With that statement Martin Gardner broadcast to the world the information that The Urantia Papers contained material which had origins in man, and not exclusively in immortal beings.
 

See his Urantia, the Great Cult Mystery, Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 1995.
 

Matthew's release cited fifteen books which, according to his statement,

"were used in the inditement of some of The Urantia Papers. Each of these books contains sentences,  sources."

paragraphs or even whole chapters whose phrasing and organization of thought or information are so closely paralleled in the Urantia Papers as to be unmistakable

Subsequent releases by Matthew gave nineteen, (December, 1992), twenty, (1994), and twenty-seven, (1997). Matthew spoke at numerous Urantia meetings and conferences; since then he has published more sources.
 

sources other than those catalogued by him. These few examples illustrate a profound manipulation of the human sources into divine expression.

The manner in which the Revelators used human sources shows that they did not necessarily need human words; rather they saw the efficiency of human concepts in forms that were familiar to us. They built their expressions around mental images and verbal phraseologies which were comfortable to us.
 

Curiously, they used a common English translation of Plato, and one with which I was familiar.
 

On page 364 we find the human concept of eternity as "a ring of pure and endless light" developed more fully:
 

All serious students of the book should have been alerted to the fact that it used human sources in the formulation of its revelations. It clearly states that it did so, in two separate passages.
 

The following remark is made on pages 16 and 17:
 

The reader may note that this acknowledgment pertains only to Part I of the Papers.

As the revelator's said:

"We have selected as the basis of these papers more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe meanings."

They did not say where they found these human concepts, but we would hope that those concepts had public expression, and were not merely the product of private human rumination. Matthew has now confirmed that hope for us. As they further state:

"These human concepts (were) assembled from the God-knowing mortals of the past and the present."

Here is a very important remark. They did not use human expressions which were secular, or from minds which did not know God. Their human sources all knew God; those human mortals gave expression to their highest concepts of God. The Revelators built on a body of Godly expression from human mortals, as a foundation for further revelations about God and Creation.
 

The Revelators also state that they were under mandate:  

". . . of the superuniverse rulers which directs that we shall, in all our efforts to reveal truth and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give preference to the highest existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects to be presented."

An intriguing question is posed by this remark: Why did the Revelators place such importance on existing human concepts?
 

If we examine this remark we find that the Revelators actually had two purposes. One, to reveal truth. Two, to co-ordinate essential knowledge. We certainly recognize why they would be moved to reveal truth. But why would they have a desire to co-ordinate knowledge?
 

Several primary reasons exist for using human concepts.
 

First, it is not possible to formulate revelations which use the vocabulary and conceptual structures of future ages. Suppose that the Old Testament prophets, or Jesus, had used the scientific vocabulary and conceptual frameworks of the twentieth century. Their audiences would have been more than puzzled; they would have regarded those expressions as weird gibberish. They would have rejected those revelations as nonsense. Hence, all revelations are conditioned by the mental orientation and thought structure of the age in which they are given. If Melchizedek wanted to reveal events about the end of the age, and destruction from nuclear warfare, he could not say it would come from rocket missiles. He was forced to find expression in the vocabulary and intellectual framework of the sixth century BC. He said, "They leap over the tops of the mountains." Jesus used the phrase "abomination of desolation." Then we, who have wider views of expression, might see those old revelations as antique, or even superstitious. But all revelation must be founded on the human concepts and language of the age in which given.

As a corollary we should note that modern minds, insensitive to truth, and conditioned by the godless conceptual orientations of this age, reject such truth. Interestingly, in this manner revelation may be used to attract those with a more sensitive awareness of God, while repelling more godless minds. Millions of people living today welcome the old-fashioned expressions because they know those expressions carry God's truth. If godless minds given any credit to those old revelations it is merely as "curious religious poetry." Thus old revelations become a vehicle for screening mankind in the decisions processes of today.
 

One can see this process by noting Matthew's remarks. He had difficulty first accepting the Revelation because it did not fit with his conceptual orientations.
 

Second, we humans do not have the sense, or maturity, to cull deposits in our libraries to preserve the highest and most essential spiritual wealth of humanly created concepts from the past. We are so purely moved to each preserve his own personal creations we do not reach the level to be able to judge the importance of created expressions, or to preserve them in compendiums. We may compile encyclopedias, or anthologies, but we do not have perspectives to judge enduring religious, moral, ethical or social creations. In the twentieth century, priorities are given to secular and materialistic developments. Thus we have libraries overloaded with useless productions, of no lasting value.
 

The Urantia Papers serve to compile the most important human spiritual concepts from this planetary age in one body of work.

From the illustration above you can how they reached into Plato and Henry Vaughan from the seventeenth century.
 

