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I was a bit younger when this picture was taken. In fact, many of those books have gone by way of donation to libraries and other charitable outlets; all I use is Kindle, archive.org, google books and AI now. My has life changed in just a few short years!

About the Author

Bob Debold's life experience, like many others of the baby-boom era, has been relatively diverse. Varied exploration, continuous learning, and the incessant pursuit of both practical and transcendent truths define it at a strategic level. A former high school math teacher, corporate leader, lifelong athlete, and engaged grandparent, Bob has consistently blended intellectual curiosity with physical discipline. His passions include dreaming about the future of humanity and unraveling the mysteries of how God’s universe is constructed, as revealed through years of dedicated study of The Urantia Book (UB).

With a professional career spanning roles as a government consultant in the IT business and owner of a successful services enterprise, Bob has proven adept at navigating complex systems while maintaining a focus on growth and leadership. His MA in organizational leadership dovetails seamlessly with his decades-long study of the fifth epochal revelation, allowing him to bridge its revelatory cosmology with real-world applications. Over nearly five decades, he has studied and presented various revelational topics alongside like-minded individuals who share a commitment to the truth embedded in this revelation.

Above all, Bob is a devoted parent and grandparent, deeply connected to family life, which enriches his worldview. His personal pursuits extend to his ongoing quest for the perfect golf swing, a passion that has brought him close to achieving the rare milestone of shooting his age. Each spring, Bob embarks on a pilgrimage to the Southwest United States to reconnect with family and friends, engage in spirited rounds of golf, and enjoy the excitement of March Madness basketball. When not on the course, he’s been known to dabble in surfing, mountain climbing, caddying for grandkids, fishing, and blending adventure with moments of peaceful reflection.

A contributor and curator of content on www.deboldgroup.com, Bob seeks to offer for those who may have the interest or just by chance wander past the site, a constellation of essays exploring both the expanded Tofflerian concept he calls the Fourth Wave and the deeper revelations of The Urantia Book. Through his own writings and carefully selected works from others, he hopes the material offers a gateway for both students of the revelation and open-minded newcomers seeking to suspend disbelief and engage with ideas that challenge the materialist view of reality. For those unfamiliar with The Urantia Book, Bob encourages exploration through article "trailers," which serve as entry points that may resonate with what he fondly calls "truth bells."

Through his work, Bob aspires to guide readers toward an expanded understanding of the fifth epochal revelation and how it offers a profound glimpse into the nature of reality and human destiny.

An Opening Reflection


I remember clearly sometime around when I was ten years old, maybe younger, I thought to myself that I wanted to know as much as God must know. I can't remember a time that I doubted that 1) God is a "person," i.e., he is contactable as "A Being," 2) God is all-knowing and rational, which meant He has a mind as I do, and 3) God is infinite "Everything," which I perceived that He has an impersonal aspect, like energy or nature itself. Similar to the narrations of Jonah and Abraham of the Old Testament Bible, who received messages from God (and somehow recognized it was God speaking), I never doubted that communication is a two-way personal circuit with God; and any person could take advantage of this capability. I was also enough of a secularist (or maybe skeptic is a better designation) to be disabused that any intercourse with God would come by way of sound waves or perhaps mental telepathy. I have since modified and expanded these original perspectives based upon a fuller reading of the first five papers in the Urantia Book. This particular statement by a Divine Counselor is especially poignant:

3:6.6 (53.4) Does the Paradise Father suffer? I do not know. The Creator Sons most certainly can and sometimes do, even as do mortals. The Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit suffer in a modified sense. I think the Universal Father does, but I cannot understand how; perhaps through the personality circuit or through the individuality of the Thought Adjusters and other bestowals of his eternal nature. He has said of the mortal races, “In all your afflictions I am afflicted.” He unquestionably experiences a fatherly and sympathetic understanding; he may truly suffer, but I do not comprehend the nature thereof.

Raised as a Roman Catholic, I was mostly instructed through its brand of theology via a focus on the New Testament and the "Catechism," which is the teaching of Catholic Christian doctrine and dogma. This focus on the New Testament precluded any cognitive dissonance between the character of God in the Old Testament and that of the New that, upon reflecting in later years, I determined would most decidedly have confused me. I don't know if that was an intended reason, or merely a result of time constraints, but Jesus' portrayal of the personality of his Father is surely very different from the one that deals with Jonah's whale and Abraham's potential sacrifice of his son Isaac. The differences however, did continue to increase my desire to understand God's true nature and how he really prosecutes his infinite plans in our finite lives. Should I completely eschew the Old Testament? If the Bible is so dissonant about God, is even the New Testament a true depiction of how Jesus illustrated the Father to first century humans?

// Bob Debold Fairfax, VA, September 2024