First, believing in the existence of a universal Creator who has created the universe and all that’s in it.

Second, believing in the survival of the human personality beyond physical death.  Indeed an amazing destiny awaits most of us.

What is the third article of faith?

Believing in the existence of many worlds, more or less similar to ours, harboring intelligent beings.  There are many considerations here.  Let me go through the important ones.

To begin with, a belief does not exist in isolation.  There is a logical process, followed by an exercise of faith.

We believe in God because our logical mind tells us that there must be a Creator for the universe.   If we take God out of the equation we are stuck!  Who created the universe and all that’s in it?  The early Greek philosophers stated that the universe was always there.  Well, if you’re talking of something that’s always there, you’re talking of God!

Modern science takes apart God’s work and explains it.  Many scientists will tell you that once you explain the process, God becomes redundant.  Don’t be fooled by these pronouncements.  Most scientists believe in God; but if it risks hurting their careers, they’ll pretend He doesn’t exist.  I went into some detail so you can follow the logical process.

The faith process is the child of revelations: Starting with Melchizedek about 4,000 years ago and ending with the Urantia Book in the 20th century.

Marry logic with faith and you have a mortal mind capable of accepting an unseen Being in his or her life.

The logic behind survival is quite simple.  Why would God create intelligent life and then proceed to destroy it?  It makes no sense at all.  Do we just come into the world, live a short and unfailingly difficult life, procreate, eventually die, with our children repeating the process ad infinitum?  That would be absurd.  It would be blaspheming to assume that God would engage in such a waste of time.

Many have argued that humans have invented the concept of eternal life because they are afraid to die.  How can we do that?  Can you be in jail for life and pretend that you’re in a place of great beauty with magnificent gardens to stroll in?  That the guards are angels and the inmates are endowed with a charitable and loving disposition!  If you manage to do that, you will quickly be consigned to an insane asylum!  Yes, humans are afraid to die because we are wired for survival.  So are all other animals.  The gazelle that’s being pursued by a lioness is running for its life.  It knows that if caught, it’s game over.  Our instinct of survival and our belief in an eternal life are two very different things.

Again, the faith process is the result of revelations.  From Melchizedek, to Jesus, and on to the Urantia Book, we have been told to prepare for a sublime destiny.  Reading the details in the Urantia Book has many times brought tears to my eyes.

The logic behind intelligent life on other planets is obvious.  With such a vast universe at His disposal, why would God create life on one planet only?  Aren’t we like the small child who knows only his own neighborhood and cannot imagine that he is part of a vast world?  Actually, this concept is readily accepted by most of us.  Scientists are reasonably certain that the conditions that gave rise to life on our planet must exist on other planets.  In other words we are not alone.

But science needs absolute proof.  I have no problems with that.  There are many science-fiction books that “take us to other planets, or bring its inhabitants to us.”  While these “voyages” happen only in the mind of the author and its readers, such books, beside entertaining us, play a helpful role.  They make it easier for us to accept the third article of faith.

And it is an article of faith.  We cannot wait for the time when we can contact extra-terrestrial civilizations.  Because of the immense distances, it will never happen.  Flights of fancy, as mentioned above, play a useful role, but do not ultimately satisfy our need for interacting with other mortals living on other worlds.

The faith here comes from the Zohar and the Kaballah who informed us that there are many other worlds out there.  The Urantia Book tells us more on the subject.  But there are two important limitations.  First, there is a confidentiality aspect; the affairs of a given planet are private and are not revealed to the inhabitants of other planets.  Second, while the Celestial Beings were permitted to reveal general information, space limitations made that difficult.  The Urantia Book – after questions raised by the first humans, who read the draft papers, were answered – is a 2097 pages book.  There is, however, some details of life on another planet, as well as other general information.  If you want to know more, fear not, you will one day meet many other ascending pilgrims from the worlds of time and space.  You will get to know them, work with them, love them, and accept them as your brothers and sisters.  Inevitably, as your different assignments take you in different directions, you will experience the pain of separation.

On the first page of the Urantia Book there is a beautiful passage on the subject.

Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon.  This universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton, from whose capital, Uversa, our commission hails.  Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection-the central universe of Havona.  At the heart of this eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity and the dwelling place of the eternal God.

What is the usefulness of the third article of faith in everyday life?

It puts our knowledge and beliefs in a different context.  I no longer look at my planet, and my fellow human beings, in the same way.  Our life on planet Earth is repeated with endless variations on numerous other planets.  Our differences seem puny when contrasted against the background of an entire universe.  It takes time to accept this article of faith.  But do take the time, for you will find that your values and outlook on life will change for the better.

