© 2014 Carolyn Kendall
© 2014 The Urantia Book Fellowship
When a new reader asks why The Urantia Book came down from God or the angels, our response is usually one or more of several reasons: To reveal the true nature of God, the Heavenly Father; to disclose the truth about the life and mission of Jesus of Nazareth; to provide a full narrative of the evolution of the universe and our world; to describe the wondrous life in store for us after death; or simply, to save souls. We might add that another worthy purpose of the Urantia Revelation is to inspire human society to embark upon the pathway toward social and spiritual enlightenment and to propel this world toward the planetary stages of light and life.
The Urantia Book was fostered by the same orders of divine beings who bestow themselves upon other worlds like ours that are populated by similar human races. Revelation is a normal part of the divine perfection plan of the Universal Father and Eternal Son. Their plans envision material beings— us—born as animal-origin humans growing up on evolutionary spheres, and advancing through multiple levels of the universe of time and space. We achieve perfection in the spiritual realms of eternity and infinity. God the Father on Paradise provides each of us at an early point in our lives with unique personality and a fragment of the Father himself, a Thought Adjuster. The local universe Master Son and Creative Mother Spirit send to our world their “hovering spirits,” the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit. See [UB 34:5.6]
Another reason our world received revelation in our time is because it is the latest of on-going efforts to rehabilitate this planet after hundreds of thousands of years of chaos and confusion. These diversions from the divine plan were due to rebellion and default of trust by the very beings sent to teach and improve early human races on Urantia.
Does it surprise you to learn that our world, Urantia, is undergoing intensive rehabilitation? Or, that these rehab efforts have been in progress since Adam’s and Eve’s bestowal 37,000 years ago? And that untold numbers of unseen personalities, many of whom are divine, have been dedicated to this sacred mission? “(The) divine plan of perfection attainment originated with the Universal Father on Paradise and embraces three unique, though marvelously correlated, enterprises of universal adventure:” [UB 7:4.3]
“1. The Plan of Progressive Attainment. This is the Universal Father’s plan of evolutionary ascension, a program unreservedly accepted by the Eternal Son when he concurred in the Father’s proposal, ‘Let us make mortal creatures in our own image.’ This provision for upstepping the creatures of time involves the Father’s bestowal of the Thought Adjusters and the endowing of material creatures with the prerogatives of personality.”
“2. The Bestowal Plan. The next universal plan is the great Father-revelation enterprise of the Eternal Son and his co-ordinate Sons. This is the proposal of the Eternal Son and consists of his bestowal of the Sons of God upon the evolutionary creations, there to personalize and factualize, to incarnate and make real, the love of the Father and the mercy of the Son to the creatures of all universes. Inherent in the bestowal plan, and as a provisional feature of this ministration of love, the Paradise Sons act as rehabilitators of that which misguided creature will has placed in spiritual jeopardy. Whenever and wherever there occurs a delay in the functioning of the attainment plan, if rebellion, perchance, should mar or complicate this enterprise, then do the emergency provisions of the bestowal plan become active forthwith. The Paradise Sons stand pledged and ready to function as retrievers, to go into the very realms of rebellion and there restore the spiritual status of the spheres.”
“3. The Plan of Mercy Ministry. When the attainment plan and the bestowal plan had been formulated and proclaimed, . . . the Infinite Spirit projected and put in operation the tremendous and universal enterprise of mercy ministry, . . . and the spiritual personalities of the Third Source and Center all partake of the spirit of mercy ministry which is so much a part of the nature of the Third Person of Deity. . . .” [UB 7:4.4-6]
“Thus do the Deities effectively co-operate in the work of creation, control, evolution, revelation, and ministration— and if required, in restoration and rehabilitation.” [UB 7:4.7]
And to emphasize the second feature above: “If ever the authority or administration of a Creator Son is challenged, attacked, or jeopardized, he is eternally pledged to uphold, protect, defend, and if necessary, retrieve his personal creation.” [UB 21:3.14] By rehabilitation, I do not mean retrieval from a devil’s grasp, nor redemption—reconciling—the world to God through Christ. We as individuals were never separated from God the Father; we have always been under his spiritual watch care and embraced in his divine love.
