© 2014 Santiago Rodríguez
© 2014 Urantia Association of Spain
| Only the inner life is really creative | Luz y Vida — No. 36 — March 2014 — Index | Urantia Questionnaire: Ismael Gracia |
During the elaboration of a work in which I try to investigate this point (how long does it take to get to Paradise?), I have come across a divergence within the book itself
Some time ago, an American “senior” reader, during the international meeting held in Spain, suggested that that time —the time it would take us to reach Paradise— was around 200,000 million years, according to what emerged from reading the book. Honestly, I was moved to learn of that number and I was even more moved by the fact that I understood that it was “hidden” in the text itself, and yet it was there, within the reach of the readers.
To do this, there was nothing more than to relate two apparently unconnected information, something that turns out to be a habitual strategy of the developers in the writing of the texts and necessary in the subsequent understanding of the book on our part.
The estimate of 200,000 million years comes from two quotes from the book that I now include as they appear in the European edition:
In paper 22 “The Trinitized Sons of God”, in section 2, which describes the Mighty Messengers, it says:
The senior Mighty Messengers were chosen from those ascendant mortals of time and space who were among the earlier Paradise arrivals, many having traversed Havona in the times of Grandfanda. But the first trinitizing of Mighty Messengers was not effected until the candidate corps contained representatives from each of the seven superuniverses. And the last group of this order to qualify on Paradise embraced ascendant pilgrims from the local universe of Nebadon. (UB 22:2.4)
We know unequivocally that there are already “ascending pilgrims” from our local universe today who have reached and graduated from Paradise as well as enrolled in the Finality Corps, and who have already enjoyed the experience of being trinitized by the secret embrace of the Paradise Trinity… whatever that means.
The other clue is found in Paper 57 “The Origin of Urantia”, section 3 (“The Secondary Nebular Stage”) and it goes like this:
200,000,000,000 years ago witnessed the progression of contraction and condensation with enormous heat generation in the Andronover central cluster, or nuclear mass. Relative space appeared even in the regions near the central mother-sun wheel. The outer regions were becoming more stabilized and better organized; some planets revolving around the newborn suns had cooled sufficiently to be suitable for life implantation. The oldest inhabited planets of Nebadon date from these times. (UB 57:3.10)
From where it seems to be deduced that the oldest life in Nebadon dates from about 200,000 million years ago. The obvious conclusion is that, in the worst case, the longest waiting time would be those 200 billion years.
In the study by W.S.Sadler “Master universe study appendices”, in Appendix IX, “The chronology of local universes”, it is reflected how in a universe locally the appearance of life is sequential, so that first the Radiant Morning Star appears, then Father Melchizedek appears, then the rest of the Melchizedeks, then the Vorondadeks, later the Lanonandeks, and lastly the Life-Carrier Sons.
And it is after all this process when the first mortals appear on the scene.
It is clear that the age of the first mortals must be less than the Lanonandeks, since the Lanonandeks must be available as Planetary Princes and System Sovereigns.
This places the Lanonandeks with an age greater than 200,000 million years. In fact, Sadler himself in the aforementioned work establishes, as a working hypothesis, that the Lanonandeks of our local universe are 300,000 million years old.
And so far everything would be fine if, as Sadler did, we do not take into account the following quotes:
In paper 53 (“The Lucifer Rebellion”), section 4, we can read:
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. (UB 53:4.1)
Later, in paper 54 (“The problems of the Lucifer rebellion”), section 5:
12. Time, even in a universe of time, is relative: If a Urantia mortal of average length of life should commit a crime which precipitated world-wide pandemonium, and if he were apprehended, tried, and executed within two or three days of the commission of the crime, would it seem a long time to you? And yet that would be nearer a comparison with the length of Lucifer’s life even if his adjudication, now begun, should not be completed for a hundred thousand Urantia years. The relative lapse of time from the viewpoint of Uversa, where the litigation is pending, could be indicated by saying that the crime of Lucifer was being brought to trial within two and a half seconds of its commission. From the Paradise viewpoint the adjudication is simultaneous with the enactment. (UB 54:5.13)
I want to draw attention to the fact that, assuming that the judgment ends in 100,000 years, and given that the rebellion began 200,000 years ago, in total we are facing a process that could last 300,000 years. And, according to the text, those 300,000 years in the life of Lucifer will be comparable to, say, 2 or 3 days in the life of a Urantian mortal.
Sadler’s assumption that Lucifer’s life is about 300,000 million years gives us as a result that an event that lasts in time 300,000 years supposes a duration of one millionth of Lucifer’s life. If we now compare it with the life of a Urantian, and we say that the time equivalent of 3 days has to be one millionth of our life, it would imply that our life would be about 3 million days, or what is the same, 8,219 years. …it is clear that this result takes us far away from the reality we know.
We have been wrong by a factor of 100 in some data… or in some interpretation. If we do the inverse theoretical approach, starting with the consideration that the life of a Urantian is, for example, 75 years, the proportions expressed in The Urantia Book lead us to the fact that Lucifer would have an age of “only” about 2,800 million years .
Something does not seem to fit in the information provided by the book. From the first paragraphs we draw the conclusion that the Lanonandeks must be over 200 billion years old, and yet, from the last paragraphs, the information provided seems to indicate that Lucifer is 100 times younger.
I am of the opinion that there are no erroneous data in the book, but rather myopic interpretations. So far I have not been able to resolve this divergence. For this reason, I ask potential readers of this article who want to shed light on it to send it to my email, santirohe@gmail.com
¶ References
- Light and Life Magazine (all old issues): https://aue.urantia-association.org/numeros-antiguos-del-lyv/
| Only the inner life is really creative | Luz y Vida — No. 36 — March 2014 — Index | Urantia Questionnaire: Ismael Gracia |