In the next sections, I explore some of these potential changes.

First the galaxies.  There are 100 billion galaxies that are visible to us.

How many stars in each galaxy?  There are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, The Milky Way.  The Milky Way is a huge galaxy; but there are larger galaxies, as well as smaller ones.  Therefore, we can accept the average number of stars per galaxy as 100 billion.

Source:  The Physics Factbook (http://hypertextbook.com).  Edited by Glenn Elert.  Written by his students.
Reference for the number of galaxies in the universe:
World Book Encyclopedia.  Chicago:  World Book, 1997
Reference for the number of stars in The Milky Way:
Encyclopedia Britannica.  Astronomy.  2000

The total number of stars can now be calculated:

100,000,000,000 galaxies x 100,000,000,000 stars in each galaxy =
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 thousands, billion, billion.
  We call this figure 10 sextillion or 10 to the power of 21.

I stress again that this is a very conservative estimate.  And these are only the stars; we cannot see the planets and their moons.  The total number of stars, planets, and moons would be totally beyond comprehension.  Indeed, according to the Urantia Book, only the Universal Father knows the exact number of heavenly bodies in the universe.

The next question of more immediate interest to us is how many planets are inhabited by intelligent life?

According to the Urantia Book there are 7 trillion inhabitable planets.  Again this is an estimate.  It is also a potential for these are the inhabitable planets and not the inhabited planets.  In time those that can potentially support life will be scouted to determine their suitability.

How many harbor intelligent life?  The information is not in the Book.  However, we are given the grand universe number of our planet (a relative newcomer):  “The grand universe number of your world, Urantia, is 5,342,482,337,666.  That is the registry number on Uversa and on Paradise, your number in the catalogue of the inhabited worlds.”  Note that a planet is entered in the official registry only when intelligent life arises on it.  Therefore, I will make an intelligent guess and estimate the number of worlds inhabited by intelligent life as being between 5.4 to 5.5 trillion.

Since our registry number is so high, the Author of the paper [A Universal Censor hailing from Uversa] is reassuring us as to our place in the universe:  “Your planet is a member of an enormous cosmos; you belong to a well-nigh infinite family of worlds, but your sphere is just as precisely administered and just as lovingly fostered as if it were the only inhabited world in all existence.”

Alexander the Great illustrates the futility of such an endeavor.  He swiftly conquered most of the known world.  But he died young and his empire was divided among his generals.

Now that all of these empires are consigned to the history books, we, as modern humans, can put our past under the microscope and perchance draw some useful lessons.

We are only one planet among trillions.  Conquering a large part of our world means little.  Of course, ancient people didn’t know that.  Even among modern humans, few are aware of that fact.  (Hopefully, this article will change that for some of us).  So what does the whole thing means? 

For the conquerors it meant wealth and power.  At the center of the empire learning and innovation flourished.  Even more important, knowledge was exported to other nations.

The Greeks brought their advanced knowledge to many nations, and it prevailed for many centuries.

The strength of the Roman empire was in the way it was administered.  They also governed the empire through laws.  Our modern system of governing, and our legislative and judiciary bodies, are a Roman legacy.

The Arab empire encouraged learning, and promoted sciences, philosophy, and the arts.  Even more important, they brought Islam, a monotheistic religion, to people who were pagans.

Wars and conquests are negative in and of themselves; but they are an inevitable part of the evolutionary process on our world.  The same process, with many variations, has unfolded on other worlds which are now more advanced than ours.  And the same process will no doubt repeats itself on yet unborn worlds.

There are 6800 known languages spoken in the world, 2261 have writing systems (the others are only spoken).  India alone has 18 officially spoken recognized languages (Hindi and English are the official languages of the union).

Sources:  http://geography.about.com (# of countries)
www.infoplease.com/countries.html (Liechtenstein)  
www.yourdictionary.com/languages.html (# of languages)
http://languages.iloveindia.com (India)

What a long way we have travelled in less than one million year.  At that time, evolution produced the first primates endowed with human intelligence and capable of posing an act of will.  When the twins, Andon and Fonta (the parents of all humanity), left behind their backward group of primates, they started a process which culminated with the civilized world we have today with its numerous races, religions, and nations.

The concept of the Messiah goes back millennia.  There is some validity to that belief, however, like on many other occasions, we have confused matters.

