© 2007 Carmelo Martínez
© 2007 Urantia Association of Spain
I have been asked to introduce the subject of “The Future According to The Urantia Book.” Thinking about how to approach this matter, the first thing that came to mind was ‘utopia’. According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy of Language, the term ‘utopia’ means “optimistic plan, project, doctrine or system that appears unrealizable at the time of its formulation”.
Thus, the utopia according to the general opinion is somewhat optimistic but unrealizable. However, according to the UB, utopia is something optimistic and REALIZABLE, and also INEVITABLE. The Book calls this future utopia the “ages of light and life” and ensures that they are the certain destiny of humanity on this planet and all other inhabited planets. Document 55 is where you can find these encouraging and optimistic descriptions of our remote future. How much “remote”? I am going to dare to give a figure: on Urantia these ages may occur within 30 or 40 thousand years, perhaps less. Later, in the debate, we can see, if you find it interesting, how this figure can be arrived at.
But I, in this introduction, do not want to go that far. I will stay in the near future, in the age that will immediately follow this one and that will have its flowering perhaps in a few tens, perhaps a hundred or perhaps two hundred years; I will stay in an age that I consider to be that of the Urantia Book, that of the fifth revelation. In any case, going into the future, according to the Book, is moving forward, is getting better, so we have every reason to be optimistic, in the face of the many voices that herald disasters of all kinds.
To act as “pitonisos”, to foresee what is going to happen on the planet, the UB provides us with an extremely useful tool: the planetary epochs of mortals.
I will first review these planetary epochs; then I will try to situate our Urantia today in one of these epochs, and finally I will try to act as a “fortune teller”, as I said before, and predict how some aspects that have interested me in particular will be like in this age that will follow the one we are in. currently closing.
If you want to review the text of the UB, I will tell you that most of the information that I have used to prepare the tables that I will present below has come from paper 52 , from page 567 in paper 49 and from section 5 of paper 50 , pages 576 and 577.
Sometimes the future seems something distant and difficult to imagine. However, it may happen that we have it right under our noses, at least in some of its aspects. And this is the case here, because in a way, we are now in the future. Our relationship is one of mutual support, collaboration, understanding, trust, in short, love, and not competition, suspicion and rejection as is common in the world out there today. As I see it, we are anticipating the relationships that will prevail among humans in that age of our immediate future; from that point of view, we, now, are in the future.
And let’s get down to business. The evolution of humanity on any inhabited planet is an ascension from the initial barbarism to the won perfection of the final ages of light and life. And this ascent always goes through certain stages that are defined and characterized, as I have said, in paper 52.
Following this information from the Book, I have prepared a painting, or rather, Eduardo has prepared it because I am very bad at drawing. This chart summarizes what UB says of these stages for an “average” planet, but as you know very well our planet is an “oddball” that strays far from the average line due to the misfortunes of the Caligastia betrayal and of the mistake that our material children made.
It is the case, for example, that on our planet we have received a Son of bestowal, Michael of Nebadon himself, without having previously welcomed a magisterial Son, thus breaking the average sequence of arrival of Sons.
Each planetary age receives a name that corresponds to the characteristic development of humanity in that period. You enter it when a certain event or condition occurs, and you receive a visit from a descending son to help us go beyond humanity’s natural evolution capacity. There is always a natural development of humanity according to its own strength and resources, followed by a superhuman injection in the form of a descending son that enhances evolution beyond what humanity is capable of reaching on its own.