The circumstances that brought The Urantia Book, in part, reflect our status as a life modification planet, the oneinten world that deviates from the majority of inhabited worlds in our local system. Generally, revelations come in the form of either visible or unseen beings who bestow themselves for periods of time to teach the evolving races of the planet. Our revelation is a unique and comprehensive undertaking, compared with revelatory bestowals on “normal planets.” The unusual form of this revelation—a book—fits well with our guinea pig status as an experimental world.
Long before the first humans Andon and Fonta evolved one million years ago, our world was designated a life modification planet on which the Life Carriers were granted latitude to manipulate the environment in order to improve the standard types of living things and beings on Urantia. See: [UB 65:1] and [UB 36:3.7]. For example, the colored races appeared and evolved in one family, rather than singly, as is usual on other worlds. They arrived at the same time as the Planetary Prince, 500,000 years ago. Ordinarily, the Prince arrives contemporaneously with Andon and Fonta. See: [UB 65:4.7-8]
The Secondary Lanonandek Son who came to Urantia as Planetary Prince Caligastia had requested assignment to an experimental planet, perhaps assuming it presented a greater challenge to him than the average world. See: [UB 6:1.3] After 300,000 years of effort on Urantia, however, Caligastia became restive and accepting of the proposals of Lucifer, the System Sovereign, who proclaimed absolute personal liberty for the individual, and defiance of the benign rule of Michael, the Creator Son. He joined in the systemwide rebellion against the local universe government.
Lines of communication to the rebellious planets were instantly severed, and we were isolated from universe services. The lines will not be restored until the case of Lucifer is finally adjudicated on Uversa, the superuniverse headquarters, by the Ancients of Days. UB 53:7.3 “Only a bestowal Son can re-establish interplanetary lines of communication.” [UB 35:9.9] Normal social and biological evolution was greatly affected by the misadventures of the followers of Caligastia, and by Adam and Eve, who defaulted in their trust.
The Urantia Book portrays in great detail what went wrong to deprive us of the peace and progressive existence enjoyed on other worlds, comparing our rate of progress to human life as it exists elsewhere in the universe at the same stage of evolution. We will never be a normal planet, considering our background. However, we can, and will, achieve the status of light and life with the aid and support of the many beings, both visible and unseen, who volunteer to come and work behind the scenes for our spiritual and social rehabilitation.
“From the inception of life on an evolutionary planet to the time of its final flowering …there appear at least seven epochs of human life. These epochs [or dispensations] appear in the following order:” [UB 52:0.1] Urantia’s epochs are displayed for comparison:
| Dispensations (Epochs) | Average duration in years | Urantia |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pre-planetary Prince Man | 150,000–1,000,000 | 493,400 [UB 52:1.1] |
| 2. Post-Planetary Prince Man | 500,000 | 500,000 [UB 52:2.1] |
| 3. Post-Adamic Man | 25,000 | 34,875 [UB 74:0.1] |
| 4. Post-Magisterial Son Man | 25,000–50,000 | 1,973 (Melchizedek) * [UB 93:2.1] |
| 5. Post-Bestowal Son Man | 10,000–100,000 | 2,000 (Jesus toThe Urantia Book) Part IV |
| 6. Post-Teacher Son Man | 1,000 or more | |
| 7. Era of Light and Life |
* There was no dispensational adjudication at the time of Melchizedek.