The Urantia Book talks of a time when a planet settles in Light and Life.  This is a time when the world has made great advances, both socially and technologically.  We work less, devote more time to think and to advance our knowledge.  Medicine has vanquished most diseases.  People are more tolerant of one another, and nations cooperate with each other.  Wars are a thing of the past; we read about them in history books.  Education is universal and the learning is continuous.  We have learned how to raise our children to produce healthy and productive human beings.  Child development is a science that is still in its infancy today.  Above all, we have learned how to properly govern ourselves.

The following will prevail:  Local matters will be handled by local governments; national issues by national governments;  international affairs will be administered by a global government.

The planetary ruler will obviously be a very capable person.  He will be the equivalent of the Messiah as contemplated in the Bible.  Of course, when his mandate runs out, and if he is not reelected, he will be replaced by another leader.  This ruler, needless to say, can be a man or a woman.  Full equality between the sexes has long been a fact of life on the planet.  You see, when we talk of the Messiah, we are talking of Messianic times (i.e. Light and Life).

Light and Life goes through seven stages as the planet advances.  By the seventh stage, people do not die, they translate directly from the flesh into the next stage (The Morontia Stage).

It breaks your heart when you read in the Book about Light and Life in the first stage, let alone the seventh stage.

I don’t need to tell you that we are still very far from Light and Life on this planet!  Ours is still very much a primitive and backward world.

The Urantia Book includes many useful points regarding nations and nationhood.  Two interesting ones follow.

The modern state is the institution which survived in the long struggle for group power.  There is a moral myth of the absolute obligation of the citizens of a nation to live and die for it.  But the state is not of divine genesis; it is purely an evolutionary institution.

The only sacred feature of any human government is the division of statehood into the three domains of executive, legislative, and judicial functions.  The universe is administered in accordance with such a plan of segregation of functions and authority.

When Andon and Fonta took the fateful decision that started a new chapter in the history of our planet, the Life Carriers (the Personalities that scout planets suitable for life, develop the plasm of life, and supervise developing life until intelligent humans arrive on the scene) stationed on our planet received the following message:  “Biologic evolution had once again achieved the human level of will dignity; man had arrived on planet 606 of Satania.”

I have often wondered how other planets who have preceded us in our System of Satania are faring?  How far has planet 605 evolved?  604?  600?  Is 500 well settled in Light and Life?  Is 607 ahead of us?  If so, I wouldn’t be surprised!  What kind of races, nations and religions do they have?  How they look like doesn’t interest me.  I am only interested in the matters of the mind.  For this is what will stay with us during our eternal voyage.

The last category is diverse and represent religious views (or lack thereof) rather than a religion.  Atheists represent only one-half of one percent of the population in many countries where much larger numbers claims no religious preferences; therefore, this category is not synonymous with atheism. 

The above figures are far from being accurate as shown by the following examples.

Contemporary figures for Islam are usually between 900 million and 1.4 billion.

World Hinduism adherent figures are usually between 850 million and one billion.

Worldwide there are between 230 and 500 million Buddhists.

Source:  www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

Hopefully, I won’t confuse my readers if I added that many Buddhists will tell you that Buddhism is neither a religion nor a philosophy.  They follow the teachings of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama).  They believe in neither God nor gods.  It’s a peaceful movement and Buddhists will proudly inform you that no blood has ever been spilled in the name of Buddhism.  (How many other religions can make the same claim?)

According to the Urantia Book:

1.  Hinduism is the most ancient religion, and Sikhism is the most recent.

2.  The most advanced religions of ancient times were Judaism and Hinduism.

3.  “The Christian religion is the religion about the life and teachings of Jesus based upon the theology of Judaism, modified further through the assimilation of certain Zoroastrian teachings and Greek Philosophy, and formulated primarily by three individuals:  Philo, Peter, and Paul.”

What is the origin of our existing religions?

Machiventa Melchizedek

Thousands of years ago, our planet was starting to evolve.  The belief in the one God was beginning to happen. A civilization of sort was being established.  But then, a series of disasters struck.  First, there was the Lucifer rebellion.  Next, our Planetary Prince, Caligastia, joined the rebellion.  Finally, Adam and Eve defaulted.  Darkness descended upon Urantia.  We are still nursing our wounds even after all this time.  I will briefly talk of those events in future sections.  For now, I’ll proceed with the Melchizedek mission on Urantia.

First of all, a Melchizedek is a glorious Son of the Local Universe (our part of the universe).  You probably have many questions:  Why is he called a “Son?”  Who are the parents? and so on.  Well, it would be impossible for me to go into details.  If you’re curious, go to the Urantia Foundation site:
www.urantia.org
The whole book is online.  There is also a search area.  You can enter:  Sonship in the Local Universe, Sons of the Local Universe, Melchizedeks, Administration of the Local Universe, etc.  You can also check the Table of Contents.  By the way, the name of our Local Universe is Nebadon.

