The Urantia Book
PAPER 55
THE SPHERES OF LIGHT AND LIFE
Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily assigned to the
Archangel Council on Urantia.
55:0.1 THE age of light and life is the final
evolutionary attainment of a world of time and space. From the
early times of primitive man, such an inhabited world has passed
through the successive planetary ages -- the pre- and the
post-Planetary Prince ages, the post-Adamic age, the
post-Magisterial Son age, and the postbestowal Son age. And then
is such a world made ready for the culminating evolutionary
attainment, the settled status of light and life, by the
ministry of the successive planetary missions of the Trinity
Teacher Sons with their ever-advancing revelations of divine
truth and cosmic wisdom. In these endeavors the Teacher Sons
enjoy the assistance of the Brilliant Evening Stars always, and
the Melchizedeks sometimes, in establishing the final planetary
age.
55:0.2 This era of light and life, inaugurated
by the Teacher Sons at the conclusion of their final planetary
mission, continues indefinitely on the inhabited worlds. Each
advancing stage of settled status may be segregated by the
judicial actions of the Magisterial Sons into a succession of
dispensations; but all such judicial actions are purely
technical, in no way modifying the course of planetary events.
55:0.3 Only those planets which attain
existence in the main circuits of the superuniverse are assured
of continuous survival, but as far as we know, these worlds
settled in light and life are destined to go on throughout the
eternal ages of all future time.
55:0.4
There are seven stages in the unfoldment of the era of light and
life on an evolutionary world, and in this connection it should
be noted that the worlds of the Spirit-fused mortals evolve
along lines identical with those of the Adjuster-fusion series.
These seven stages of light and life are:
1. The first or planetary stage.
2. The second or system stage.
3. The third or constellation stage.
4. The fourth or local universe
stage.
5. The fifth or minor sector stage.
6. The sixth or major sector stage.
7. The seventh or superuniverse
stage.
55:0.5 At the conclusion of this narrative
these stages of advancing development are described as they
relate to the universe organization, but the planetary values of
any stage may be attained by any world quite independent of the
development of other worlds or of the superplanetary levels of
universe administration.
1. THE MORONTIA TEMPLE
55:1.1 The presence of a morontia temple at
the capital of an inhabited world is the certificate of the
admission of such a sphere to the settled ages of light and
life. Before the Teacher Sons leave a world at the conclusion of
their terminal mission, they inaugurate this final epoch of
evolutionary attainment; they preside on that day when the "holy
temple comes down upon earth." This event, signalizing the dawn
of the era of light and life, is always honored by the personal
presence of the Paradise bestowal Son of that planet, who comes
to witness this great day. There in this temple of unparalleled
beauty, this bestowal Son of Paradise proclaims the long-time
Planetary Prince as the new Planetary Sovereign and invests such
a faithful Lanonandek Son with new powers and extended authority
over planetary affairs. The System Sovereign is also present and
speaks in confirmation of these pronouncements.
55:1.2 A morontia temple has three parts:
Centermost is the sanctuary of the Paradise bestowal Son. On the
right is the seat of the former Planetary Prince, now Planetary
Sovereign; and when present in the temple, this Lanonandek Son
is visible to the more spiritual individuals of the realm. On
the left is the seat of the acting chief of finaliters attached
to the planet.
55:1.3 Although the planetary temples have
been spoken of as "coming down from heaven," in reality no
actual material is transported from the system headquarters. The
architecture of each is worked out in miniature on the system
capital, and the Morontia Power Supervisors subsequently bring
these approved plans to the planet. Here, in association with
the Master Physical Controllers, they proceed to build the
morontia temple according to specifications.
55:1.4 The average morontia temple seats about
three hundred thousand spectators. These edifices are not used
for worship, play, or for receiving broadcasts; they are devoted
to the special ceremonies of the planet, such as: communications
with the System Sovereign or with the Most Highs, special
visualization ceremonies designed to reveal the personality
presence of spirit beings, and silent cosmic contemplation. The
schools of cosmic philosophy here conduct their graduation
exercises, and here also do the mortals of the realm receive
planetary recognition for achievements of high social service
and for other outstanding attainments.
55:1.5 Such a morontia temple also serves as
the place of assembly for witnessing the translation of living
mortals to the morontia existence. It is because the translation
temple is composed of morontia material that it is not destroyed
by the blazing glory of the consuming fire which so completely
obliterates the physical bodies of those mortals who therein
experience final fusion with their divine Adjusters. On a large
world these departure flares are almost continuous, and as the
number of translations increases, subsidiary morontia life
shrines are provided in different areas of the planet. Not long
since I sojourned on a world in the far north whereon
twenty-five morontia shrines were functioning.
55:1.6 On presettled worlds, planets without
morontia temples, these fusion flashes many times occur in the
planetary atmosphere, where the material body of a translation
candidate is elevated by the midway creatures and the physical
controllers.
2. DEATH AND TRANSLATION
55:2.1 Natural, physical death is not a mortal
inevitability. The majority of advanced evolutionary beings,
citizens on worlds existing in the final era of light and life,
do not die; they are translated directly from the life in the
flesh to the morontia existence.
55:2.2 This experience of translation from the
material life to the morontia state -- fusion of the immortal
soul with the indwelling Adjuster -- increases in frequency
commensurate with the evolutionary progress of the planet. At
first only a few mortals in each age attain translation levels
of spiritual progress, but with the onset of the successive ages
of the Teacher Sons, more and more Adjuster fusions occur before
the termination of the lengthening lives of these progressing
mortals; and by the time of the terminal mission of the Teacher
Sons, approximately one quarter of these superb mortals are
exempt from natural death.
