© 2009 Trevor Swadling
© 2009 Carmelo Martínez, for translation
© 2009 Urantia Association of Spain
Urantiapedia Note: This article is a shorter version that appeared in “Luz y Vida” Spanish magazine based on the same article published first in 6-0-6 Newsletter January 1989.
I have called the topic I am about to present “How Many Mortals Survive.” It is a subject that remains open to questions and discussions. Before continuing with my presentation, I would like to say that I have not come to any rigid conclusions on this subject, although I must admit that after researching it, I now read certain sections of The Urantia Book in a different light. I would also like to stress that in pursuing this topic one should keep in mind that:
We should treat the passages I quote from The Urantia Book as facts, but knowing that these facts have been arranged in a way that supports this topic. Some of the facts are biased, yet the resulting picture is entirely open to conjecture. There may very well be other hidden facts in the book as well, which I and others have missed and which could invalidate this presentation. But even so, if this presentation has managed to stimulate you to think and also to make a deeper study of The Urantia Book, I think it will have served its purpose. So, with this in mind, I’ll move on.
Not long ago, I read a passage from The Urantia Book that made me think about the survival rate of mortals. I was watching a program from the series “The world around us.” Many of us have seen nature reports on television like this one from “The World Around Us” or the ones from Jack Cruseou that show us in great detail the habits and instincts of our animal cousins. The one he was looking at was about the breeding habits and survival rate of Pacific Island giant tortoises; how they instinctively lay hundreds of eggs knowing that only a handful of them will survive to perpetuate the species. Well then, if we study the lower forms of life on our planet, we will see that they tend to have more offspring to ensure their survival, and if we next study a more or less simplified scale of intelligence, offspring tends to decrease according with intellectual ability. This seems to be a common line and pattern in the evolution of life. If we then take into account the side that has come out of the coin and take a broad look at the cosmology presented in the URANTIA papers, generally speaking, the spiritually higher beings on the scale, who are fewer in number, stand less of a chance. of error or insurrection compared to what the beings closest to us can and do fail, as it is said in UB 35:9.6-7:
“Our local universe has been unfortunate in that over seven hundred Sons of the Lanonandek order have rebelled against the universe government, thus precipitating confusion in several systems and on numerous planets. Of this entire number of failures only three were System Sovereigns; practically all of these Sons belonged to the second and third orders, Planetary Princes and tertiary Lanonandeks.”
“The large number of these Sons who have lapsed from integrity does not indicate any fault in creatorship. They could have been made divinely perfect, but they were so created that they might better understand, and draw near to, the evolutionary creatures dwelling on the worlds of time and space.” (UB 35:9.6-7)
And in turn, in UB 53:7.8 he says:
“The greatest loss occurred in the angelic ranks, but most of the lower orders of intelligence were involved in disloyalty. Of the 681,217 Material Sons lost in Satania, ninety-five per cent were casualties of the Lucifer rebellion. Large numbers of midway creatures were lost on those individual planets whose Planetary Princes joined the Lucifer cause.” (UB 53:7.8)
Let’s put this aside now and go back to the passage I read in The Urantia Book that got me started thinking about the survival rate of mortals. Starting at 53:7, I read:
“It was over two years of system time from the beginning of the “war in heaven” until the installation of Lucifer’s successor. But at last the new Sovereign came, landing on the sea of glass with his staff. I was among the reserves mobilized on Edentia by Gabriel, and I well remember the first message of Lanaforge to the Constellation Father of Norlatiadek. It read: “Not a single Jerusem citizen was lost. Every ascendant mortal survived the fiery trial and emerged from the crucial test triumphant and altogether victorious.” And on to Salvington, Uversa, and Paradise went this message of assurance that the survival experience of mortal ascension is the greatest security against rebellion and the surest safeguard against sin. This noble Jerusem band of faithful mortals numbered just 187,432,811.” (UB 53:7.12)
The next day, after reading this document on the Lucifer rebellion and contemplating the repercussions on our world, it suddenly occurred to me that this number of 187 million citizens of Jerusem seemed incredibly small. This figure seemed to conflict with my preconceived ideas about the survival rate of mortals, since in 112:5.7-9 it is said:
If ever there is doubt as to the advisability of advancing a human identity to the mansion worlds, the universe governments invariably rule in the personal interests of that individual; they unhesitatingly advance such a soul to the status of a transitional being, while they continue their observations of the emerging morontia intent and spiritual purpose. Thus divine justice is certain of achievement, and divine mercy is accorded further opportunity for extending its ministry.