In those days, on our planet, there was twelve Melchizedek planetary receivers.  These glorious Beings were very worried about the spiritual status of Urantia. They consulted with their Superiors, and, while it took some convincing, their concerns were eventually addressed.

What follows is passages from the Book describing a momentous visit to our planet.

“… Machiventa Melchizedek, one of the twelve planetary receivers, volunteered to do that which had been done only six times in all the history of Nebadon:  to personalize on earth as a temporary man of the realm, to bestow himself as an emergency Son of world ministry.”   

It was 1,973 years before the birth of Jesus that Machiventa was bestowed upon the human races of Urantia.  His coming was unspectacular; his materialization was not witnessed by human eyes.  He was first observed by mortal man on that eventful day when he entered the tent of Amdon, a Chaldean herder of Sumerian extraction.  And the proclamation of his mission was embodied in the simple statement which he made to this shepherd, “I am Melchizedek, priest of El Elyon, the Most High, the one and only God.”

When the herder had recovered from his astonishment, and after he had plied this stranger with many questions, he asked Melchizedek to sup with him, and this was the first time in his long universe career that Machiventa had partaken of material food, the nourishment which was to sustain him throughout his ninety-four years of life as a material being.

And that night, as they talked out under the stars, Melchizedek began his mission of the revelation of the truth of the reality of God when, with a sweep of his arm, he turned to Amdon, saying, “El Elyon, the Most High, is the divine creator of the stars of the firmament and even of this very earth on which we live, and he is also the supreme God of heaven.”

Within a few years Melchizedek had gathered around him a group of pupils, disciples, and believers who formed the nucleus of the later community of Salem.  He was soon known throughout Palestine as the priest of El Elyon, the Most High, and as the sage of Salem.  Among some of the surrounding tribes he was often referred to as the sheik, or king, of Salem.  Salem was the site which after the disappearance of Melchizedek became the city of Jebus, subsequently being called Jerusalem.

One of the most gifted student of Machiventa was Abraham.  On him was placed a heavy responsibility.

Although it may be an error to speak of “chosen people,” it is not a mistake to refer to Abraham as a chosen individual.  Melchizedek did lay upon Abraham the responsibility of keeping alive the truth of one God as distinguished from the prevailing belief in plural deities.

The selection of Abraham was not accidental.

For some time the Melchizedek receivers had been observing the ancestors of Abraham, and they confidently expected offspring in a certain generation who would be characterized by intelligence, initiative, sagacity, and sincerity.  The children of Terah, the father of Abraham, in every way met these expectations.  It was this possibility of contact with these versatile children of Terah that had considerable to do with the appearance of Machiventa at Salem, rather than in Egypt, China, India, or among the northern tribes. 

It was very difficult for the early inhabitants of the planet to accept Machiventa’s message.  And it was no different for Abraham.  As a mortal of the realm he had his own earthly concerns, chief among them was the fact that he had no children.  And it is this card that Melchizedek played as we can see from these two beautiful passages from the Book.

And Melchizedek made a formal covenant with Abraham at Salem.  Said he to Abraham:  “Look now up to the heavens and number the stars if you are able; so numerous shall your seed be.”  And Abraham believed Melchizedek, “and it was counted to him for righteousness.”  And then Melchizedek told Abraham the story of the future occupation of Canaan by his offspring after their sojourn in Egypt.

This covenant of Melchizedek with Abraham represents the great Urantian agreement between divinity and humanity whereby God agrees to do everything; man only agrees to believe God’s promises and follow his instructions.

The Book tells us that Abraham was not the only teacher to come out of Salem.

The early teachers of the Salem religion penetrated to the remotest tribes of Africa and Eurasia, ever preaching Machiventa’s gospel of man’s faith and trust in the one universal God as the only price of obtaining divine favor.  Melchizedek’s covenant with Abraham was the pattern for all the early propaganda that went out from Salem and other centers.  Urantia has never had more enthusiastic and aggressive missionaries of any religion than these noble men and women who carried the teachings of Melchizedek over the entire Eastern Hemisphere.  These missionaries were recruited from many peoples and races, and they largely spread their teachings through the medium of native converts.  They established training centers in different parts of the world where they taught the natives the Salem religion and then commissioned these pupils to function as teachers among their own people. 