55:2.3 Farther along in the era of light and
life the midway creatures or their associates sense the
approaching status of probable soul-Adjuster union and signify
this to the destiny guardians, who in turn communicate these
matters to the finaliter group under whose jurisdiction this
mortal may be functioning; then there is issued the summons of
the Planetary Sovereign for such a mortal to resign all
planetary duties, bid farewell to the world of his origin, and
repair to the inner temple of the Planetary Sovereign, there to
await morontia transit, the translation flash, from the material
domain of evolution to the morontia level of prespirit
progression.
55:2.4 When the family, friends, and working
group of such a fusion candidate have forgathered in the
morontia temple, they are distributed around the central stage
whereon the fusion candidates are resting, meantime freely
conversing with their assembled friends. A circle of intervening
celestial personalities is arranged to protect the material
mortals from the action of the energies manifest at the instant
of the "life flash" which delivers the ascension candidate from
the bonds of material flesh, thereby doing for such an
evolutionary mortal everything that natural death does for those
who are thereby delivered from the flesh.
55:2.5 Many fusion candidates may be assembled
in the spacious temple at the same time. And what a beautiful
occasion when mortals thus forgather to witness the ascension of
their loved ones in spiritual flames, and what a contrast to
those earlier ages when mortals must commit their dead to the
embrace of the terrestrial elements! The scenes of weeping and
wailing characteristic of earlier epochs of human evolution are
now replaced by ecstatic joy and the sublimest enthusiasm as
these God-knowing mortals bid their loved ones a transient
farewell as they are removed from their material associations by
the spiritual fires of consuming grandeur and ascending glory.
On worlds settled in light and life, "funerals" are occasions of
supreme joy, profound satisfaction, and inexpressible hope.
55:2.6 The souls of these progressing mortals
are increasingly filled with faith, hope, and assurance. The
spirit permeating those gathered around the translation shrine
resembles that of the joyful friends and relatives who might
assemble at a graduating exercise for one of their group, or who
might come together to witness the conferring of some great
honor upon one of their number. And it would be decidedly
helpful if less advanced mortals could only learn to view
natural death with something of this same cheerfulness and
lightheartedness.
55:2.7 Mortal observers can see nothing of
their translated associates subsequent to the fusion flash. Such
translated souls proceed by Adjuster transit direct to the
resurrection hall of the appropriate morontia-training world.
These transactions concerned with the translation of living
human beings to the morontia world are supervised by an
archangel who was assigned to such a world on the day when it
was first settled in light and life.
55:2.8 By the time a world attains the fourth
stage of light and life, more than half the mortals leave the
planet by translation from among the living. Such diminishment
of death continues on and on, but I know of no system whose
inhabited worlds, even though long settled in life, are entirely
free from natural death as the technique of escape from the
bonds of flesh. And until such a high state of planetary
evolution is uniformly attained, the morontia-training worlds of
the local universe must continue in service as educational and
cultural spheres for the evolving morontia progressors. The
elimination of death is theoretically possible, but it has not
yet occurred according to my observation. Perhaps such a status
may be attained during the faraway stretches of the succeeding
epochs of the seventh stage of settled planetary life.
55:2.9 The translated souls of the flowering
ages of the settled spheres do not pass through the mansion
worlds. Neither do they sojourn, as students, on the morontia
worlds of the system or constellation. They do not pass through
any of the earlier phases of morontia life. They are the only
ascending mortals who so nearly escape the morontia transition
from material existence to semispirit status. The initial
experience of such Son-seized mortals in the ascension
career is in the services of the progression worlds of the
universe headquarters. And from these study worlds of Salvington
they go back as teachers to the very worlds they passed by,
subsequently going on inward to Paradise by the established
route of mortal ascension.
55:2.10 Could you but visit a planet in an
advanced stage of development, you would quickly grasp the
reasons for providing for the differential reception of
ascending mortals on the mansion and higher morontia worlds. You
would readily understand that beings passing on from such highly
evolved spheres are prepared to resume their Paradise ascent far
in advance of the average mortal arriving from a disordered and
backward world like Urantia.
55:2.11 No matter from what level of planetary
attainment human beings may ascend to the morontia worlds, the
seven mansion spheres afford them ample opportunity to gain in
experience as teacher-students all of everything which they
failed to pass through because of the advanced status of their
native planets.
55:2.12 The universe is unfailing in the
application of these equalizing techniques designed to insure
that no ascender shall be deprived of aught which is essential
to his ascension experience.
3. THE GOLDEN AGES
55:3.1 During this age of light and life the
world increasingly prospers under the fatherly rule of the
Planetary Sovereign. By this time the worlds are progressing
under the momentum of one language, one religion, and, on normal
spheres, one race. But this age is not perfect. These worlds
still have well-appointed hospitals, homes for the care of the
sick. There still remain the problems of caring for accidental
injuries and the inescapable infirmities attendant upon the
decrepitude of old age and the disorders of senility. Disease
has not been entirely vanquished, neither have the earth animals
been subdued in perfection; but such worlds are like Paradise in
comparison with the early times of primitive man during the
pre-Planetary Prince age. You would instinctively describe such
a realm -- could you be suddenly transported to a planet in this
stage of development -- as heaven on earth.