The Melchizedek Sons are the highest order of local universe Sons, after Gabriel, the chief executive of Nebadon. Melchizedeks do much of the heavy lifting in the mission of rehabilitating planets in isolation. “The Melchizedeks are widely known as emergency Sons, for they engage in an amazing range of activities on the worlds of a local universe. . . . The ability of the Melchizedek Sons to function in emergencies and on widely divergent levels of the universe, even on the physical level of personality manifestation, is peculiar to their order.” [UB 93:0.1]
“_The Melchizedek order of universe Sonship has been exceedingly active on Urantia. A corps of twelve served in conjunction with the Life Carriers. A later corps of twelve became receivers for your world shortly after the Caligastia secession and continued in authority until the time of Adam and Eve. [UB 93:0.2] “The twelve Melchizedek receivers of Urantia did heroic work. They preserved the remnants of civilization, and their planetary policies were faithfully executed by Van” [leader of the loyalist faction against Caligastia]. [UB 67:6.6]
Melchizedeks have sometimes assumed the roles of both teachers and governors, bridging the gap between one downfallen Son and another, even providing some of the revelatory truths themselves to, and in behalf of, divine Sons. “The instructions given Adam by the Melchizedeks implied that he (Adam) was to establish racial, continental, and divisional headquarters to be in (the) charge of his immediate sons and daughters, while he and Eve were to divide their time between these various world capitals as advisers and coordinators of the world-wide ministry of biologic uplift, intellectual advancement, and moral rehabilitation.” [UB 73:7.4] (emphasis mine). Adam and Eve “fully believed (the) gospel of resurrection and rehabilitation which the Melchizedeks so touchingly proclaimed to them.” [UB 76:5.1] (emphasis mine.) “The twelve Melchizedeks returned to Urantia upon the default of Adam and Eve, and they continued thereafter as planetary receivers on down to the day when Jesus of Nazareth, as the Son of Man, became the titular Planetary Prince of Urantia.” [UB 93:0.2] See: [UB 136:3.1]
Here’s a look at the original plan for this world—what might have been: “Think what it would mean on your world if somewhere in the Levant there were a world center of civilization, a great planetary university of culture, which had functioned uninterruptedly for 37,000 years. And again, pause to consider how the moral authority of even such an ancient center would be reinforced were there situated not far-distant still another and older headquarters of celestial ministry whose traditions would exert an accumulated force of 500,000 years of integrated evolutionary influence.” [UB 51:6.3]
Four thousand years ago Urantia received an emergency bestowal by a Melchizedek Son Machiventa Melchizedek, who appeared in human form. He lived and taught for 94 years in an area now occupied by the city of Jerusalem. The purpose of Machiventa’s emergency mission was to revive belief in the one God, preparing the way for the bestowal of Christ Michael almost 2,000 years later. The one God concept had grown dim in human minds thousands of years after the downfall of both the Planetary Prince and Adam and Eve. See: [UB 93:1-2] “In the spiritual spheres, angelic helpers continued to struggle in conjunction with the Thought Adjusters, both working heroically for the salvage of the individual; but no comprehensive plan for far-reaching world welfare was promulgated to the mortals of earth until the arrival of Machiventa Melchizedek, in the times of Abraham, who, with the power, patience, and authority of a Son of God, did lay the foundations for the further uplift and spiritual rehabilitation of unfortunate Urantia.” [UB 76:5.6]
As Michael prepared to leave the headquarters world of Salvington for his seventh and final bestowal prior to attaining full sovereignty of the local universe of Nebadon, he was counseled by Immanuel, his “elder brother.” The Unions of Days are the ambassadors of the Paradise Trinity to the local universes, and he provided an “incarnation guide” for Michael to keep in mind during his bestowal as a human male on the evolutionary world of Urantia. See [UB 120:0.6-7]
One of the charges of Immanuel’s commission to Michael was: “to meet and adjudicate the blasphemous pretentions of Caligastia and Lucifer and, in your assumed humble estate, forever end the shameful misrepresentations of these fallen children of light.” Additionally, Immanuel, referring to earlier rebellions, declared that in dealing with the Lucifer affair, Michael will have “brought to a close the unadjudicated affairs of all previous insurrections, notwithstanding the greater or lesser time lag involved in the realization of this achievement. By this act the pending dissensions of your universe will be in substance liquidated.” [UB 120:2.2] It may be a surprise to many that repercussions of the two earlier rebellions were still unresolved.
In the late summer of A.D. 26, Jesus, in his thirty-second year, ascended Mount Hermon to commune with his Paradise Father for six weeks. In the last week of his sojourn, he asked to hold conference with his enemies, Lucifer, Satan and Caligastia. These three Lanonandek Sons of Michael obstinately refused to repudiate their positions or repent of their misdeeds, and they remained rebellious. “This final trial of human loyalty in the face of misrepresentations of rebel personalities . . . had to do with the sovereignty of a mighty and glorious universe.” [UB 134:8.6] “There on Mt Hermon, as an unaided mortal of the realm, he met and defeated the Urantia Pretender, Caligastia, the prince of this world.” [UB 136:3.1] “(Michael) was proclaimed by the Union of Days Planetary Prince of Urantia.” [UB 114:1.1] “The announcement of this momentous achievement was not made until the day of his baptism, months afterward, but it really took place on the mountain.” [UB 134:8.9] “And when Jesus came down from his sojourn on Mount Hermon, the Lucifer rebellion and the Caligastia succession on Urantia were virtually settled.” [UB 134:8.9] The trial on Uversa continues and must complete its deliberations before isolation can end.