We may be a planet that had fallen on hard times.  We may be isolated from the rest of the universe.  We may be one among thousands of other inhabited planets in Nebadon.  But despite these handicaps, visitors to Nebadon from other universes always ask about Urantia.  Why is that?  Because Jesus chose Urantia to incarnate in the flesh.  As we all know, He was born like any other baby of the realm; He did not suddenly appear as a grown man like Machiventa.

It would be beyond the scope of this narrative to go into details.  There are some 800 pages at the end of the book describing Jesus’ life on Urantia.  And there is more in the rest of the book.  I could at least explain who Jesus was, but I won’t. 

Some of the details provided in the Urantia Book are in direct contradiction with accepted Christian doctrines.  I write this article with love and the desire to share some of my knowledge with my readers.  The last thing I want to do is to provide alternate beliefs to the accepted ones.

Feel free, however, to go to the website (www.urantia.org) and enter in the search area:  Michael of Nebadon, Christ Michael, etc.  You will have hours of reading, if not days!

On this day, the world as we know it will come to an end.  The dead will be awakened from their slumber to be judged by God.  Good actions will be weighted against sins.  If the bad outweigh the good you’re consigned to the fires of hell.  The reverse will send you to paradise.  There is an element of mercy in that all efforts will be made by our Creator to spare a sinner from eternal damnation.  There is also plenty of disagreement; for example, some Talmudists believe that hell is not forever.  There is general agreement that on Sabbath the fires are extinguished.  Other religions have their own beliefs and their own disagreements.

Such beliefs tax the modern mind.  We have mapped the human genome, and thanks to the internet we have instant communication and knowledge at our fingertips.  Many intelligent and educated men and women believe in God, but find themselves at odd with their religious doctrines.  Their faith is precious, but concepts like the end of the world are not believable to them.  People ask themselves a lot of questions.  Some examples:  Why would God want to destroy a world He has created?  A lot of love and efforts has been poured on this planet.  How do you reconcile that with its total annihilation?  Are we talking of our planet only or the whole universe?  How can a merciful God throws people in the fire, and for all eternity at that?  How can a body that has been in the grave for centuries if not millennia be reconstituted?  Of course God can do anything.  The only problem is that He does not break His own natural laws, nor does He engage in magic tricks.  It is blasphemy to even think like that.

The 21st century person want intelligent explanations.  Therefore, with the help of the Urantia Book let me try to do that.  A word of caution.  This is a complex matter.  Therefore, I will do my best to be clear and concise.

First of all YOU is not simply a human body:  a collection of limbs, senses, organs, and a material brain governing the whole thing.  You are so much more than that.  Piecing it together from the Book, this is who YOU are.

The material body is your starting point.  You literally start as two cells joining together and you will grow from here.

Early on you will receive a Personality (not to be confused with the genetic package) from the Universal Father.  It is unique, no one (material or spiritual being) has the same one.  And, yes, that may explain why identical twins are in some aspects different.

Around the age of 6 or 7 you will receive a Thought Adjuster (also known as a Mystery Monitor).  It is a Fragment of God and it stays with you for the sole purpose of spiritualizing you.  You get it when you perform your first moral act.  For example challenging older boys who are beating a younger child.  There is a mind-blowing series of five papers on the Thought Adjuster in the Book.

The Soul is again different from the above gifts you receive from the Paradise Father.  It is slowly evolving through the interactions of your Personality, your genetic package, the influence of your environment, the choices you make (within existing constraints) and last but not least your Thought Adjuster.

Upon mortal dissolution, your Soul will be judged and a decision is made as to whether you will survive or not (more on that later).  If you’re a sleeping survivor (more on that later) a Seraphic Host will preserve the information of who you are so that in due time you can be repersonalized and reassembled.

What happens next in the context of being adjudicated as to whether you will survive or not?  Let me start by reassuring you.  The odds are heavily in your favor.  Everything possible is done before rejecting a Soul.  Context is taken into consideration.  For example if you kill a person in self-defense, or murder in cold blood but then pay for it and be truly repentant.  (These are examples only and may not coincide with the views the Superuniverse Personalities will take).  Ultimately, one main thing is asked from you:  To believe in God.  Even if you don’t, but it is determined that you have the potential to believe in Him, then you’re given a chance.  What about a really evil person?  He/she will most probably be annihilated.  The Book puts it this way:  “Undiluted evil, complete error, willful sin, and unmitigated iniquity are inherently and automatically suicidal.”