55:3.2 Human government in the conduct of
material affairs continues to function throughout this age of
relative progress and perfection. The public activities of a
world in the first stage of light and life which I recently
visited were financed by the tithing technique. Every adult
worker -- and all able-bodied citizens worked at something --
paid ten per cent of his income or increase to the public
treasury, and it was disbursed as follows:
55:3.3 1. Three per cent was expended in the
promotion of truth -- science, education, and philosophy.
55:3.4 2. Three per cent was devoted to beauty
-- play, social leisure, and art.
55:3.5 3. Three per cent was dedicated to
goodness -- social service, altruism, and religion.
55:3.6 4. One per cent was assigned to the
insurance reserves against the risk of incapacity for labor
resultant from accident, disease, old age, or unpreventable
disasters.
55:3.7 The natural resources of this planet
were administered as social possessions, community property.
55:3.8 On this world the highest honor
conferred upon a citizen was the order of "supreme service,"
being the only degree of recognition ever to be granted in the
morontia temple. This recognition was bestowed upon those who
had long distinguished themselves in some phase of supermaterial
discovery or planetary social service.
55:3.9 The majority of social and
administrative posts were held jointly by men and women. Most of
the teaching was also done jointly; likewise all judicial trusts
were discharged by similar associated couples.
55:3.10 On these superb worlds the
childbearing period is not greatly prolonged. It is not best for
too many years to intervene between the ages of a family of
children. When close together in age, children are able to
contribute much more to their mutual training. And on these
worlds they are magnificently trained by the competitive systems
of keen striving in the advanced domains and divisions of
diverse achievement in the mastery of truth, beauty, and
goodness. Never fear but that even such glorified spheres
present plenty of evil, real and potential, which is stimulative
of the choosing between truth and error, good and evil, sin and
righteousness.
55:3.11 Nevertheless, there is a certain,
inevitable penalty attaching to mortal existence on such
advanced evolutionary planets. When a settled world progresses
beyond the third stage of light and life, all ascenders are
destined, before attaining the minor sector, to receive some
sort of transient assignment on a planet passing through the
earlier stages of evolution.
55:3.12 Each of these successive ages
represents advancing achievements in all phases of planetary
attainment. In the initial age of light the revelation of truth
was enlarged to embrace the workings of the universe of
universes, while the Deity study of the second age is the
attempt to master the protean concept of the nature, mission,
ministry, associations, origin, and destiny of the Creator Sons,
the first level of God the Sevenfold.
55:3.13 A planet the size of Urantia, when
fairly well settled, would have about one hundred
subadministrative centers. These subordinate centers would be
presided over by one of the following groups of qualified
administrators:
1. Young Material Sons and Daughters
brought from the system headquarters to act as assistants to the
ruling Adam and Eve.
2. The progeny of the semimortal
staff of the Planetary Prince who were procreated on certain
worlds for this and other similar responsibilities.
3. The direct planetary progeny of
Adam and Eve.
4. Materialized and humanized midway
creatures.
5. Mortals of Adjuster-fusion status
who, upon their own petition, are temporarily exempted from
translation by the order of the Personalized Adjuster of
universe chieftainship in order that they may continue on the
planet in certain important administrative posts.
6. Specially trained mortals of the
planetary schools of administration who have also received the
order of supreme service of the morontia temple.
7. Certain elective commissions of
three properly qualified citizens who are sometimes chosen by
the citizenry by direction of the Planetary Sovereign in
accordance with their special ability to accomplish some
definite task which is needful in that particular planetary
sector.
55:3.14 The great handicap confronting Urantia
in the matter of attaining the high planetary destiny of light
and life is embraced in the problems of disease, degeneracy,
war, multicolored races, and multilingualism.
55:3.15 No evolutionary world can hope to
progress beyond the first stage of settledness in light until it
has achieved one language, one religion, and one philosophy.
Being of one race greatly facilitates such achievement, but the
many peoples of Urantia do not preclude the attainment of higher
stages.
4. ADMINISTRATIVE READJUSTMENTS
55:4.1 In the successive stages of settled
existence the inhabited worlds make marvelous progress under the
wise and sympathetic administration of the volunteer Corps of
the Finality, ascenders of Paradise attainment who have come
back to minister to their brethren in the flesh. These
finaliters are active in co-operation with the Trinity Teacher
Sons, but they do not begin their real participation in world
affairs until the morontia temple appears on earth.
55:4.2 Upon the formal inauguration of the
planetary ministry of the Corps of the Finality, the majority of
the celestial hosts withdraw. But the seraphic guardians of
destiny continue their personal ministry to the progressing
mortals in light; indeed such angels come in ever-increasing
numbers throughout the settled ages since larger and larger
groups of human beings reach the third cosmic circle of
co-ordinate mortal attainment during the planetary life span.
55:4.3 This is merely the first of the
successive administrative adjustments which attend the unfolding
of the successive ages of increasingly brilliant attainment on
the inhabited worlds as they pass from the first to the seventh
stage of settled existence.
55:4.4 1. The first stage of light and life.
A world in this initial settled stage is being administered by
three rulers:
a. The Planetary Sovereign,
presently to be advised by a counseling Trinity Teacher Son, in
all probability the chief of the terminal corps of such Sons to
function on the planet.
b. The chief of the planetary corps
of finaliters.
c. Adam and Eve, who function
jointly as the unifiers of the dual leadership of the
Prince-Sovereign and the chief of finaliters.