The governments of Orvonton and Nebadon do not claim absolute perfection for the detail working of the universal plan of mortal repersonalization, but they do claim to, and actually do, manifest patience, tolerance, understanding, and merciful sympathy. We had rather assume the risk of a system rebellion than to court the hazard of depriving one struggling mortal from any evolutionary world of the eternal joy of pursuing the ascending career.
This does not mean that human beings are to enjoy a second opportunity in the face of the rejection of a first, not at all. But it does signify that all will creatures are to experience one true opportunity to make one undoubted, self-conscious, and final choice. The sovereign Judges of the universes will not deprive any being of personality status who has not finally and fully made the eternal choice; the soul of man must and will be given full and ample opportunity to reveal its true intent and real purpose. (UB 112:5.7-9)
So I started trying to resolve what seemed to me to be a conflict. I wanted to refute the idea that this figure of 187 million indicated that only a small percentage of mortals actually survived. My first quest was to find out what it means to be a citizen of Jerusem. We read in 47:10.5:
“Seven times do those mortals who pass through the entire mansonia career experience the adjustment sleep and the resurrection awakening. But the last resurrection hall, the final awakening chamber, was left behind on the seventh mansion world. No more will a form-change necessitate the lapse of consciousness or a break in the continuity of personal memory.” (UB 47:10.5)
And in 47:9.3:
“Now begins the formation of classes for graduation to Jerusem. You have gone from world to world as individuals, but now you prepare to depart for Jerusem in groups, . . …”
The personnel of the seventh mansonia assemble on the sea of glass to witness your departure for Jerusem with residential status. Hundreds or thousands of times you may have visited Jerusem, but always as a guest; never before have you proceeded toward the system capital in the company of a group of your fellows who were bidding an eternal farewell to the whole mansonia career as ascending mortals. You will soon be welcomed on the receiving field of the headquarters world as Jerusem citizens. (UB 47:9.3-4)
We now know from reading the document on the seven mansion worlds that this implies that traversing these spheres takes quite a long time and also that our stay on Jerusem is of considerable duration. Although they don’t give us any figures on how long it takes to traverse the mansion worlds, they do tell us that John the Baptist traversed the mansion worlds and that he is a citizen of Jerusem who serves on the council of 24, so we definitely know that he did it in less time. of 2,000 years, although their experiences were very different, given their circumstances, to those of a middle ascendant. The statement in 48:8.3 brings us back to the matter of our not going there to hang out.