Who is responsible for determining your fate?  The Universal Censors.  The book explains it this way:

In some way not fully understood, the Universal Censors are able to gain possession of an epitome of the human life as it is embodied in the Adjuster’s duplicate transcription of the spiritual values and morontia meanings of the indwelt mind.  The Censors are able to appropriate the Adjuster’s version of the deceased human’s survival character and spiritual qualities, and all this data, together with the seraphic records, is available for presentation at the time of the adjudication of the individual concerned.  This information is also used to confirm those superuniverse mandates which make it possible for certain ascenders immediately to begin their morontia careers, upon mortal dissolution to proceed to the mansion worlds ahead of a formal termination of a planetary dispensation.

Lest you conclude that God plays no part in this process, another part of the Book tells us that “These unique beings are the judgment of the Deity.”

Some explanations are in order.  First of all your Adjuster has a record of who you were.  From a spiritual and moral viewpoints only.  If during your lifetime you managed to build a financial empire, your Adjuster doesn’t give a hoot about that!

Second, your Seraphic Host also has the equivalent information.  This angel may be responsible for 1 (advanced) mortal, 10, 100, or 1000.

What is a planetary dispensation?  Unless a planet is advanced, its mortals may be required to “sleep” and wait for a planetary dispensation which will allow them to be repersonalized en masse.  Advanced mortals on this same planet may not be required to wait.  A planetary dispensation as far as I remember is about 1000 years.  That doesn’t mean that you have to wait for 1000 years.  Say there was a planetary dispensation in 2000.  If somebody dies in 1999, he will have to wait for 1 year.  Somebody that died in 2000 will have to sleep for 1000 years!  Since you’re wholly unconscious, whether you sleep for a year or 1000 is of little importance.  You will feel that you moved from the physical realm to the morontia (next stage of existence) one in no time.  An extract from the Book follows:

When the more spiritually and cosmically advanced mortals die, they proceed immediately to the mansion worlds; in general this provision operates with those who have had assigned to them personal Seraphic Guardians.  Other mortals may be detained until such time as the adjudication of their affairs has been completed, after which they may proceed to the mansion worlds, or they may be assigned to the ranks of the sleeping survivors who will be repersonalized en masse at the end of the current planetary dispensation.

I pause here to make two points:

First I suggest that the planetary dispensation was understood to be a time of judgment for everybody that ever lived on our planet.  Thereafter, the world was supposed to come to an end.  From the information the Book has provided us, you now know that this is wrong.  You also understand the origin of this misunderstanding.

Next we need to ask the status of our planet.  Do we need to wait for a planetary dispensation or do we repersonalize after 3 days (the minimum time required for different administrators to complete the procedures concerning you).  The status of our planet has often been discussed when my group of readers met to discuss the Book.  As you can appreciate, there were different views.  As far as I am concerned I remember reading in the Book that, by and large, we translate to the next stage after 3 days.  Despite the fact that we are still a backward planet, this exception was made because Jesus incarnated on Urantia.

What happen if a mortal does not survive?  The Personality returns to God and as far as I can remember is never used again.  The Thought Adjuster returns to its specific sphere.  It will await until it receives instructions to indwell the mind of another mortal (usually on another planet).  It is now an experienced Adjuster and will probably be of great value to its new partner.  Mozart and Beethoven, Shakespeare and Moliere may have had an Adjuster who partnered with great composers and  great writers who did not survive.

Note that the adjuster leaves if the mind is gone; example, if the person is in a coma or in case of insanity.  If the person had previously (before the illness) made the decision to survive, the Adjuster will return, thus ensuring the survival status of the mortal in question.

On reasonably advanced planets, the knowledge recently imparted to Urantians is routinely known.  On such planets, some people may elect not to survive (probably a very small percentage).  The power to choose is always available.  Nobody will ever force you to embark on the ascending mortal adventure.

Always remember that fairness and mercy are the foundation of this whole process.  The Seraphim will provide the necessary context taking into consideration the conditions prevailing on the planet at a given time and place.  The Book describes it as follows:

The seraphic court advisers serve extensively as defenders of mortals.  Not that there ever exists any disposition to be unfair to the lowly creatures of the realms, but while justice demands the adjudication of every default in the climb towards divine perfection, mercy requires that every such misstep be fairly adjudged in accordance with the creature nature and the divine purpose.  These angels are the exponents and examplification of the element of mercy inherent in divine justice – of fairness based on the knowledge of the underlying facts of personal motives and racial tendencies.

Finally, even though we survive, we need to pay for major sins we committed.  They are cosmic debts.  We repay them by doing specific tasks that will be assigned to us.