55:4.5 Acting as interpreters for the seraphic
guardians and the finaliters are the exalted and liberated
midway creatures. One of the last acts of the Trinity Teacher
Sons on their terminal mission is to liberate the midwayers of
the realm and to promote (or restore) them to advanced planetary
status, assigning them to responsible places in the new
administration of the settled sphere. Such changes have already
been made in the range of human vision as enable mortals to
recognize these heretofore invisible cousins of the early Adamic
regime. This is made possible by the final discoveries of
physical science in liaison with the enlarged planetary
functions of the Master Physical Controllers.
55:4.6 The System Sovereign has authority to
release midway creatures any time after the first settled stage
so that they may humanize in the morontia by the aid of the Life
Carriers and the physical controllers and, after receiving
Thought Adjusters, start out on their Paradise ascension.
55:4.7 In the third and subsequent stages,
some of the midwayers are still functioning, chiefly as contact
personalities for the finaliters, but as each stage of light and
life is entered, new orders of liaison ministers largely replace
the midwayers; very few of them ever remain beyond the fourth
stage of light. The seventh stage will witness the coming of the
first absonite ministers from Paradise to serve in the places of
certain universe creatures.
55:4.8 2. The second stage of light and
life. This epoch is signalized on the worlds by the arrival
of a Life Carrier who becomes the volunteer adviser of the
planetary rulers regarding the further efforts to purify and
stabilize the mortal race. Thus do the Life Carriers actively
participate in the further evolution of the human race --
physically, socially, and economically. And then they extend
their supervision to the further purification of the mortal
stock by the drastic elimination of the retarded and persisting
remnants of inferior potential of an intellectual, philosophic,
cosmic, and spiritual nature. Those who design and plant life on
an inhabited world are fully competent to advise the Material
Sons and Daughters, who have full and unquestioned authority to
purge the evolving race of all detrimental influences.
55:4.9 From the second stage on throughout the
career of a settled planet the Teacher Sons serve as counselors
to the finaliters. During such missions they serve as volunteers
and not by assignment; and they serve exclusively with the
finaliter corps except that, upon the consent of the System
Sovereign, they may be had as advisers to the Planetary Adam and
Eve.
55:4.10 3. The third stage of light and
life. During this epoch the inhabited worlds arrive at a new
appreciation of the Ancients of Days, the second phase of God
the Sevenfold, and the representatives of these superuniverse
rulers enter into new relationships with the planetary
administration.
55:4.11 In each succeeding age of settled
existence the finaliters function in ever-increasing capacities.
There exists a close working connection between the finaliters,
the Evening Stars (the superangels), and the Trinity Teacher
Sons.
55:4.12 During this or the following age a
Teacher Son, assisted by the ministering-spirit quartette,
becomes attached to the elective mortal chief executive, who now
becomes associated with the Planetary Sovereign as joint
administrator of world affairs. These mortal chief executives
serve for twenty-five years of planetary time, and it is this
new development that makes it easy for the Planetary Adam and
Eve to secure release from their world of long-time assignment
during the following ages.
55:4.13 The ministering-spirit quartettes
consist of: the seraphic chief of the sphere, the superuniverse
secoraphic counselor, the archangel of translations, and the
omniaphim who functions as the personal representative of the
Assigned Sentinel stationed on the system headquarters. But
these advisers never proffer counsel unless it is asked for.
55:4.14 4. The fourth stage of light and
life. On the worlds the Trinity Teacher Sons appear in new
roles. Assisted by the creature-trinitized sons so long
associated with their order, they now come to the worlds as
volunteer counselors and advisers to the Planetary Sovereign and
his associates. Such couples -- Paradise-Havona-trinitized sons
and ascender-trinitized sons -- represent differing universe
viewpoints and diverse personal experiences which are highly
serviceable to the planetary rulers.
55:4.15 At any time after this age the
Planetary Adam and Eve can petition the Sovereign Creator Son
for release from planetary duties in order to begin their
Paradise ascent; or they can remain on the planet as directors
of the newly appearing order of increasingly spiritual society
composed of advanced mortals striving to comprehend the
philosophic teachings of the finaliters portrayed by the
Brilliant Evening Stars, who are now assigned to these worlds to
collaborate in pairs with the seconaphim from the headquarters
of the superuniverse.
55:4.16 The finaliters are chiefly engaged in
initiating the new and supermaterial activities of society --
social, cultural, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual. As far as
we can discern, they will continue this ministry far into the
seventh epoch of evolutionary stability, when, possibly, they
may go forth to minister in outer space; whereupon we conjecture
their places may be taken by absonite beings from Paradise.
55:4.17 5. The fifth stage of light and
life. The readjustments of this stage of settled existence
pertain almost entirely to the physical domains and are of
primary concern to the Master Physical Controllers.
55:4.18 6. The sixth stage of light and
life witnesses the development of new functions of the mind
circuits of the realm. Cosmic wisdom seems to become
constitutive in the universe ministry of mind.
55:4.19 7. The seventh stage of light and
life. Early in the seventh epoch the Trinity Teacher
counselor of the Planetary Sovereign is joined by a volunteer
adviser sent by the Ancients of Days, and later on they will be
augmented by a third counselor coming from the superuniverse
Supreme Executive.
55:4.20 During this epoch, if not before, Adam
and Eve are always relieved of planetary duties. If there is a
Material Son in the finaliter corps, he may become associated
with the mortal chief executive, and sometimes it is a
Melchizedek who volunteers to function in this capacity. If a
midwayer is among the finaliters, all of that order remaining on
the planet are immediately released.
