© 2000 Jeffrey Wattles
© 2000 Urantia Association International (IUA)
| Internet Site and Internet School in Spanish | Journal — June 2000 — Index | The Urantia Book and Human Sources |
Presented at the observance of the 50th Anniversary of the founding of Urantia Foundation
Chicago, USA, March 19, 2000
Ralph D. Zehr, USA
Imagine for a moment that you are now standing on the Isle of Paradise. You recently experienced your last transition sleep of time. As on all previous occasions you thanked your transport supernaphim for her most pleasant, comfortable, and timely service. While on Havona on each of your forward trips into “unachieved” space she had transported you (UB 14:5.5) She had quickly perfected the technique of awakening you from deep transport slumber with Havona symphonic melodies. Although each circuit of Havona worlds utilized unique celestial musical techniques, the results were perfect every time. This trip represented the end of an era. No longer would there be the exhilaration of viewing for the first time, new, completely perfect, unique, and original surroundings (UB 14:5.6).
Afterward you had gathered with your fellow ascendant mortals hailing from the universes of time and space representing all seven superuniverses. As you stood together for the first time on the shores of Paradise you were overwhelmed with praise and thanksgiving for the Universal Father of all. Your spontaneous supreme adoration and spiritual praise of the Creator, Controller, and Infinite Upholder of the Universe of Universes welled up in your hearts commingling with that of your fellow ascenders until your combined worship reached to such heights that the divine beart of the gods was fully and completely satisfied. For the first time you observed the threefold fluctuation of the ligbt of the Deity abode . . . What a triumph of technique! What a fruition of the eternal plan and purpose of the Gods that the intelligent love of the creature child should give full satisfaction to the infinite love of the Creator Father! [UB 27:7.7-8]
During the Paradise progression you many times participated in these overwhelming worshipful experiences. Having attained the supreme satisfaction of the fullness of worship on Paradise you qualified for admission to the Corps of the Finality. After individually taking the final oath one, of sweeping implications and eternal import UB 31:1.3, you could savor the sweetness of success as you wholeheartedly enjoyed the seventh and final jubilee of time.
You met with fellow ascenders, compared backgrounds, shared insights, and reminisced about common experiences. Each of you had ages ago begun life at the bottom as animal origin beings and had joyfully climbed the ladder of life, round by round, and had recently reached the heights of glory (UB 32:3.10). You could now look back on your ascension career in its entirety. You had the opportunity to evaluate all that had contributed to your successful ascension, the teachings, the concepts, the experiences, and the numerous assistants, associates, and instructors.
You had learned that, It is the business of religion to create, sustain, and inspire such a cosmic loyalty in the individual citizen as will direct bim to the acbievement of success in the advancement of all these difficult but desirable social services UB 99:3.16. And furthermore, Economic necessities tie man up with reality, and personal religious experience brings this same man face to face with the eternal realities of an ever-expanding and progressing cosmic citizenship UB 99:7.5.
As a young parent, the idea that you and your spouse were procreating cosmic citizens UB 84:7.4 brought an entirely new and expanded dimension to parenting. And what satisfaction you enjoyed when your children were mature enough that you could share with them your hopes of eternal survival, and of taking up residence on the Mansion Worlds. But the greatest possible satisfaction is knowing that they will soon join you in the Corps of the Finality.
Your awakening in the resurrection hall on Mansonia was a never-to-be-forgotten experience. Your long time seraphic associates were standing near watching as you opened your eyes to your new morontia surroundings. You were also for the first time truly conscious of the identity and presence of the divine Monitor who so long indwelt your mind on earth. . . . [It was]. . . a glorious awakening, a real resurrection UB 113:7.1. Throughout all eternity you will recall the profound memory impressions of your first witnessing of these resurrection mornings UB 47:3.5. This was your second jubilee (UB 27:7.8).
You then began the de-animalization process, the deficiency ministry UB 47:3.8: Biological deficiencies were largely made up on the first mansion world. There, defects and planetary experiences pertaining to sex life, family association, and parental function were either corrected or were projected for future rectification . . . UB 47:4.7.
