© 1989 Trevor Swadling
© 1989 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
The topic that I am about to present I’ve called 'How Many Mortals Survive". Before proceeding into my presentation, I’d like to say that I have come to no fixed conclusions on this topic, though I must admit that after researching I an now reading certain sections of The URANTIA Book in a different light. Also I’d like to stress that throughout this topic we should keep in the back of our minds that :
The passages that I quote from The URANTIA Book, we should treat as facts but knowing that these facts are arranged in a way that support this topic. Some of the facts are partial and therefore the picture is fully open to conjecture. Also there may very well be other facts concealed within the book, that I and others have possibly overlooked, that could render the presentation invalid. But even so, if this presentation succeeds to stimulate thought and further deeper study of The URAVIIIA Book, then I feel that it has served its purpose. So with this in mind I will get on with it.
Not long before I read a passage in The URANTIA Book that started me thinking about the survival rate of mortals. I was watching one of a series of programmes of “The World Around Us”. How many of us have watched those nature shows on T.V. like “The World Around Us” or Jacques Cousteau’s, that show us in beautiful detail the habits and instincts of our animal cousins. The one I was watching was about the breeding habits and survival rate of the giant tortoise of the Pacific Islands. On how it lays hundreds of eggs instinctively knowing that only a handful will survive to perpetuate the species. Now, if we look at the lower forms of life on our planet they tend to have a greater number of offspring to ensure their survival. Then if we look at the scale of intelligence, broadly simplyfied, offspring tend to diminish in numbers in accordance with intellectual capacity. This seems to be a common thread and pattern to the evolution of life. Then if we look on the flip side of the coin and take a broad look at the cosmology presented in The URANTIA Papers, generally speaking, those beings who are spiritually higher on the scale, the fewer the numbers, the less chance of error or insurrection, compared with those beings who draw nearer to us, who can and do default. For if we read on 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 if we turn to UB 53:7.8 it reads:
“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
Now let’s leave this aside and get back to the passage I read in The URANTIA Book that started me thinking about the survival rate of mortals. Starting at the bottom of UB 53:7.12 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.”
The following day, after reading this paper on the Lucifer rebellion and contemplating the repercussions on our world, it suddenly struck me that this number of 187 million Jerusem citizens seemed incredibly small. This number seemed to conflict with my preconceptions of the survival rate of mortals, for on page UB 112:5.7 it reads:
“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 then I set out trying to resolve what I felt to be a conflict. I wanted to disprove that this figure of 187 mil lion indicates that only a small percentage of mortals actually survive. My first search was to find out what is meant by Jerusem citizenship. If we read UB 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.”
Then on UB 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.”
Now we know through our reading of the paper on ‘The Seven Mansion Worlds’ that it implies that quite a length of time is involved in traversing these spheres and also our stay on Jerusem is of considerable length. 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 is a Jerusem citizen serving on the council of twenty-four. So we definitely know he made it in less than 2000 years, although his experiences were very different, as were his circumstances, to the average ascender. The statement on UB 48:8.3 drives the point home that we don’t get there overnight: “The mortal-survival plan has a practical and serviceable objective; you are not the recipients of all this divine labour 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.”
“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
Now leaving that aside, let’s see if we can have a look at some numbers of population. Possibly we can work out, roughly, how many mortals were around at the time of the Lucifer rebellion. On UB 66:0.2 it tells us that there were almost half a billion mortals living on Urantia at the time. If we turn to UB 49:0.3 they give us some information that we could use to get a rough idea on the population in Satania:
“Satania itself is an unfinished system containing only 619 inhabited worlds. Such planets are numbered serially in accordance with their registration as inhabited worlds, as worlds inhabited by will creatures. Thus was Urantia given the number 606 of Satania, meaning the 606th world in this local system on which the long evolutionary life process culminated in the appearance of human beings. There are thirty-six uninhabited planets nearing the life-endowment stage, and several are now being made ready for the Life Carriers. There are nearly two hundred spheres which are evolving so as to be ready for life implantation within the next few million years.”