55:4.21 Upon obtaining release from their
agelong assignment, a Planetary Adam and Eve may select careers
as follows:
55:4.22 1. They can secure planetary release
and from the universe headquarters start out immediately on the
Paradise career, receiving Thought Adjusters at the conclusion
of the morontia experience.
55:4.23 2. Very often a Planetary Adam and Eve
will receive Adjusters while yet serving on a world settled in
light concomitant with the receiving of Adjusters by some of
their imported pure-line children who have volunteered for a
term of planetary service. Subsequently they may all go to
universe headquarters and there begin the Paradise career.
55:4.24 3. A Planetary Adam and Eve may elect
-- as do Material Sons and Daughters from the system capital --
to go direct to the midsonite world for a brief sojourn, there
to receive their Adjusters.
55:4.25 4. They may decide to return to the
system headquarters, there for a time to occupy seats on the
supreme court, after which service they will receive Adjusters
and begin the Paradise ascent.
55:4.26 5. They may choose to go from their
administrative duties back to their native world to serve as
teachers for a season and to become Adjuster indwelt at the time
of transfer to the universe headquarters.
55:4.27 Throughout all of these epochs the
imported assisting Material Sons and Daughters exert a
tremendous influence on the progressing social and economic
orders. They are potentially immortal, at least until such time
as they elect to humanize, receive Adjusters, and start for
Paradise.
55:4.28 On the evolutionary worlds a being
must humanize to receive a Thought Adjuster. All ascendant
members of the Mortal Corps of Finaliters have been Adjuster
indwelt and fused except seraphim, and they are Father indwelt
by another type of spirit at the time of being mustered into
this corps.
5. THE ACME OF MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT
55:5.1 Mortal creatures living on a
sin-stricken, evil-dominated, self-seeking, isolated world, such
as Urantia, can hardly conceive of the physical perfection, the
intellectual attainment, and the spiritual development which
characterize these advanced epochs of evolution on a sinless
sphere.
55:5.2 The advanced stages of a world settled
in light and life represent the acme of evolutionary material
development. On these cultured worlds, gone are the idleness and
friction of the earlier primitive ages. Poverty and social
inequality have all but vanished, degeneracy has disappeared,
and delinquency is rarely observed. Insanity has practically
ceased to exist, and feeble-mindedness is a rarity.
55:5.3 The economic, social, and
administrative status of these worlds is of a high and perfected
order. Science, art, and industry flourish, and society is a
smoothly working mechanism of high material, intellectual, and
cultural achievement. Industry has been largely diverted to
serving the higher aims of such a superb civilization. The
economic life of such a world has become ethical.
55:5.4 War has become a matter of history, and
there are no more armies or police forces. Government is
gradually disappearing. Self-control is slowly rendering laws of
human enactment obsolete. The extent of civil government and
statutory regulation, in an intermediate state of advancing
civilization, is in inverse proportion to the morality and
spirituality of the citizenship.
55:5.5 Schools are vastly improved and are
devoted to the training of mind and the expansion of soul. The
art centers are exquisite and the musical organizations superb.
The temples of worship with their associated schools of
philosophy and experiential religion are creations of beauty and
grandeur. The open-air arenas of worship assembly are equally
sublime in the simplicity of their artistic appointment.
55:5.6 The provisions for competitive play,
humor, and other phases of personal and group achievement are
ample and appropriate. A special feature of the competitive
activities on such a highly cultured world concerns the efforts
of individuals and groups to excel in the sciences and
philosophies of cosmology. Literature and oratory flourish, and
language is so improved as to be symbolic of concepts as well as
to be expressive of ideas. Life is refreshingly simple; man has
at last co-ordinated a high state of mechanical development with
an inspiring intellectual attainment and has overshadowed both
with an exquisite spiritual achievement. The pursuit of
happiness is an experience of joy and satisfaction.
6. THE INDIVIDUAL MORTAL
55:6.1 As worlds advance in the settled status
of light and life, society becomes increasingly peaceful. The
individual, while no less independent and devoted to his family,
has become more altruistic and fraternal.
55:6.2 On Urantia, and as you are, you can
have little appreciation of the advanced status and progressive
nature of the enlightened races of these perfected worlds. These
people are the flowering of the evolutionary races. But such
beings are still mortal; they continue to breathe, eat, sleep,
and drink. This great evolution is not heaven, but it is a
sublime foreshadowing of the divine worlds of the Paradise
ascent.
55:6.3 On a normal world the biologic fitness
of the mortal race was long since brought up to a high level
during the post-Adamic epochs; and now, from age to age
throughout the settled eras the physical evolution of man
continues. Both vision and hearing are extended. By now the
population has become stationary in numbers. Reproduction is
regulated in accordance with planetary requirements and innate
hereditary endowments: The mortals on a planet during this age
are divided into from five to ten groups, and the lower groups
are permitted to produce only one half as many children as the
higher. The continued improvement of such a magnificent race
throughout the era of light and life is largely a matter of the
selective reproduction of those racial strains which exhibit
superior qualities of a social, philosophic, cosmic, and
spiritual nature.
55:6.4 The Adjusters continue to come as in
former evolutionary eras, and as the epochs pass, these mortals
are increasingly able to commune with the indwelling Father
fragment. During the embryonic and prespiritual stages of
development the adjutant mind-spirits are still functioning. The
Holy Spirit and the ministry of angels are even more effective
as the successive epochs of settled life are experienced. In the
fourth stage of light and life the advanced mortals seem to
experience considerable conscious contact with the spirit
presence of the Master Spirit of superuniverse jurisdiction,
while the philosophy of such a world is focused upon the attempt
to comprehend the new revelations of God the Supreme. More than
one half of the human inhabitants on planets of this advanced
status experience translation to the morontia state from among
the living. Even so, "old things are passing away; behold, all
things are becoming new."