Planetary Epochs - (First Part)
| Primitive young man |
Post-prince | Posadamic | Post- Magisterial Son |
Post- Bestowal Son |
Post- Instructor Son |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Races | Six separate races. |
6 separate races; perhaps some obliterated. The racial cleansing begins. |
Improvement of the race by Adamic blood. Almost total disappearance of bestial deficient tendencies. Mixed at the end |
One race. | ||
| Intellectual capacity | The creative imagination begins. |
Elevation consequence of the mixture with the violet race. |
A great intellectual advance begins. |
|||
| Gender equality | There is no. | It materializes at that time. |
||||
| Family life | There is no. | Home appears. | ||||
| Social organization and governments |
Tribes, government tribal. |
Tribal advanced era. Groupings according to races. National life begins. |
Internationalism. Government in a monarchical or paternalistic way. World educational system. |
Government representative. Only rule the right ones. |
Gradual decrease government oversight. Many nations still Military forces disappear. The international harmony arrives. |
The government is disappearing. It is governed by the rule of individual self-control. |
| Material progress, mechanical development |
Control of fire animals. Basic tools. Hunters and herders. |
Agriculture appears The habit of living in a fixed place and cultivating the soil begins. The domestication of animals begins. |
The age of the invention and the mechanical development. Control of natural forces. Exploration and submission of the planet. Advance of the physical sciences. |
Economic liberation Use of free time in self-improvement. Summit for the development of the physical sciences. |
||
| Relations between groups |
Prolonged and brutal fights. Survival of the fittest man. |
Struggles on the decline. |
Social goal of world peace. |
Fraternity and world peace. |
Planetary Epochs - (Part Two)
| Primitive man |
Post-prince | Post-adamic | Post- Magisterial Son |
Post- Bestowal Son |
Post- Instructor Son |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Languages | Appearance of language. |
Many languages. | It is unifying. | |||
| Ethical level | Jungle ethics. | Ethical breakthrough. | Search for truth and moral culture. |
|||
| Religion | Animal fear, tribal superstition, ignorance. |
Mix of evolutionary and revelatory. |
It is becoming a planetary issue. |
Great religious awakening. |
One religion. | |
| Artistic level | Awakening of artistic interest . |
Flowering of art music and higher knowledge |
||||
| Terrestrial escape | Death | Death, perhaps some very rare fusion in life |
Many are transferred from among the living, death is less frequent. |
|||
| Degree of revelation |
There is no. | Local system | Constellations. | Local Universe. | Superuniverse. | Central Universe and Paradise. |
| Award of Adjusters |
Receptive to Adjusters but not fusion. |
on the rise | on the rise Increasing more capacity for subsequent fusion. |
Most but not yet all. |
The spirit of the truth and the universal bestowal of the Adjusters arrives. |
|
| Input condition |
Appearance of the will |
Appearance of the human groups |
Biological and natural heyday |
The evolutionary development of ethical intellectual progress is completed |
Limit of the natural development of the spiritual condition |
Cusp of planetary evolution |
| Definition of time |
Time of nutrition |
Age of security | Era of comfort material |
Quest for knowledge and wisdom |
Age of philosophy and brotherhood |
Age of spiritual struggle |
| Duration | Usually 100,000 years |
An average of 500,000 years |
25,000 years | Between 25,000 and 50,000 years |
10,000 to 100,000 years |
And with this overview of the ages of an “average planet” the next thing to ask is where is Urantia today, where are we currently?
The Book gives us clues about it. In UB 74:2.8 we read “… The dispensation of the Prince has passed; the age of Adam, the third planetary epoch, opens between scenes of simple grandeur…”. The age of Adam is that of “material comfort” that of great technological development, but on Urantia this is taking place at this time, nearly 38,000 years after the “average” plan. Although we have already received (2,000 years ago) a son of bestowal, I am of the opinion that we are still in the age of Adam. At the end of that age, but still within it. And the Book says something like this in UB 52:3.6: “…Your world is a full dispensation or more behind the average planetary schedule.” If we go back to the picture, this statement makes more sense. Between the age after the bestowal son and the age of Adam, mediates the age after the magisterial son; that is, “a full dispensation or more behind.”
This other table that I present to you is like the previous one but marking in each row (blue color) how far I think we have advanced. It is immediately verified that the advance is not uniform in all the characteristics of the development of humanity.
