within the community. No longer would any knowledgeable Urantian follow another human mortal without serious reflection and rational cause. That episode not only brought disillusionment about Vern; it also created serious doubt about all authority within the community. Many persons in leadership roles had followed him. No Trustee, nor any theologian, could now speak without skepticism about their authority. Even more, organizations built around human personality, or for simple comradery, were no longer adequate to the religious expression of Urantians. They were lifted to a state of greater spiritual maturity.
 

The stifling policies of Martin Myers, with his wild megalomania, generated further rebellion against organizational authority. The Brotherhood, focused by Dave Elders, could not tolerate his dictatorial policies. Martin then used the vehicles of commercial law to disenfranchise the Brotherhood. The result was fragmentation and lack of consistent vision of purpose. This brought an effective end to a cohesive social body of Urantians.