55:6.5 We conceive that physical evolution
will have attained its full development by the end of the fifth
epoch of the light-and-life era. We observe that the upper
limits of spiritual development associated with evolving human
mind are determined by the Adjuster-fusion level of conjoint
morontia values and cosmic meanings. But concerning wisdom:
While we do not really know, we conjecture that there can never
be a limit to intellectual evolution and the attainment of
wisdom. On a seventh-stage world, wisdom can exhaust the
material potentials, enter upon mota insight, and eventually
even taste of absonite grandeur.
55:6.6 We observe that on these highly evolved
and long seventh-stage worlds human beings fully learn the local
universe language before they are translated; and I have visited
a few very old planets where abandonters were teaching the older
mortals the tongue of the superuniverse. And on these worlds I
have observed the technique whereby the absonite personalities
reveal the presence of the finaliters in the morontia temple.
55:6.7 This is the story of the magnificent
goal of mortal striving on the evolutionary worlds; and it all
takes place even before human beings enter upon their morontia
careers; all of this splendid development is attainable by
material mortals on the inhabited worlds, the very first stage
of that endless and incomprehensible career of Paradise
ascension and divinity attainment.
55:6.8 But can you possibly imagine what sort
of evolutionary mortals are now coming up from worlds long
existing in the seventh epoch of settled light and life? It is
such as these who go on to the morontia worlds of the local
universe capital to begin their ascension careers.
55:6.9 If the mortals of distraught Urantia
could only view one of these more advanced worlds long settled
in light and life, they would nevermore question the wisdom of
the evolutionary scheme of creation. Were there no future of
eternal creature progression, still the superb evolutionary
attainments of the mortal races on such settled worlds of
perfected achievement would amply justify man's creation on the
worlds of time and space.
55:6.10 We often ponder: If the grand universe
should be settled in light and life, would the ascending
exquisite mortals still be destined to the Corps of the
Finality? But we do not know.
7. THE FIRST OR PLANETARY STAGE
55:7.1 This epoch extends from the appearance
of the morontia temple at the new planetary headquarters to the
time of the settling of the entire system in light and life.
This age is inaugurated by the Trinity Teacher Sons at the close
of their successive world missions when the Planetary Prince is
elevated to the status of Planetary Sovereign by the mandate and
personal presence of the Paradise bestowal Son of that sphere.
Concomitant therewith the finaliters inaugurate their active
participation in planetary affairs.
55:7.2 To outward and visible appearances the
actual rulers, or directors, of such a world settled in light
and life are the Material Son and Daughter, the Planetary Adam
and Eve. The finaliters are invisible, as also is the
Prince-Sovereign except when in the morontia temple. The actual
and literal heads of the planetary regime are therefore the
Material Son and Daughter. It is the knowledge of these
arrangements that has given prestige to the idea of kings and
queens throughout the universe realms. And kings and queens are
a great success under these ideal circumstances, when a world
can command such high personalities to act in behalf of still
higher but invisible rulers.
55:7.3 When such an era is attained on your
world, no doubt Machiventa Melchizedek, now the vicegerent
Planetary Prince of Urantia, will occupy the seat of the
Planetary Sovereign; and it has long been conjectured on Jerusem
that he will be accompanied by a son and daughter of the Urantia
Adam and Eve who are now held on Edentia as wards of the Most
Highs of Norlatiadek. These children of Adam might so serve on
Urantia in association with the Melchizedek-Sovereign since they
were deprived of procreative powers almost 37,000 years ago at
the time they gave up their material bodies on Urantia in
preparation for transit to Edentia.
55:7.4 This settled age continues on and on
until every inhabited planet in the system attains the era of
stabilization; and then, when the youngest world -- the last to
achieve light and life -- has experienced such settledness for
one millennium of system time, the entire system enters the
stabilized status, and the individual worlds are ushered into
the system epoch of the era of light and life.
8. THE SECOND OR SYSTEM STAGE
55:8.1 When an entire system becomes settled
in life, a new order of government is inaugurated. The Planetary
Sovereigns become members of the system conclave, and this new
administrative body, subject to the veto of the Constellation
Fathers, is supreme in authority. Such a system of inhabited
worlds becomes virtually self-governing. The system legislative
assembly is constituted on the headquarters world, and each
planet sends its ten representatives thereto. Courts are now
established on the system capitals, and only appeals are taken
to the universe headquarters.
55:8.2 With the settling of the system the
Assigned Sentinel, representative of the superuniverse Supreme
Executive, becomes the volunteer adviser to the system supreme
court and actual presiding officer of the new legislative
assembly.
55:8.3 After the settling of an entire system
in light and life the System Sovereigns will no more come and
go. Such a sovereign remains perpetually at the head of his
system. The assistant sovereigns continue to change as in former
ages.
55:8.4 During this epoch of stabilization, for
the first time midsoniters come from the universe headquarters
worlds of their sojourn to act as counselors to the legislative
assemblies and advisers to the adjudicational tribunals. These
midsoniters also carry on certain efforts to inculcate new mota
meanings of supreme value into the teaching enterprises which
they sponsor jointly with the finaliters. What the Material Sons
did for the mortal races biologically, the midsonite creatures
now do for these unified and glorified humans in the
ever-advancing realms of philosophy and spiritualized thinking.