Future of Humanity according to The Urantia Book - (Part One)
| Primitive young man | Post-prince | Posadamic | Post- Magisterial Son |
Post- Bestowal Son |
Post- Instructor Son |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Races | Six separate races. |
6 separate races; perhaps some obliterated. The racial cleansing begins. |
Improvement of the race by Adamic blood. Almost total disappearance of bestial deficient tendencies. Mixed at the end |
One race. | ||
| Intellectual capacity | The creative imagination begins. |
Elevation consequence of the mixture with the violet race. |
A great intellectual advance begins. | |||
| Gender equality | There is no. | It materializes at that time. | ||||
| Family life | There is no. | Home appears. | ||||
| Social organization and governments |
Tribes, government tribal. |
Tribal advanced era. Groupings according to races. National life begins. |
Internationalism. Government in a monarchical or paternalistic way. World educational system. |
Government representative. Only rule the right ones. |
Gradual decrease government oversight. Many nations still Military forces disappear. The international harmony arrives. |
The government is disappearing. It is governed by the rule of individual self-control. |
| Material progress, mechanical development |
Control of fire animals. Basic tools. Hunters and herders. |
Agriculture appears The habit of living in a fixed place and cultivating the soil begins. The domestication of animals begins. |
The age of the invention and the mechanical development. Control of natural forces. Exploration and submission of the planet. Advance of the physical sciences. |
Economic liberation Use of free time in self-improvement. Summit for the development of the physical sciences. |
||
| Relations between groups |
Prolonged and brutal fights. Survival of the fittest man. |
Struggles on the decline. |
Social goal of world peace. |
Fraternity and world peace. |
After seeing this picture, the affirmation that we are at the end of the age of Adam is clearer, I think, although in some aspects we have gone further, as is the case of the universal granting of adjusters (thanks to the arrival of Miguel de Nebadon to live among us) and the degree of revelation (thanks to the fact that we have received The Urantia Book), our level of racial, intellectual, ethical development of social, religious organization and relations between groups, corresponds to the age of Adam.
And now is when I have to play “fortune teller.” But you can imagine that after this analysis it is easier. It is about “advancing” in the ranks of the table. However, I am not going to do a row-by-row analysis; instead I will try to define a more general framework in which, in my opinion, this new era that will follow ours will be born and develop.
For me, this age will be the close of the Adam age on Urantia and the beginning of an age somewhat equivalent to the post-masterful son age. But I don’t think we’ll receive divine help descending from a magisterial son, at least not for the next thousand or two thousand years. In its place we will have, we already have, The Urantia Book, which seems to be destined to be divine help, superhuman help, for this new age, or at least for its beginning.
There is an “apocryphal” text of those that say they come from the conversations of the Contact Commission with the intermediate during the gestation of the Book. I don’t know if that origin is true or not, but its content fits very well with the vision of the future that I’m trying to convey to you. Says so:
“We consider that the Urantia Book is a distinctive feature of the progressive evolution of human society. It bears no relation to the spectacular episodes of epoch-marking revolutions, even though it might give the impression of having been planned to appear after one such revolution in human society. The Book belongs to the era immediately following the conclusion of the present ideological struggle. That will be the day when man will be willing to seek truth and righteousness. When the chaos of the present confusion has passed, it will be much easier to formulate the cosmos of a new and better era of human relations. And it is for this order of affairs on Earth that the Book has been arranged.”
“But the publication of the Book has not been postponed until that (possibly) somewhat remote date. It is planned for early publication so that it can be made available to train leaders and educators. Their presence is also needed to capture the attention of people with means who could thus provide funds to make translations into other languages.”
And from this text emerges a first characteristic of that future age: the willingness to seek truth and rectitude. Faced with our times in which people move for reasons such as selfishness or ambition, times in which people laugh and despise altruistic people and who pretend to be fair and ethical in their relationships, in the future age that follows ours, the whole world will seek truth and righteousness.
Relations between people will be based on mutual support and respect, in the search for fair and equitable treatment. In short, in more mature people and therefore more ethical. Not everything goes, as is sometimes thought. As it is said in UB 71:4.17 “… Only love, brotherhood, can prevent the strong from oppressing the weak”.
Following a few rows of the table, I will say that world peace will be achieved, something that is not so difficult to believe despite the conflicts of recent times. Fraternity will begin to flourish, if only in its infancy, and there will be a great ethical advance.