On mansonia number two there was provision for removal of all phases of intellectual conflict and for the cure of all varieties of mental disharmony UB 47:4.8.
On the third mansion world you really began your progressive morontia culture. The chief purpose of this training was to enbance the understanding of the correlation of morontia mota and mortal logic, the co-ordination of morontia mota and human philosophy UB 47:5.3.
It was during the period of training on world number four that you were first introduced to the demands and delights of the true social life of morontia creatures. It was indeed a new experience for an evolutionary mortal to participate in social activities which were predicated neither on personal aggrandizement nor on self-seeking conquest UB 47:6.3.
A real birth of cosmic consciousness took place on mansonia number five. You were becoming universe minded. This was indeed a time of expanding horizons UB 47:7.5.
On mansion world number six you were introduced to the technique of universe administration UB 47:8.2. This was a brilliant age for you and your ascending mortal associates which usually witnessed the perfect fusion of the human mind and the divine Adjuster UB 47:8.3. The ceremony was profound in its simplicity: The supervising superangel and the archangel of record in unison made the announcement before your morontia associates, “This is a beloved son in whom I am well pleased” UB 47:8.4. Immediately following fusion you received your new name, a descriptive Nebadon name bestowed by your guardian of destiny (UB 108:3.3). (Who, but the guardian of destiny, who had worked so closely with you and knew you so well, was more qualified to choose a descriptive name for your ascension career?) Now your eternal destiny was assured (UB 5:1.11) and you had received the equivalent to a divine validation of eventual Paradise attainment . . . UB 40:7.5. This was your third jubilee (UB 27:7.8) as well as one of the great days for your Adjuster (UB 110:6.22). As one, you spent the next forty days in spiritual retirement and communion. It was a time of reflection and for planning the ascension career, an opportunity to select from the optional routes to Hawona and the differential techniques of Paradise attainment UB 47:8.5.
You were soon on the seventh mansion world, the sphere of the crowning achievement of the immediate postmortal career. Here you were purged of all the remnants of unfortunate beredity, unwholesome environment, and unspiritual planetary tendencies. The last remnants of the “mark of the beast” are here eradicated UB 47:9.1. You were now ready to enseraphim preparatory for transport to Jerusem and your last “literal” resurrection (UB 47:10.4). As a successful mansion world graduate you were eligible for citizenship on Jerusem, your system capital.
As you began to experience the reality of cosmic citizenship, having completed Mansion World training and actually registered on Jerusem as a bona fide citizen, you were enthralled. The beauty and the grandeur of it all was exhilarating and to participate as a responsible citizen was deeply satisfying.
Your formal training began with the college of selfevaluation and ended with the schools of Jerusem citizenship. Here the Material Sons and Daughters joined with the Melchizedeks and others in their supreme effort to qualify the mortal survivors for the assumption of the bigh responsibilities of representative government UB 45:7.3.
At your first election you had one precious vote. As you left the voting chamber, you knew you had voted for a representative with ideals as well as ideas and one whose pre-election aspirations represented sincere goals (UB 111:4.10). The voter ahead, an ascending mortal from a neighboring planet, paused at the exit and asked, “Are you not from ‘the world of the cross’?” You were relieved that he did not expect an answer (UB 20:6.6). By the next election you had progressed in morontial wisdom, spiritual insight, and socialization such that your mota status as determined by the citizenship registrars of representative government qualified you for three votes (UB 45:7.7). Citizenship on Jerusem was sweet.
Earlier you had visited the Finaliter World and when the Morontia Power Supervisors and energy transformers enabled you momentarily to glimpse UB 45:1.2 for the first time these high spirit personalities who had completed the Paradise ascent, you knew in your heart you could do it.
It did not seem long after that until you achieved citizenship on Edentia with its seemingly endless gardens of God. The botanic artistry with its living embellishments stretched as far as your Morontial vision could see UB 43:6.1. What a visual feast!