55:8.5 On the inhabited worlds the Teacher
Sons become voluntary collaborators with the finaliters, and
these same Teacher Sons also accompany the finaliters to the
mansion worlds when those spheres are no longer to be utilized
as differential receiving worlds after an entire system is
settled in light and life; at least this is true by the time the
entire constellation has thus evolved. But there are no groups
that far advanced in Nebadon.
55:8.6 We are not permitted to reveal the
nature of the work of the finaliters who will supervise such
rededicated mansion worlds. You have, however, been informed
that there are throughout the universes various types of
intelligent creatures who have not been portrayed in these
narratives.
55:8.7 And now, as the systems one by one
become settled in light by virtue of the progress of their
component worlds, the time comes when the last system in a given
constellation attains stabilization, and the universe
administrators -- the Master Son, the Union of Days, and the
Bright and Morning Star -- arrive on the capital of the
constellation to proclaim the Most Highs the unqualified rulers
of the newly perfected family of one hundred settled systems of
inhabited worlds.
9. THE THIRD OR CONSTELLATION STAGE
55:9.1 The unification of a whole
constellation of settled systems is attended by new
distributions of executive authority and additional
readjustments of universe administration. This epoch witnesses
advanced attainment on every inhabited world but is particularly
characterized by readjustments on the constellation
headquarters, with marked modification of relationships with
both the system supervision and the local universe government.
During this age many constellation and universe activities are
transferred to the system capitals, and the representatives of
the superuniverse assume new and more intimate relations with
the planetary, system, and universe rulers. Concomitant with
these new associations, certain superuniverse administrators
establish themselves on the constellation capitals as volunteer
advisers to the Most High Fathers.
55:9.2 When a constellation is thus settled in
light, the legislative function ceases, and the house of System
Sovereigns, presided over by the Most Highs, functions instead.
Now, for the first time, such administrative groups deal
directly with the superuniverse government in matters pertaining
to Havona and Paradise relationships. Otherwise the
constellation remains related to the local universe as before.
From stage to stage in the settled life the univitatia continue
to administer the constellation morontia worlds.
55:9.3 As the ages pass, the Constellation
Fathers take over more and more of the detailed administrative
or supervising functions which were formerly centered on the
universe headquarters. By the attainment of the sixth stage of
stabilization these unified constellations will have reached the
position of well-nigh complete autonomy. Entrance upon the
seventh stage of settledness will no doubt witness the
exaltation of these rulers to the true dignity signified by
their names, the Most Highs. To all intents and purposes the
constellations will then deal directly with the superuniverse
rulers, while the local universe government will expand to grasp
the responsibilities of new grand universe obligations.
10. THE FOURTH OR LOCAL UNIVERSE STAGE
55:10.1 When a universe becomes settled in
light and life, it soon swings into the established
superuniverse circuits, and the Ancients of Days proclaim the
establishment of the supreme council of unlimited authority.
This new governing body consists of the one hundred Faithfuls of
Days, presided over by the Union of Days, and the first act of
this supreme council is to acknowledge the continued sovereignty
of the Master Creator Son.
55:10.2 The universe administration, as far as
concerns Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek, is quite unchanged.
This council of unlimited authority is chiefly concerned with
the new problems and the new conditions arising out of the
advanced status of light and life.
55:10.3 The Associate Inspector now mobilizes
all Assigned Sentinels to constitute the stabilization corps
of the local universe and asks the Father Melchizedek to
share its supervision with him. And now, for the first time, a
corps of the Inspired Trinity Spirits are assigned to the
service of the Union of Days.
55:10.4 The settling of an entire local
universe in light and life inaugurates profound readjustments in
the entire scheme of administration, from the individual
inhabited worlds to the universe headquarters. New relationships
extend down to the constellations and systems. The local
universe Mother Spirit experiences new liaison relations with
the Master Spirit of the superuniverse, and Gabriel establishes
direct contact with the Ancients of Days to be effective when
and as the Master Son may be absent from the headquarters world.
55:10.5 During this and subsequent ages the
Magisterial Sons continue to function as dispensational
adjudicators, while one hundred of these Avonal Sons of Paradise
constitute the new high council of the Bright and Morning Star
on the universe capital. Later on, and as requested by the
System Sovereigns, one of these Magisterial Sons will become the
supreme counselor stationed on the headquarters world of each
local system until the seventh stage of unity is attained.
55:10.6 During this epoch the Trinity Teacher
Sons are volunteer advisers, not only to the Planetary
Sovereigns, but in groups of three they similarly serve the
Constellation Fathers. And at last these Sons find their place
in the local universe, for at this time they are removed from
the jurisdiction of the local creation and are assigned to the
service of the supreme council of unlimited authority.
55:10.7 The finaliter corps now, for the first
time, acknowledges the jurisdiction of an extra-Paradise
authority, the supreme council. Heretofore the finaliters have
recognized no supervision this side of Paradise.
55:10.8 The Creator Sons of such settled
universes spend much of their time on Paradise and its
associated worlds and in counseling the numerous finaliter
groups serving throughout the local creation. In this way the
man of Michael will find a fuller fraternity of association with
the glorified finaliter mortals.
55:10.9 Speculation concerning the function of
these Creator Sons in connection with the outer universes now in
process of preliminary assembly is wholly futile. But we all
engage in such postulations from time to time. On attaining this
fourth stage of development the Creator Son becomes
administratively free; the Divine Minister is progressively
blending her ministry with that of the superuniverse Master
Spirit and the Infinite Spirit. There seems to be evolving a new
and sublime relationship between the Creator Son, the Creative
Spirit, the Evening Stars, the Teacher Sons, and the
ever-increasing finaliter corps.