It is comforting to know that: “The vast majority of all human and superhuman beings who were victims of the Lucifer rebellion on Jerusem and the various misled planets have long since heartily repented of their folly; and we truly believe that all such sincere penitents will in some manner be rehabilitated and restored to some phase of universe service when the Ancients of Days finally complete the adjudication of the affairs of the Satania rebellion, which they have so recently begun.” [UB 67:4.7] (emphisis mine)
“The love of Jesus is never satisfied with mere forgiveness. The Master’s love implies rehabilitation, eternal survival. It is altogether proper to speak of salvation as redemption as long as you mean this eternal rehabilitation.” [UB 188:5.2]
“The planetary government (of Urantia) is unlike that of any other world in the system of Satania, even in all Nebadon.” [UB 114:0.3] “Subsequent to the downfall of Prince Caligastia, at the time of the Lucifer rebellion, Urantia had no sure and settled relationship with the local universe and its administrative divisions until the completion of Michael’s bestowal in the flesh, when he was proclaimed by Immanuel Planetary Prince of Urantia. Such a proclamation in surety and in principle forever settled the status of your world, but in practice the Sovereign Creator Son made no gesture of personal administration of the planet aside from the establishment of the Jerusem commission of twenty-four former Urantians with authority to represent him in the government of Urantia and all other quarantined planets in the system. One of this council is now always resident on Urantia as resident governor general.” [UB 114:1.1] The term of service for each resident governor general on this world is one hundred years. These former Urantians who serve as counselors are listed on [UB 45:4.1]. These former Urantians who serve as counselors include Adam and Eve who have been fully rehabilitated. [UB 45:4.3]
The location of the spiritual headquarters and government of Urantia, as well as the archangels’ divisional headquarters is reported to be in the vicinity of the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park in California. (Reported by the human contact commissioners.)
Archangels were created by the local universe Creator Son and the Universe Mother Spirit. [UB 37:3.1] It is the archangels who encircuit and modify the Life Carriers to enable them to function on physical levels of electrochemistry. See [UB 65:1.3] Archangels “busy themselves with keeping straight the record of each mortal of time from the moment of birth up through the universe career until such an individual either leaves Salvington for the superuniverse regime or is “blotted out of recorded existence”.” [UB 37:3.7] “Archangels are dedicated to the work of creature survival and to the furtherance of the ascending career of the worlds of time and space.” [UB 37:3.2] Archangels initiate the dispensational resurrections of mortals on the inhabited worlds. See [UB 37:3.6]
“_Soon after the resurrection of Jesus “the circuit of the archangels then operated for the first time from Urantia.” [UB 189:3.2] When planetary emergencies occur, the archangels’ circuit can be pressed into service by the planetary government. The chief of archangels is a daily consultant of the resident governor general of Urantia. See (UB 114:5.4-5) In a situation involving “purely spiritual matters,” the commander of the archangels has supreme authority. See [UB 114:4.3]
“In more recent years a divisional headquarters of the archangels has been maintained on Urantia.” The question is posed: “Do you grasp the significance of the fact that your lowly and confused planet has become a divisional headquarters for the universe administration and direction of certain archangel activities having to do with the Paradise ascension scheme?” The date of the establishment of the divisional headquarters is not given, only that it occurred “in recent times.” They go out on a limb when they write that the existence of the divisional headquarters “undoubtedly presages the future concentration of other ascendant activities on the bestowal planet of Michael and lends a tremendous and solemn import to the Master’s personal promise, ‘I will come again.’” [UB 37:3.4]
“When the first governor general arrived on Urantia, concurrent with the out-pouring of the Spirit of Truth, he was accompanied by twelve corps of special seraphim, Seraphington graduates, who were immediately assigned to certain special planetary services.” [UB 114:6.1] The chiefs of these groups serve in the cabinet of the resident governor general. The groups are:
The epochal angels.