You recalled your first visit to the most holy mount of assembly UB 43:4.1, the dwelling place of the Faithful of Days, the seventh order of Supreme Trinity Personalities who form an interrelated line of administrative perfection extending from Paradise to the constellation capitals (UB 15:13.6). It was awe inspiring. You gathered on this consecrated highland with other ascending mortals to hear this Son of Paradise tell of the long and intriguing journey of progressing mortals through the one billion perfection worlds of Havona and on to the indescribable delights of Paradise. And you became . . . more fully acquainted with the various groups of personalities of origin in the central universe UB 43:4.5.
You learned of the times when Lucifer and Satan would attend the councils of the system Sovereigns held on this holy mount. Lucifer`s arrogant claim: “I will exalt my throne above the Sons of God; I will sit upon the mount of assembly in the north; I will be likee the Most High” UB 43:4.6 had long ago fallen on deaf ears. And you recalled the records of the time when these archrebels continued to attend these assemblies down to the time of Jesus’ bestowal on Urantia. All sympathy for them was finally lost, “The doors of the bearts of all Edentia closed against Satan; he was unanimously rejected by the assembled System Sovereigns, and it was at this time that the Son of Man 'beheld Satan fall as lightening from heaven” UB 43:4.9. Like the thunderbolt, evil and sin may seem exciting, they may attract attention, they may seem powerful and emotionally moving, but after the flash has faded and the sound subsided, the energy is forever dissipated. It was a vivid reminder of the truth-fact: “The the wages of sin is death . . .” UB 46:8.4. Evil and sin are a denial of reality, they are entirely negative perceptions, unreal. This would be your last encounter with the effects of sin and iniquity during your Paradise ascension.
Soon you were on your way to Salvington. You went by Seraphic transport to the headquarters of Nebadon there to complete your local universe training. On worlds one through six you reviewed your ascendant experience to date. This was prerequisite to entering the Melchizedek primary schools of universe training [UB 35:4.1-6]. Then the real training began, there was the Melchizedek school of administration, the Melchizedek school of spiritual wisdom, the schools of energy research, matter research, organization research, communication research, records research, ethics research, and comparative creature existence research.
There was the unique Melchizedek College of Spiritual Endowment in which . . . all orders-even the Paradise orders-of the Sons of God co-operate with the Melchizedek and the seraphic teachers in training the hosts who go forth as evangels of destiny, proclaiming spiritual liberty and divine sonship even to the remote worlds of the universe. This particular school of the Melchizedek University is an exclusive universe institution; student visitors are not received from other realms.” Finally you graduated from the College of High Ethics, the highest course of training in universe administration [UB 35:3.20-22].
Though you could not fully appreciate it at the time, it was an experience you would always cherish. After your second failure of the course, “Ethics of the Eventuation of Transcendentalers” your selfconfidence was deeply shaken. Even your companion of Urantia days, who took post-graduate electives as she tarried for you, was becoming eager to progress. You then met personally with the original Father Melchizedek who presided over the college. Among other things, he asked you to consider the directive to repeat an indication of confidence by the faculty in your ability to eventually succeed. He concluded, “Son, always remember, perfection is our goal.” You were now well on your way to becoming disappointment proof, a prerequisite to the Havona experience UB 26:4.13.
On reaching Salvington you had a new opportunity to gain an expanded concept of the meaning of the life and teachings of Jesus, the final bestowal of Michael of Nebadon, now Master Son and Supreme Ruler. Here he spent much of his time in counseling and instructing the college of associate Sons, the Magisterial Sons and others [who] in love and devotion, with tender mercy and affectionate consideration. . . bestow themselves upon the worlds of space UB 20:5.6. After that experience the answer was clear to that rhetorical question: Why should man bemoan bis lowly origin and enforced evolutionary career when the very Gods must pass through an equivalent experience before they are accounted experientially worthy and competent finally and fully to rule over their universe domains!” UB 21:4.6. Here you experienced the reality of Michael’s pronouncement while on Urantia, ”I am the way, the truth, and the life” UB 21:6.4. How true it was that The surest safeguard for the creature throughout the long struggle to attain the Father, during this time when inherent conditions make such attainment impossible, is tenaciously to hold on to the truth-fact of the Father’s presence in his Sons. Literally and figuratively, spiritually and personally, the Father and the Sons are one. It is a fact: He who bas seen a Creator Son bas seen the Father UB 32:3.6.