55:10.10 If Michael should ever leave Nebadon,
Gabriel would undoubtedly become chief administrator with the
Father Melchizedek as his associate. At the same time new status
would be imparted to all orders of permanent citizenship, such
as Material Sons, univitatia, midsoniters, susatia, and
Spirit-fused mortals. But as long as evolution continues, the
seraphim and the archangels will be required in universe
administration.
55:10.11 We are, however, satisfied regarding
two features of our speculations: If the Creator Sons are
destined to the outer universes, the Divine Ministers will
undoubtedly accompany them. We are equally sure that the
Melchizedeks are to remain with the universes of their origin.
We hold that the Melchizedeks are destined to play
ever-increasingly responsible parts in local universe government
and administration.
11. THE MINOR AND MAJOR SECTOR STAGES
55:11.1 Minor and major sectors of the
superuniverse do not figure directly in the plan of being
settled in light and life. Such an evolutionary progression
pertains primarily to the local universe as a unit and concerns
only the components of a local universe. A superuniverse is
settled in light and life when all of its component local
universes are thus perfected. But not one of the seven
superuniverses has attained a level of progression even
approaching this.
55:11.2 The minor sector age. As far as
observations can penetrate, the fifth or minor sector stage of
stabilization has exclusively to do with physical status and
with the co-ordinate settling of the one hundred associated
local universes in the established circuits of the
superuniverse. Apparently none but the power centers and their
associates are concerned in these realignments of the material
creation.
55:11.3 The major sector age.
Concerning the sixth stage, or major sector stabilization, we
can only conjecture since none of us have witnessed such an
event. Nevertheless, we can postulate much concerning the
administrative and other readjustments which would probably
accompany such an advanced status of inhabited worlds and their
universe groupings.
55:11.4 Since the minor sector status has to
do with co-ordinate physical equilibrium, we infer that major
sector unification will be concerned with certain new
intellectual levels of attainment, possibly some advanced
achievements in the supreme realization of cosmic wisdom.
55:11.5 We arrive at conclusions regarding the
readjustments which would probably attend the realization of
hitherto unattained levels of evolutionary progress by observing
the results of such achievements on the individual worlds and in
the experiences of individual mortals living on these older and
highly developed spheres.
55:11.6 Let it be made clear that the
administrative mechanisms and governmental techniques of a
universe or a superuniverse cannot in any manner limit or retard
the evolutionary development or spiritual progress of an
individual inhabited planet or of any individual mortal on such
a sphere.
55:11.7 In some of the older universes we find
worlds settled in the fifth and the sixth stages of light and
life -- even far extended into the seventh epoch -- whose local
systems are not yet settled in light. Younger planets may delay
system unification, but this does not in the least handicap the
progress of an older and advanced world. Neither can
environmental limitations, even on an isolated world, thwart the
personal attainment of the individual mortal; Jesus of Nazareth,
as a man among men, personally achieved the status of light and
life over nineteen hundred years ago on Urantia.
55:11.8 It is by observing what takes place on
long-settled worlds that we arrive at fairly reliable
conclusions as to what will happen when a whole superuniverse is
settled in light, even if we cannot safely postulate the event
of the stabilization of the seven superuniverses.
12. THE SEVENTH OR SUPERUNIVERSE STAGE
55:12.1 We cannot positively forecast what
would occur when a superuniverse became settled in light because
such an event has never factualized. From the teachings of the
Melchizedeks, which have never been contradicted, we infer that
sweeping changes would be made in the entire organization and
administration of every unit of the creations of time and space
extending from the inhabited worlds to the superuniverse
headquarters.
55:12.2 It is generally believed that large
numbers of the otherwise unattached creature-trinitized sons are
to be assembled on the headquarters and divisional capitals of
the settled superuniverses. This may be in anticipation of the
sometime arrival of outer-spacers on their way in to Havona and
Paradise; but we really do not know.
55:12.3 If and when a superuniverse should be
settled in light and life, we believe that the now advisory
Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme would become the high
administrative body on the headquarters world of the
superuniverse. These are the personalities who are able to
contact directly with the absonite administrators, who will
forthwith become active in the settled superuniverse. Although
these Unqualified Supervisors have long functioned as advisers
and counselors in advanced evolutionary units of creation, they
do not assume administrative responsibilities until the
authority of the Supreme Being becomes sovereign.
55:12.4 The Unqualified Supervisors of the
Supreme, who function more extensively during this epoch, are
not finite, absonite, ultimate, or infinite; they are supremacy
and only represent God the Supreme. They are the personalization
of time-space supremacy and therefore do not function in Havona.
They function only as supreme unifiers. They may possibly be
involved in the technique of universe reflectivity, but we are
not certain.
55:12.5 None of us entertain a satisfactory
concept of what will happen when the grand universe (the seven
superuniverses as dependent on Havona) becomes entirely settled
in light and life. That event will undoubtedly be the most
profound occurrence in the annals of eternity since the
appearance of the central universe. There are those who hold
that the Supreme Being himself will emerge from the Havona
mystery enshrouding his spirit person and will become
residential on the headquarters of the seventh superuniverse as
the almighty and experiential sovereign of the perfected
creations of time and space. But we really do not know.
55:12.6
Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily assigned to the
Archangel Council on Urantia.