The Book describes a decimal planet as follows:

IN ALL Satania there are only sixty-one worlds similar to
Urantia, life-modification planets. The majority of inhabited worlds are peopled in accordance with established techniques; on such spheres the Life Carriers are afforded little leeway in their plans for life implantation. But about one world in ten is designated as a decimal planet and assigned to the special registry of the Life Carriers; and on such planets we are permitted to undertake certain life experiments in an effort to modify or possibly improve the standard universe types of living beings.

I am afraid this is the only good piece of news I have. After that it’s downhill all the way.

Anything that could go wrong on this planet went wrong.  And the process is ongoing.

First we had the Lucifer (the former ruler of our system of Satania) rebellion.  This was followed by the Caligastia (our former Planetary Prince) betrayal.  Finally, our Adam and Eve (the former Material Son and Daughter assigned to our planet) defaulted.  When the Caligastia rebellion took place, the channel of communication with the rest of the universe were cut-off.  We became an isolated planet.  We are still an isolated planet living in darkness and ignorance, far behind where we should be at this point in time.  There is a tremendous amount of details related to these rebellions and the default.  In the next sections I will briefly describe these events and the impact they had on our planet.

Long after the default of Adam and Eve, Melchizedek incarnated on our planet.  I have already talked about His incarnation.  What I haven’t talked about is the present status of his visit.  Machiventa brought the message of the one God, a concept which had largely been lost on Urantia.  He also provided  a much simplified version of what is today included in the Urantia Book.  The problem is that the Melchizedek message got quite confused over the millennia.  And the confusion continues to this day.

Next, we’ve had the incredible privilege of having The Son incarnate on our planet.  Not as an adult, but as a babe of the realm.  He brought a message of love, peace, and understanding.  He brought new knowledge, new ideas, new concepts, a new approach to the Father.  He tried to tear the curtain of ignorance that had descended over the minds of men and women and had obscured their vision.  All in vain.  Even His disciples had great trouble understanding Him.  At the end He was crucified for His efforts.  Because of that, our world is still known as “The World of the Cross.”

It took four centuries for Christianity to establish itself.  Soon after, endless arguments about the nature of the Deity and of Jesus ensued.  Early in its history, it split into the Eastern Church and the Roman Church.  Then came the Reformation, and Christianity split again, this time into numerous religious beliefs, and different churches.

The contributors of the different papers in the Book refer to our planet by many uncomplimentary names:  disordered, backward, unbalanced, confused, primitive, and many other names.  These are Higher Beings, they are compassionate but otherwise do not indulge in empty sentimentality.  Like we say on our planet, they tell it like it is.  And what they are telling us is that despite our handicaps, we should have done better. 

Look at us today.  Half of the planet is made of advanced countries, the other half of developing ones.  “Advanced” is a relative concept.  Malice, selfishness, and ignorance still prevail on the North American and European continents.  Europe is of course more advanced being an older continent, but not by much.  It’s still a matter of everybody for himself, although the European Union is a step in the right direction.  The situation in developing countries is often abysmal.  The Western world tries to help, but it’s like trying to write on water!  You’re never able to see the result of your labor, you always seem to find yourself back at square one.

So where do we go from here?  I’ll talk about the future of our planet as I see it.  I also promise to try very hard to inject a note of optimism.

Lucifer and his first assistant, Satan, had governed Satania for more than five hundred thousand years “…when in their hearts they began to array themselves against the Universal Father and his then viceregent Son, Michael.”

It took several months to corrupt the mind of his brilliant associate, Satan.  However, once converted to the erroneous theories of Lucifer, “…he became a bold and earnest advocate of ‘self-assertion and liberty’”

Why did Lucifer rebel?  Even the Celestial Beings are at a loss to explain his act.  In this beautiful passage from the Book, they give us a glimpse into the mind of the one we call the devil on our planet.

It is very difficult to point out the exact cause or causes which finally culminated in the Lucifer rebellion.  We are certain of only one thing, and that is:  Whatever these first beginnings, they had their origin in Lucifer’s mind.  There must have been a pride of self that nourished itself to the point of self-deception, so that Lucifer for a time really persuaded himself that his contemplation of rebellion was actually for the good of the system, if not of the universe.  By the time his plans had developed to the point of disillusionment, no doubt he had gone too far for his original and mischief-making pride to permit him to stop.  At some point in this experience he became insincere, and evil evolved into deliberate and willful sin.  That this happened is proved by the subsequent conduct of this brilliant executive.  He was long offered opportunity for repentance, but only some of his subordinates ever accepted the proffered mercy.  The Faithful of Days of Edentia, on the request of the Constellation Fathers, in person presented the plan of Michael for the saving of these flagrant rebels, but always was the mercy of the Creator Son rejected and rejected with increasing contempt and disdain.