Third, if the present godless social order will be destroyed, we need some vehicle to preserve the most valuable human intellectual creations of the past. We should have some method to preserve the cultural developments from our present civilization, on which future cultures must necessarily depend if they are to continue to build. If our civilization is doomed, and all institutions and repositories of knowledge are destroyed, how do we protect those human creations? The Revelators looked forward to such prospect and used the Revelation as a vehicle for just such preservation. When the survivors of the nations escape to other lands, (the wilderness), for practical reasons they will be able to carry with them only the most precious documents. The two most precious are the Bible and The Urantia Papers.
 

These purposes are seen in another remark about human sources on page 1343:
 

Again we can see how the midwayer used human knowledge which  

"embrace thought gems and superior concepts of Jesus' teachings, assembled from more than two thousand human beings who have lived on earth from the days of Jesus down to the time of the inditing of these revelations."

If one were to perform an exhaustive search of all human sources created down through the centuries, and compare them painstakingly with the text of The Jesus Papers, one might expect to find nearly two thousand of such expressions.
 

The most amazing phenomenon is how Matthew Block was able to find more than seventy-five sources, as he reports. (Many of these he keeps close to his chest.) He must have an extraordinary relationship with God to become so productive in finding those human sources.
 

His work is far more than the accidental stumbling across old books in old book stores. He must have a sensitivity to quickly grasp the conceptual center the human author described in his work, perhaps from the title, or from rapidly scanning the themes expressed in the book. But far more, Matthew has an exceptional ability to pour over endless pages of text, while recognizing phrases, words, paragraphs or other segments which he uncannily remembers from the Revelation.
 

His ability truly is profound and, frankly, incredible.
 

Martin Gardner described Matthew as "hopelessly naive." I would not so classify Matthew. I have had frequent exchanges with Matthew on concepts, with debates about origins. I met with him on several occasions in Chicago. For all the amazing talents Matthew displays, for his excellent vocabulary and mastery of English expressions, and for all these discoveries, he also displays an inability to adequately grasp the practical processes of the real world. He assigns causes and relationships which more experienced and mature individuals would reject. I shall later discuss this defect in Matthew's intellectual abilities.
 

But, like the rest of us, Matthew is human.
 

Clearly, the seven meanings of perfection from Hartshorne are reprinted almost word for word in The Urantia Papers.
 

As Gardner reported:
 

I personally reviewed many of the more relevant writings by Hartshorne, including his Doctoral Thesis published in 1921. I could find no previous expression of these seven meanings of perfection in Hartshorne's work. He was a highly productive writer; between 1934 and 1962 eight of his books were published. He also edited the collected works of Charles Sanders Pierce, and wrote more than one hundred and fifty papers published in professional journals during his career.
 

confusion he found among philosophers, Hartshorne engaged in a rigorous classification of the ways God can be described in terms of his perfection. Theologians confused these by unconsciously describing different aspects of God's perfection but assigning it to only one. In the paragraph preceding his list, he elaborates on the conceptual foundation to his classification of seven levels of perfection. As is evident, his is purely human reasoning.

Hartshorne goes on to remark:
 

Hartshorne indicates that he here summarizes and clarifies all previous human discussions on doctrines about God's perfection. In other words, he is a leading philosopher, in the forefront of intellectual exploration, for systematizing these thoughts and concepts about God.
 

We can understand why the Revelators might want to use Hartshorne's developments. They are placing into the revelatory record, to be carried into the future, elements which may serve future human philosophers the opportunity to build on these cultural developments. They used the most advanced twentieth-century human thought, as expressed by Hartshorne.
 

However, you can see the shifting of concepts by using the words "phases," "attributes," and "manifestations" not used by Harstshorne. By these choice of words the Revelators condition the nature of Hartshorne's expression, and thus condition all future reasoning by their choice of words. The statements in the Revelation will be carried to the future; Hartshorne's work will not. Future philosophers will have a great respect for these choices by the Revelators. The choices show an ability by the Revelators to redirect the nature of human thoughts which engage in reflection on these philosophies.
 

The Urantia Papers introduce their list with this statement:

"When we attempt to conceive of perfection in all phases and forms of relativity, we encounter seven conceivable types:

Here the Revelators further condition future philosophical developments. Intellectual advances, founded on respect for the Revelation, will depend upon looking at perfection by relativity to creation; not by God's absoluteness, per se, devoid of his creative act. In other words, God perfection cannot be absolute in relation to creation which must be, by inherent necessity, be less than what he himself is. Thus God's perfection can only be relative with respect to creation. This was the center of Hartshorne's discussion but Hartshorne himself did not make this distinction. The Revelators expanded upon Hartshorne's human limitations in thinking.
 

Thus, Hartshorne's developments, and the way in which the Revelators expand upon and further develop these conceptual kernels, are really part of the discussions on the origins of reality, part of the definitions of God. Hartshorne's developments and the Revelator discussions must be understood in such a higher context. Hence you will find in The Urantia Papers that these definitions of absolute perfection fall under sections on DEITY and DIVINITY. Consider, for example, these remarks.
 