The progress angels. (In charge of The Urantia Book for the next 500 > years.)[1]
The religious guardians. (In charge of The Urantia Book for the first 100 > years.)[1:1]
The angels of nation life.
The angels of the races.
The angels of the future.
The angels of enlightenment.
The angels of health.
The home seraphim.
The angels of industry.
The angels of diversion.
The angels of superhuman ministry. [UB 114:6.4-16]
Associated with the twelve corps of Master Seraphim is the reserve corps of destiny, comprised of nearly 1,000 living human beings “chosen as protectors of planetary destiny, . . pivotal individuals in the plans which the world administrators are prosecuting.” [UB 114:7.2] Each is “wholeheartedly dedicated to some special social, economic, political, spiritual, or other cause, coupled with willingness to serve without human recognition and rewards.” [UB 114:7.5]
We cannot describe the work of the reserve corps without mentioning the secondary midwayers. The 1,111 loyal secondary midwayers who survived the default are today chiefly occupied as “unperceived personal liaison associates of those men and women who constitute the planetary reserve corps of destiny.” [UB 77:8.13] They also initiated the petitions that resulted in the mandates that made this revelation possible.[ UB 77:8.7-9] A midwayer can also make contact with Adjusters who indwell “contact personalities.” “(T)he better adapted secondary midway creatures are able to attain varying degrees of contact with the Thought Adjusters of certain favorably constituted mortals through the skillful penetration of the minds of the latter’s indwelling. (And it was by just such a fortuitous combination of cosmic adjustments that these revelations were materialized in the English language on Urantia.) Such potential contact mortals of the evolutionary worlds are mobilized in the numerous reserve corps, and it is, to a certain extent, through these small groups of forward-looking personalities that spiritual civilization is advanced. . .” [UB 114:7.9]
Machiventa Melchizedek introduced the new Urantia Revelation to the human contact commissioners in 1924, and personally presented several papers in The Urantia Book. He has visited our world many times (unseen) in his capacity as vicegerent planetary prince. Another Son of the same order, Mantutia Melchizedek, served as director of the superhuman revelatory commission, the group that managed the development of the Urantia Papers. [UB 119:8.8] Malavatia and Manovandet Melchizedek also presented papers in the book. See (Index)
Yet another Melchizedek Son is known to have arrived in 1951 (also unseen), after the typesetting of the Urantia Papers was completed, to oversee the publication and launch of the book, and to provide instructions to the human contact commissioners for leaders in the years after publication. His name is Norson, and his title is The New Regent of the Acting Planetary Prince of Urantia. He authored the communication, “The Publication Mandate,” aka, “The Timing of The Urantia Book.” (Reported by the human contact commission.) A successor Planetary Prince is assigned to an isolated world when the results of insurrection are partially overcome and addressed by other remedial measures adopted by the Melchizedeks and other ministering beings. See [UB 35:9.9] Paper 114 does not mention that there is, or was, a Lanonandek Son serving in the planetary government. However, after Norson arrived in 1951, there has been a Secondary Lanonandek Son serving on a “supreme court,” established by the new regent. (Reported by the human contact commission.) This may infer that he is a Planetary Prince-in-training.
The Urantia Book is a remedial effort, four revelations rolled into one. Its purpose is to mitigate the lingering effects of rebellion and default, and continue the rehabilitation of Urantia by Machiventa and Christ Michael. But a book can only reach so many planetary sectors and different types of human beings at the same time.