In UB 71:6.1 it is also said: “Present-day profit-motivated economics is doomed unless profit motives can be augmented by service motives. Ruthless competition based on narrow-minded self-interest is ultimately destructive of even those things which it seeks to maintain. Exclusive and self-serving profit motivation is incompatible with Christian ideals—much more incompatible with the teachings of Jesus.”
And this is for me another characteristic, in this case in the economic field, of the age that will follow us. Currently the economy has become globalized; The famous globalization is solely economic, and it has turned out to be so because the large multinationals, the great fortunes of the world, have found in globalization a fertile ground to continue keeping wealth. In today’s economic world, the profit motive has reached its peak. It is not necessary to remind you that the big companies and the big banks no longer look for a greater profit, they look for the increase of their profit, not the profit itself, to be greater each time; what I call the second derivative. And they proclaim it without being ashamed. The fall of the communist side that divided the world into two parts has had this globalizing effect and loss of shame for big capital. And big business has shown no shame in organizing the sacrosanct economic trinity (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization), a trio shamelessly dedicated to making it even easier for big business to foster its greed. and keep what they want. And to further facilitate his greed he wants to impose the consumerist model on everyone and has made any other idea suspect. But his own exhausting eagerness will be his downfall. They have impoverished the rich poor countries and have them subject to foreign debt. However, little by little, these countries will get rid of this economic yoke; and such a movement will be the end of this economic organization and the beginning of a new order. It’s already starting to happen. One must remember the resistance movements on the rise in Latin America for example, or the liberation theology group within the Catholic Church. The situation of large groups of shantytowns and the solemnly poor, of people without electricity, water, or schools cannot last. They are also the breeding ground for resistance to the neoliberal model that they want to impose on us, the cradle of a new order that will affect all of us, including us, the so-called rich countries. And this new model will arrive not only because of the response of the poor countries, but also because of the growth of a social conscience in the world of the economy in general and of the company in particular; the company will have a service orientation to the man both in its own organization, as well as in its function and usefulness. Companies will no longer be machines, instruments to earn money; they will be integrated organisms in the social organization and oriented to the economic service of the society.
Do you think it is an unattainable utopia? I want to remind you that according to the UB, utopia is POSSIBLE and INEVITABLE; social forces push inexorably in that direction. I also want to remind you that on a planet neighboring ours, on one of its eleven continents, there is a society that has already taken these steps, has followed a path similar to ours and is now ahead of us.
A quote again from UB 71:5.3 that links the economy with social relations and the arrival of fraternity:
“Throughout the earlier ages of any world, competition is essential to progressive civilization. As the evolution of man progresses, co-operation becomes increasingly effective. In advanced civilizations co-operation is more efficient than competition.”
Returning to the table, this economic change, this orientation of social utility and service of the companies, will provide greater economic liberation and more free time. In fact, it already is.
And now I want to talk about the political organization. On that neighboring planet, politicians are the most altruistic people and the best trained for the role. They have training schools attended by all those who want to hold representative public office. It is a great honor for them to be appointed to such positions and they strive to pass and be the best.
In the next age we will advance representative government and only the right people will rule.
The time for politics to grow personally, our time, will pass. The time of corrupt politicians who think of everything except public service will pass. The time will come for politicians truly oriented to public service.
This time is coming; in fact, it is already knocking on our doors. And The Urantia Book is for this new time. It is the superhuman support for this age, it is the Magisterial Son made book. That’s how I see it.
And we, readers of the Urantia Book, are privileged; we were prepared for the Book and the Book found us. But this is more of an obligation than a privilege. We are, we have to be, the vanguard of this new age. As I see it, more important than disseminating the teachings of the Book, is to act in our lives with this vision of the future, preparing the way for the new times; each one in his current field or in the field in which his spirit tells him that he must act; each one with his action and with his personal example.
The commission of intermediates that wrote the fourth part of the Book politely and softly makes us this same invitation in UB 195:10.6:
“The call to the adventure of building a new and transformed human society by means of the spiritual rebirth of Jesus’ brotherhood of the kingdom should thrill all who believe in him as men have not been stirred since the days when they walked about on earth as his companions in the flesh.”