By now the experience of ever-ascending citizenship in the eternal universe UB 94:10.3 was a reality. Each progressive achievement on a higher level enabled a correspondingly greater opportunity for understanding, maturity, service, and travel. You subsequently achieved citizenship on Uminor, Umajor, and Uversa, completing the superuniverse segment of the ascension career. Throughout this experience you became a full-fledged spirit personality. Your status as an ascending mortal was forever settled. Superuniverse wards have never been known to go astray UB 30:4.21.
And now having traversed the one billion worlds of Havona and achieved Paradise, you have found your eternal home. Havona will be your workshop and playground (UB 14:6.39). Now that you are a bona fide citizen of Paradise, after you have completed a service assignment on each of the other six superuniverses, you will be free to travel throughout the entire grand universe. Ascendington will be the rendezvous for you and your ascendant mortal associates and here will forever be maintained the secrets of the eternal fusion of divine Adjuster and an immortal soul of human origin . . . as an absolute reality UB 13:1.23. Having achieved the final goal of cosmic citizenship, the tonic of adventure and the stimulus of curiosity disappear from your career and now . . . will the urge, the forward impulse of eternity, replace its forerunner, the adventure lure of time UB 14:5.7.
You now stand at the threshold of a new career-service in eternity. Your company of finaliters is about to be mobilized. The preliminary announcement indicates the assignment will primarily involve the upstepping of revealed truth on an isolated planet in superuniverse six. There is now opportunity to analyze past experience with epochal revelations from the combined viewpoint of destiny, history, and origin (UB 19:1.4-12). The first successful ones on Urantia came immediately to mind. Concerning Melchizedek’s incarnation, Like Jesus, Melchizedek attended strictly to the fulfillment of the mission of his bestowal. He came to achieve two tasks: to keep alive on earth the truth of one God and to prepare the way for the subsequent mortal bestowal of a Paradise Son of that Universal Father UB 93:4.15.
Machiventa was successful in reestablishing the concept of monotheism, the foundation upon which Jesus could build his concept of a loving Heavenly Father even a personal Father of all.
Jesus came and showed us the Father, and by living example he established the concepts of sonship with God and brotherhood with man for His entire universe. But tucked away under “Religion in Tibet” was the statement, The Tibetans have something of all the leading world religions except the simple teachings of the Jesusonian gospel: sonship with God, brotherhood with man, and ever-ascending citizenship in the eternal universe UB 94:10.3. This indicates that there was a third facet to the gospel of Jesus. Jesus did make many references to this aspect of his gospel such as “the glorified spirits of mortal men who bave gone on to progress through the mansions on high” UB 167:7.2. “I have many other sheep not of this fold . . .” UB 165:2.9; his chosen ambassadors of the kingdom UB 178:3.5; and many references to angels (UB 167:7.1-6) and other heavenly personalities. It would appear that a comprehensive and replete revelation of ever-ascending citizenship must await the time when we had achieved an adequate understanding of cosmology.
From this vantage point, the following principles for disseminating truth emerge:
Having reviewed the basic principles of truth dissemination from the point of view of destiny, history, and origin, you are now ready to join your fellow Finaliters in sharing truth with the hungry souls on a dark, confused planet of time and space, whose lives—eternal lives—depend on it. Likewise, you and I as budding cosmic citizens, have the opportunity, privilege, and responsibility to share the truth we have been given with our fellowmen as we leave this Urantia Foundation Fiftieth Year Anniversary Celebration.
| Internet Site and Internet School in Spanish | Journal — June 2000 — Index | The Urantia Book and Human Sources |