DEITY is personalizable as God, is prepersonal and superpersonal in ways not altogether comprehensible by man. Deity is characterized by the quality of unity -- actual or potential -- on all supermaterial levels of reality; and this unifying quality is best comprehended by creatures as divinity.

And what do they tell us about the methods used by the Revelators in expanding our conceptual horizons? Consider, as further example, the following descriptions of functional Deity.
 

Total Deity is functional on the following seven levels: 

1. Static -- self-contained and self-existent Deity.

Again, unless we find human sources, we must assume that these intellectual constructs are of divine origin, offered to influence future human philosophers, and not dependent upon human sources. The Revelators were reaching into human achievements as foundation for their revelation, but only as an aid, and not as a necessity.
 

The Revelators continue to build on conceptual structures before listing the seven absolute perfections.
 

Deity may be existential, as in the Eternal Son; experiential, as in the Supreme Being; associative, as in God the Sevenfold; undivided, as in the Paradise Trinity.

Deity is the source of all that which is divine. Deity is characteristically and invariably divine, but all that which is divine is not necessarily Deity, though it will be co-ordinated with Deity and will tend towards some phase of unity with Deity-spiritual, mindal, or personal.

DIVINITY is the characteristic, unifying, and co-ordinating quality of Deity.

Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.

Divinity may be perfect-complete-as on existential and creator levels of Paradise perfection; it may be imperfect, as on experiential and creature levels of time-space evolution; or it may be relative, neither perfect nor imperfect, as on certain Havona levels of existential-experiential relationships.
 

Clearly, these classifications of the attributes of God reach beyond the conceptual range of previous human constructs. And Hartshorne's list serves to complement and extend those classifications. Did the other attributes find previous human expression? We will not know unless some one makes that discovery.
 

Again the revelation statements provide far more than the human. The human expressions were used merely as a key to open the door to greater spiritual perception.
 

This raises a very important concern. Did Sadler make changes to the Revelation after it was "completed and certified?" I shall later discuss this concern, and review the subsequent course of events at 533 Diversey Parkway.
 

Neither Matthew, Gardner, nor myself were able to find a similar quote in our respective editions of the Dictionary.
 

Matthew noted a similarity to statements made on page 613 of The Urantia Papers.  

Matthew could find no direct quote to No. 14. Gardner quoted the above, which I found in the 1927 edition. Gardner also quoted the following two:
 

14. Giving advice is sometimes only showing our wisdom at the expense of another. Shaftesbury (p. 9)
 

Matthew also referred to Rosilind Fergusson's Penguin Book of Proverbs:
 

14. Give neither counsel nor salt till you are asked for it. English proverb.
 

Gardner offered the following:
 

it did not occur in the 1936 or 1957 editions of the Dictionary.
 

Neither Matthew nor Gardner nor I were able to locate a parallel to No. 23.
 

In his Morontia Mota paper Matthew remarks, "NOT FOUND - for obvious reasons; mortal survival is not part and parcel of human philosophy as we know it!" He then refers to page 1136 in The Urantia Papers.
 

This is an example of what I meant earlier about Matthew's inability to connect with the practical processes of the real world.

I could not confirm Gardner's assertion that the same statement is credited to Henry Ward Beecher on page 251. Neither is the statement by Bryant found in the 1927 edition.
 

Matthew noted that the first twenty-four statements were based on human expressions found in the first thirty-two pages of the Dictionary. This is the first case which went so far into the Dictionary.
 

Does this fact have significance?
 

Second, one might believe the Revelators awaited the discovery of these connections by Matthew or some other human mortal. Why not make it easier for discovery, while providing such masterful spiritual insights? Thus they would not only be following their mandate to use human concepts wherever possible, but also working hand in glove with us human mortals to come to recognize the manner in which they expanded upon human developments.
 

Gardner cited page 302 on #27 but I could find no reference in the 1927 edition. Matthew noted that this reference was in an Appendix to the Dictionary. He asked if it was included this way in pre-1935 editions. The answer is yes; it was included in an Appendix to the 1927 edition.
 

The Urantia Papers go on to note:
 

Such is the work of the beginners on the first mansion world while the more advanced pupils on the later worlds are mastering the higher levels of cosmic insight and morontia mota.

We would be amiss of the mark if we did not note an important element to the mota list.

This means that current advanced human thought approaches the teachings of the first mansion world. Many human mortals of ages past, and of today, may have approached these levels of religious, moral, and spiritual insight. Therefore, it is possible that their term of schooling on the first mansion world may be cut short. On the opposite extreme, many deficient human mortals who survive to the mansion worlds may need this compensation to reach the level of their more advanced human compatriots.