“Not all planets are suited to harbour mortal life. Small ones having a high rate of axial revolution are wholly unsuited for life habitats. In several of the physical systems of Satania the planets revolving around the central sun are too large for habitation, their great mass occasioning oppressive gravity. Many of these enormous spheres have these satellites, sometimes half a dozen or more, and these moons are often in size very near that 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
Now we know that at the time of the Lucifer rebellion there were definitely 606 inhabited planets. Knowing that our planet is the 606th out of the 619 ,pointing out that we are quite recent, from this I think we could safely use half a billion for the population of each planet in Satania, and let’s make our number of planets 600 . I feel we could be fairly safe with this figure. Before we can calculate any numbers, the next question that canes to mind is just how many Jerusem citizens are actually resident on Jerusem at any one time; how many must be off on assignments. On UB 66:2.4 we are told that at the time of the selection for the 100 of Prince Caligastia’s staff, 785,000 ascendent mortals on Jerusem volunteered. However these 100 chosen were unfused ascendent mortals and were provisional citizens. We are not given many figures on assignments, although one author does refer to the mansion worlds as detention spheres and that Jerusem citizens are confined to the local universe. Another author informs us that student visitors come out from our superuniverse capital, Uversa.
Now let’s assume that the figure of 187 million is 1% of Jerusem citizens while the other 99% is on assignments. Now using these conservative figures that were previously given — half a billion each planet, 600 planets, one generation equals 300 billion with 99% on assignment, we end up with a survival rate of 6.23%. Take it over 12 generations we get a survival rate of .5%. If we put all the other planets aside and just take our planet with its present population of 5 billion and we halve this number, then grab a calculator and work out a period of 12 generations — a mere 300 years you would end up with 2.5 billion x 12 = 30 billion — 62.3%. Then let’s calculate over a thousand year period, much shorter than a dispensation, the figure would come to 840 billion which would give us a survival rate of 2.2%. If somebody had the time and the analytical mind for maths, possibly they could come close to working out the survival rate of mortals within a fixed slot of time, although I assume the survival rate would increase, depending on the advancement of each individual planet to the era of light and life and at some stage would stabilize. Also the survival rate on the 582 worlds that did not fall completely in the Lucifer rebellion might be greater.
Because of the long intensive training, perhaps in conclusion, I may make one suggestion that possibly of the trillions upon trillions of souls, only a small percentage of them actually make it to Jerusem. In other words, at some time between this life, the first mansion world and Jerusem, possibly large numbers of souls actually choose not to continue with their ascension career. I would like to finish off with two readings from The URANTIA Papers UB 32:3.6:
“The farther down the scale of life we go, the more difficult it becomes to locate, with the eye of faith, the invisible Father. The lower creatures — and sometimes even the higher personalities — find it difficult always to envisage the Universal Father in his Creator Sons. And so, pending the time of their spiritual exaltation, when perfection of development will enable them to see God in person, they grow weary in progression, entertain spiritual doubts, stumble into confusion, and thus isolate themselves from the progressive spiritual aims of their time and universe. In this way they lose their ability to see the Father when beholding the Creator Son. 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 has seen a Creator Son has seen the Father.” UB 32:3.6
And on UB 5:1.11: “Mortal man may draw near God and may repeatedly forsake the divine will so long as the power of choice remains. Man’s final doom is not sealed until he has lost the power to choose the Father’s will. There is never a closure of the Father’s heart to the need and the petition of his children. Only do his offspring close their hearts forever to the Father’s drawing power when they finally and forever lose the desire to do his divine will — to know him and to be like him. Likewise is man’s eternal destiny assured when Adjuster fusion proclaims to the universe that such an ascender has made the final and irrevocable choice to live the Father’s will.”
Trevor Swadling, Sydney
As presented at the South Pacific Regional Meeting of Readers of The URANTIA Book, October 1988 at Robertson, N.S.W.