To many living in our time, as it was in Machiventa’s time, it sometimes appears that revealed truth is threatened with extinction. See [UB 93:1.1] The book was sent early—before the time of its true mission—to train leaders and teachers, to establish thousands of groups dedicated to studying the book, and to commission translations, all in preparation for the next revelator. The order of divine Sons most likely to come is an Avonal Son on a Magisterial Mission, who would further the rehabilitation of the world. Avonals are of an order of Paradise Sons, brothers of Creator/Master Michael Sons, mentioned in the Bestowal Plan above. We do not know when he would come; it could be five years, or one thousand years, before he arrives. We might even receive another visit by a Melchizedek Son before a Magisterial Son comes. “In all their work for and on the inhabited worlds, the Magisterial Sons [Avonals] are assisted by two orders of local universe creatures, the Melchizedeks and the archangels, while on bestowal missions they are also accompanied by the Brilliant Evening Stars, likewise of origin in the local creations.” [UB 20:2.9] Brilliant Evening Stars have the ability to make themselves known to humans. [UB 37:2.9]
Despite our losses, the universe overseers are doing everything possible to compensate for the chaos and confusion which has befallen our world. “The absence of the corporeal staff of a Planetary Prince and the material regime of an Adamic Son and Daughter is partially compensated by the special ministry of seraphim and by the unusual services of the midway creatures. The absence of the Planetary Prince is effectively compensated by the triune presence of the archangels, the Most High observer, and the governor general.” [UB 114:5.3]
On the personal side, there is an up-side to isolation and lagging progress of our world. Mortals who survive with some level of faith are denominated agondonters. Agondonters are those who can believe without seeing; who can endure and persevere even while alone. They are rewarded by be being entrusted with numerous assignments requiring unquestioned faith and confidence in the early stages of the afterlife. See [UB 50:7.1-2]
“Your isolated world is not forgotten in the councils of the universe…From Uversa to Salvington and on down to Jerusem, even in Havona and on Paradise, they all know we are here; and you mortals now dwelling on Urantia are just as lovingly cherished and just as faithfully watched over as if the sphere had never been betrayed by a faithless Planetary Prince, even more so. It is eternally true, ‘the Father himself loves you.’” [UB 114:7.17]
On August 4, 1967, the president of Urantia Brotherhood, and contact commissioner, Emma L. “Christy” Christensen, addressed delegates and other guests at 533 Diversey Parkway in Chicago, Illinois. The last paragraphs of her speech revealed the existence of a growing body of selected humans who are working “with reservists” and the various angelic groups:
“I have heretofore reminded you that the celestial supervisors of Urantia are mobilizing small groups of spirit-led men and women throughout the world—among all nations—and these truth battalions, these selectmen, are concerned today with scores of vital enterprises which have to do with the rehabilitation of the world following the ending of the present distressing conflicts. Some of them know who they are.”
“And of all the emergency corps of mortal selectmen on Urantia, none is charged with a more solemn obligation than our group. We have been called to the great work of taking the first step of offering to mortal man a new light, a new revelation, of the love of God. The easy jog-trot religion of former days no longer suffices to meet the challenges of today. Following Jesus’ way of life calls for an act of complete commitment, a dedicated intention, a resolute purpose, and a trumpet call to a life that will not compromise.”
Christy continued, listing how we can all be of greater service:
“God has provided the vision and the call. The answer must be ours. There are steps we can take that will help us to meet this challenge:”
“First, we need to cultivate the power to envision our share in bettering the world.”
“Second, we need to believe that God can speak to us, that he can use us and our talents, and that he does call us to our particular place of service.”
“Third, we need to be willing to be used for the fulfillment of the vision.”
“Let us pray that we may all become valiant soldiers of the circles, wholeheartedly enlisted in the solid ranks of those mortals who shall go forth in the coming battle of truth against error under the unfaltering leadership of the mighty seraphim of progress.”
On another occasion, the July 30, 1971 opening session of the Summer Study Session, Miss Christensen referred to the approach of a new epoch on this world: “We, the soldiers of the circles, will presently begin to function as a part of the spiritual illumination and religious readjustment of the oncoming dispensation. I believe we are witnessing at the present time a subsidence of the political, social, and moral convulsions of the mortal races of this world. The transition upheavals of a new age have in some phases attained their height and the long and slow progress of dispensational adjustment is now beginning.”
Carolyn Kendall was introduced to the Urantia Papers by her father, Clarence Bowman, in 1951, and has been an avid student along with her late husband, Tom. Besides keeping up with her five children and seven grandchildren, she is retired and spends spare time researching special subjects in The Urantia Book. She attends study groups of The First Society in the Chicago area, one of which she hosts.