The mortal-survival plan has a practical and serviceable objective; you are not the recipients of all this divine labor and painstaking training only that you may survive just to enjoy endless bliss and eternal ease. There is a goal of transcendent service concealed beyond the horizon of the present universe age. If the Gods designed merely to take you on one long and eternal joy excursion, they certainly would not so largely turn the whole universe into one vast and intricate practical training school, requisition a substantial part of the celestial creation as teachers and instructors, and then spend ages upon ages piloting you, one by one, through this gigantic universe school of experiential training. The furtherance of the scheme of mortal progression seems to be one of the chief businesses of the present organized universe, and the majority of innumerable orders of created intelligences are either directly or indirectly engaged in advancing some phase of this progressive perfection plan. (UB 48:8.3)
In traversing the ascending scale of living existence from mortal man to the Deity embrace, you actually live the very life of every possible phase and stage of perfected creature existence within the limits of the present universe age. . . . (UB 48:8.4)
Leaving this aside for now, let’s see if we can take a look at some population figures. Possibly we can get to know, more or less, how many mortals were around here at the time of the Lucifer rebellion. On page 741 we are told that there were 500 million mortals alive on Urantia at this time. If we turn to 49:0.3, we’ll see that they give us some information that we could use to come up with a rough idea of Satania’s population:
Satania itself is an unfinished system containing only 619 inhabited worlds. Such planets are serially numbered according to their record as inhabited worlds, as worlds inhabited by willed creatures. Thus Urantia was given the number 606 Satania, signifying the six hundred and sixth world of the local system on which the long process of evolutionary life culminated in the appearance of human beings. There are thirty-six uninhabited planets approaching the life endowment stage and several are now being prepared for the Life Carriers. There are about two hundred spheres that are evolving in such a way that they may be ready for the implantation of life in the next million years.
Not all planets are suitable to host mortal life. The small ones, which have a high rate of axial revolution, are totally unsuitable as living habitats. In several of Satania’s physical systems, the planets revolving around the central sun are too large to inhabit, their great mass causing oppressive gravity. Many of these enormous spheres have satellites, sometimes half a dozen or more, and these moons are frequently very close to the size of Urantia, so that they are almost ideal for habitation.
The oldest inhabited world of Satania, world number one, is Anova, one of the forty-four satellites revolving around an enormous dark planet but exposed to the differential light of three neighbouring suns. Anova is in an advanced stage of civilization. UB 49:0.3-5
We now know that at the time of the Lucifer rebellion there were definitely 606 inhabited planets and knowing that our planet is the 606th out of 619, which suggests that we are fairly recent, I think we can safely use the figure of 500 million. as population of each planet of Satania. Let’s make our number of planets 600. It seems to me that we can work fairly safely with this figure. Before we calculate any numbers, the next question that comes to mind is how many Jerusem citizens actually reside on Jerusem at any given time and how many are away on a mission. In UB 66:2.4 we are told that at the time of the selection of the 100 to go to Urantia with Prince Caligastia, 785,000 ascending mortals volunteered. However, these 100 Chosen were unfused ascending mortals and were provisional citizens. We are not given many figures on mission assignments and while one author refers to the mansion worlds as detention spheres and the citizens of Jerusem being confined to the local universe, another author reports that there are visiting students leaving from Uversa. , the capital of our superuniverse. Now let’s assume that the 187 million figure is 1% of the citizens of Jerusem and that the remaining 99% have gone out on some mission. Now using these conservative numbers that we’ve given previously — 500 million on each planet, 600 planets, a generation, which gives 300 billion of which the 99% that have gone on mission — we ended up with a survival rate of 6.23%. Taking it to 12 generations, we have a survival rate of 0.5%. If we now put all the other planets aside and take just our planet with its current population of 5 billion, divide it by two and grab a calculator to develop the figure over a period of 12 generations - a mere 300 years - we’ll end up with 2,500. million X 12 which is equal to 30,000 million -62.3%—. Let’s do the calculation then over a period of a thousand years, a much shorter time than a dispensation, and the figure will reach 840,000 million, which will give us a survival rate of 2.2%. If someone has time and an analytical mind for mathematics, they could perhaps get closer to obtaining the survival rate of mortals for a fixed period of time, although I assume that the survival rate will increase as each planet advances into the light age. and life, and that at some stage it will stabilize. Also note that the survival rate of the 582 worlds that did not completely fall into the Lucifer rebellion could be higher. Due to the long training period, perhaps in conclusion I would make the suggestion that possibly out of the billions and billions of souls only a small percentage show up on Jerusem. In other words, it is possible that sometime between this lifetime, the first mansion world, and Jerusem, large numbers of souls will actually choose not to continue their ascension career.