© 2004 Jean Royer
© 2004 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
We must be careful not to make hasty judgments when we detect, or believe we detect, an error in the UB. Let’s take two examples:
Lucifer and his first assistant, Satan, had reigned on Jerusem for more than five hundred thousand years when in their hearts they began to array themselves against the Universal Father and his then vicegerent Son, Michael. (UB 53:2.1)
When was this happening?
The Lucifer manifesto was issued at the annual conclave of Satania on the sea of glass, in the presence of the assembled hosts of Jerusem, on the last day of the year, about two hundred thousand years ago, Urantia time. Satan proclaimed that worship could be accorded the universal forces—physical, intellectual, and spiritual—but that allegiance could be acknowledged only to the actual and present ruler, Lucifer, the “friend of men and angels” and the “God of liberty.” (UB 53:4.1)
But what do we read a hundred pages further?
And no sooner had the Most Highs left off speaking than the beautiful message of Lucifer, then sovereign of the Satania system, began to planetize. Now the Life Carriers heard the welcome words of their own chief and received his permission to return to Jerusem. This message from Lucifer contained the official acceptance of the Life Carriers’ work on Urantia and absolved us from all future criticism of any of our efforts to improve the life patterns of Nebadon as established in the Satania system. (UB 62:7.5)
When was this happening?
It is just 993,408 years ago (from the year A.D. 1934) that Urantia was formally recognized as a planet of human habitation in the universe of Nebadon. Biologic evolution had once again achieved the human levels of will dignity; man had arrived on planet 606 of Satania. (UB 62:7.7)
You don’t need to be a great mathematician to see that there is a contradiction between the statements on these two pages. A Lucifer who reigned over Jerusalem for 205,000 years could not have sent a message almost a million years ago.
First remark: there is an error in the French text; it should read in 602, not five thousand years but five hundred thousand years.
Second remark: even with this modified number we are still faced with an impossibility. Indeed 500,000 plus 200,000 brings us to 700,000 years and not to the almost million years that we need.
Third remark: We should take into account the time elapsed between the moment when Lucifer begins to rise up against the universal Father and the moment when he actually enters into rebellion. Should we calculate in months, years, thousands of years? A clarification comes to enlighten us in 53:2.3:
No one ever suggested rebellion to Lucifer. The idea of self-assertion in opposition to the will of Michael and to the plans of the Universal Father, as they are represented in Michael, had its origin in his own mind. His relations with the Creator Son had been intimate and always cordial. At no time prior to the exaltation of his own mind did Lucifer openly express dissatisfaction about the universe administration. Notwithstanding his silence, for more than one hundred years of standard time the Union of Days on Salvington had been reflectivating to Uversa that all was not at peace in Lucifer’s mind. This information was also communicated to the Creator Son and the Constellation Fathers of Norlatiadek. (UB 53:2.3)
One hundred years of standard time represents about five hundred years of Urantian time. That’s a good time to think about! But there is still one uncertainty. When did Gabriel go to Jerusem? Since the Creator Son and the Fathers of the Constellation were kept informed of Lucifer’s mental problems, Gabriel was too. It seems logical to think that it was at the end of these five hundred years that Gabriel went to Jerusem to judge for himself what was going on. However, in our ignorance, we can imagine that he waited wisely for 1000 years, 10000 years and even 100000 years. That changes nothing in our problem.
So we must reread the text more carefully and see that we have not been as good mathematicians as we thought because we have mixed apples and pears, as they used to say in elementary school. On page 604 we are told that this is Urantia time, but in 602 it is standard time; that is to say approximately 2.5 million years.
What would make us believe that we calculate in standard time for a System Sovereign? A simple sentence in UB 119:2.2 Lutentia, this rebel System Sovereign, ruled autocratically on the planet of his headquarters for more than twenty years of Nebadon standard time.
Regardless, Lucifer was settled on Jerusem long before Andon and Fonta became human.
Second example 
UB 194:1.1) The apostles were in hiding for forty days. That day happened to be the Jewish feast of Pentecost,… For years this double statement has bothered thousands of readers. Pentecost is 50 days after Passover, not 40 days. Was it a typo? Was it a lack of knowledge on the part of the authors? Is there a chapter missing from the book? I have heard and read many explanations to try to justify this “forty days” in parallel with Pentecost. None were satisfactory. Until Peter Holley’s proposals on the Fellowship website. Here again, all we had to do was “read carefully” and we had the solution. Of course the apostles were in hiding as soon as the crucifixion took place and of course Pentecost is 50 days after Passover, but what did the apostles do during those 50 days? Have they really been hidden all this time? Well no. From his first appearance, Jesus tells the apostles to go to Galilee as soon as they are all gathered (UB 191:2.1) And they leave for Galilee (UB 191:5.7) It takes them about 3 days to go and one can imagine as much for the return. Jesus appears to them near the lake. They are not hidden. Likewise he appears to them on April 22 on the mount of ordination (UB 192:3.1); and on April 29 near the lake of Gennesaret, Peter gathers more than five hundred believers. During the 16th appearance they are at Nicodemus’s, certainly not in their usual hiding place, but still hiding. While on May 18 they go to the Mount of Olives (UB 193:3.3) and there one can believe that it is without hiding too much. We are not far from the missing 10 days.
John Royer