The Lucifer Manifesto

Lucifer issued a Declaration of Liberty.  He cites three causes for the rebellion.  I am reproducing them here from the Book, albeit in an abridged form (The complete manifesto is included on Paper 53, Pages 603 and 604).

1. The reality of the Universal Father.  Lucifer charged that the Universal Father did not really exist, that physical gravity and space-energy were inherent in the universe, and that the Father was a myth invented by the Paradise Sons to enable them to maintain the rule of the universes in the Father’s name.  He denied that personality was a gift of the Universal Father.

2. The universe government of the Creator Son – Michael.  Lucifer contended that the local systems should be autonomous.  He protested against the right of Michael, the Creator Son, to assume sovereignty of Nebadon in the name of a hypothetical Paradise Father and require all personalities to acknowledge allegiance to this unseen Father.

3. The attack upon the universal plan of ascendant mortal training.  Lucifer maintained that far too much time and energy was expended upon the scheme of so thoroughly training ascending mortals in the principles of universe administration, principles which he alleged were unethical and unsound.  He protested against the agelong program for preparing the mortals of space for some unknown destiny of pure fiction.  With derision he pointed out that the finaliters had encountered a destiny no more glorious than to be returned to humble spheres similar to those of their origins.

And it was with such a Declaration of Liberty that Lucifer launched his orgy of darkness and death.

Thirty-seven Planetary Princes (including Caligastia on Urantia) joined the rebellion.  However, in the case of Panoptia, the people did not follow their Planetary Prince;  not a single soul on that strife-torn world enlisted under the Lucifer banner.  The Melchizedeks and a young woman of that mortal realm, Ellanora, played a key role in thwarting the rebellion.

Two years after the rebellion, a new Sovereign, Lanaforge, was appointed to replace Lucifer. 

Since the fall of the thirty-seven, Lucifer, in the span of two hundred thousand years, has been unable to deceive another world.

The Uversa tribunals have not yet adjudicated the case of Gabriel vs Lucifer.  The sentence for all the Personalities involved is expected to be annihilation.

It takes a long time (at least to a mortal mind) to decide this case; “…but such a decree will, no doubt, be forthcoming in the fullness of time.  The first step in the hearing of this case has already been taken.”

In the meantime, the system circuits (including the circuits on our planet) will not be reinstated so long as Lucifer lives.

Caligastia very early sought a commission as Planetary Prince, but again and again his request was denied.  “Caligastia seemed especially desirous of being sent as planetary ruler to a decimal or life-modification world.  His petition had several times been disapproved before he was finally assigned to Urantia.”

About five hundred thousand years ago, Caligastia and his assistants arrived on Urantia.  “There were almost one-half billion primitive human beings on earth at the time of the Prince’s arrival, and they were well scattered over Europe, Asia, and Africa.  The Prince’s headquarters established in Mesopotamia, was at about the center of world population.”

“From the arrival of Prince Caligastia, planetary civilization progressed in a fairly normal manner for almost three hundred thousand years.”  The Lucifer rebellion and the concurrent Caligastia betrayal changed all that.  “All subsequent history has been definitely modified by this catastrophic blunder as well as the later failures of Adam and Eve to fulfill their planetary mission.”  The rebellion markedly modified the course of social evolution and spiritual development.  As well, when the system circuits were severed, Urantia was isolated from the rest of the universe.  “Every group of celestial life on the planet found itself suddenly and without warning isolated, utterly cut off from all outside counsel and advice.”

The rebellion meant that Caligastia abandoned the divine plan of gradual progression in favor of an accelerated development of the Urantia mortals.  The result was complete havoc.
 
Great confusion reigned in Dalamatia [The Prince's Headquarters] and thereabout for almost fifty years after the instigation of rebellion.  The complete and radical reorganization of the whole world was attempted; revolution displaced evolution as the policy of cultural advancement and racial improvement.  Among the superior and partially trained sojourners in and near Dalamatia there appeared a sudden advancement in cultural status, but when these new and radical methods were attempted on the outlying peoples, indescribable confusion and racial pandemonium was the immediate result.  Liberty was quickly translated into license by the half-evolved men of those days.    

One hundred and sixty-two years after the rebellion a tidal wave swept over Dalamatia, and the planetary headquarters sank beneath the waters of the sea, and this land did not again emerge until almost every vestige of the noble culture of those splendid ages has been obliterated.

(Is this where the legend of Atlantis originated?)