And here comes my introduction; now it is the turn of the debate. There are other aspects of the future, in addition to these that I have noticed, that we can address in the debate if you want. But regardless of the details of the new age, it seems to me a given that we have it on our doorstep. Everything seems to indicate that the change has already begun.
¶ Comments from attendees
The privilege of receiving the Urantia revelation is both a great obligation and a great responsibility. We have been chosen, yes, but to work. Paper 160 deserves to be highlighted here, the section on “the incentives of maturity” (UB 160:3.1), where it deals with good spiritual habits.
The world economy is changing. The road does not go through a revolution but through total globalization, not only economic. But it is necessary to change the mentality of profit for profit first. Advancement today will be fundamentally ethical, not spiritual.
Before the benefit, the important thing is to cover the basic needs of everyone. In these changes, the Internet will be a vitally important tool.
There is an important movement in favor of a universal ethic. There are social forces that are above the will of individual beings, which lead us towards what Teilhard called the “Omega Point”.
It is worth noting here two emerging powers, which are already discussed in the UB in paper 79: India and China. It is likely that in the future the momentum of civilization will shift eastward, once Western civilization has been exhausted. The artistic potentials have been exhausted for a few centuries. It would be necessary to promote those potentials again. The problem is the average: there are still geniuses, but in general, artistic sensitivity is lacking.
What happens when perfection is reached? Do the suns die? Surely not, but rather that they regenerate because they are in energy circuits that continually feed them back. Let us remember that in the stage of light and life there is not only spiritual but also physical stability. This is mainly because the future inhabitants of outer space will pass through the superuniverses as part of their upward career.
If there was a real danger that we would disappear as humanity, they would transfer us elsewhere. In addition, we are convinced that (as happened, for example, with the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s), “someone” would blow into the ear of the person responsible to prevent him from doing something that could endanger humanity.
The destruction of the planet is not going to happen. We find it hard to believe that our Michael’s bestowal world is going to be destroyed. We are a very peculiar planet. Although free will decides the future of our planet, humanity cannot choose its own self-destruction, because that is above free will, in the same way that we cannot stop being people.
What is limited in itself is not free will, but the possibility of doing things. This is true even for the Father.
Earth is likely to be a reserve planet in the future. In fact, it is destined to be a school planet, like the rest of the planets that house mortals.
Free will and providence are fundamental topics (we recommend reading UB 118:10.1 about providence). So are the difficulties, which are what make us grow (remember the inevitabilities, UB 3:5.5-14). There are apparent coincidences that guide us at times when we must decide.
The training of people also has to change so that we are all more service-oriented. An end is in sight for political parties as we now conceive them, so they too will be much more public service oriented.
In paper 72, when talking about the government on a neighboring planet, we are given many “recipes” that we can take advantage of to improve our society and our political system (such as, for example, the existence of schools for politicians).
Probably on our planet the Magisterial Post-Son and Bestowal Post-Son epochs will be refounded. Technological growth has been exponential, so spiritual changes may well be sudden. The fifth revelation could replace the Magisterial Son, and in 1,000 years we could consummate what remains to be covered of the post-Adamic stage and the Magisterial Post-Son.
The younger the tree, the easier it is to straighten. Any individual improvement project can be the cradle of a new generation of politicians, businessmen, teachers, etc. Politicians are the reflection of society. For there to be honest politicians, honest people are needed.
The impending resolution of Lucifer’s judgment and the consequences it will inevitably bring to our world will surely bring a spiritual awakening. It could coincide with the change of time that is about to arrive. The cosmic mind will expand our consciousness, we will be more receptive to a series of things. Let’s not forget that Jesus promised to return. We know it will come when a morontia temple comes to our planet, when our planet comes into light and life. But it would not be impossible for this return to take place before that moment.
¶ References
- Light and Life Magazine (all old issues): https://aue.urantia-association.org/numeros-antiguos-del-lyv/