© 2005 Víctor Izquierdo
© 2005 Urantia Association of Spain
Introduction by Victor Izquierdo
The age of light and life is the final evolutionary achievement of a world of time and space. An inhabited world passes through successive planetary ages:
The world then prepares for the climactic evolutionary achievement, after successive planetary missions of the Trinity Teacher Sons, with ever-increasing revelations of divine truth and cosmic wisdom (aided by the Brilliant Evening Stars and from time to time by the Melchizedeks).
This era of light and life inaugurated by the Teacher Sons continues indefinitely on the inhabited worlds. Each more advanced stage can be divided by action of the Magisterial Sons into a succession of dispensations. Only those planets that manage to exist in the main circuits of the superuniverse are certain of continued survival.
There are 7 stages in the evolution of the era of light and life; the worlds of Spirit-fused mortals evolve identically to those of Adjuster-fused. The 7 stages are:
Any world can achieve the planetary values of any stage independently of the development of other worlds or superplanetary levels.
The morontia temple: the presence of the morontia temple is the certificate of admission in the ages of light and life. The Teacher Sons preside over the day the holy temple descends to earth, before they leave that world at the end of their mission.
This event is always honored with the presence of the Paradise Son of Effusion on said planet, and marks the beginning of the Age of Light and Life. This Son proclaims the Planetary Prince as the new Planetary Sovereign, granting this Lanonandek Son new powers and greater authority over planetary affairs. The System Sovereign is also present and confirms these statements (UB 45:2.2).
The morontia temple is made up of 3 parts:
Although morontia temples are said to descend from the heavens, no actual material is actually transported from the system headquarters. The model of each one of them is prepared in the capital of the system, and its construction is proceeded according to it.
The average temple has a capacity of about 300,000 seats. It is not used for worship or recreation or for receiving transmissions, but for special ceremonies such as communications with the System Sovereign or the Most Highs, special ceremonies for visualization of spirit beings, and silent cosmic contemplation. It is also used to witness the transfer of living mortals into morontia existence.
Being constructed of morontia material, these temples do not disintegrate in the blazing glory of consuming fire that disintegrates the physical bodies of said mortals, who here experience final fusion with their divine Adjusters.
These translation flames are almost continuous on a large world, and as the number of translations increases, subsidiary sanctuaries are provided in various areas of the planet. On non-established worlds (without morontia temples) these fusion flames occur in the planetary atmosphere, in which the material body is raised by midwayers and physical controllers.
Natural physical death is not an inevitability. Most of the advanced evolutionary beings of the worlds of light and life do not die, they are transferred directly from life in the flesh to morontia existence.
This transfer experience increases in frequency proportional to the evolutionary progress of the planet. At first only a few mortals in each age make it, but with the advent of the Teacher Sons, more and more Adjuster fusions occur. And by the end of the Teacher Sons’ mission, more than a quarter of these magnificent mortals are exempt from natural death.
Mortal observers can see nothing of their kin after the fusion flash. These souls arrive directly at the Resurrection Hall of the corresponding morontia training world. These transits are supervised by an archangel assigned to said world on the day it is established in light and life. When a world reaches the fourth stage of light and life, more than half of the mortals leave the planet by removal. Elimination of death is theoretically possible, but it hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps it will be reached in the seventh stage of established planetary life.
These souls do not pass through the mansion worlds. Nor do they stop at the system or constellation morontia worlds. They are the only mortals who almost escaped the morontia transit from material existence to the semi-spiritual state.
The initial experience of such mortals is in the service of the progression worlds of the local universe headquarters. Starting from these Salvington worlds of study, they return as teachers to those same worlds through which they did not have to pass, later heading towards Paradise by the path of mortal ascension.
In any case, the Universe is infallible in the application of these equalizing techniques, which ensure that no ascending being is deprived of anything essential to their ascension experience.
During these ages of increasing prosperity under the rule of the Planetary Sovereign there is only one language, only one religion, and only one race. Although it seems to us that such a world is heaven on earth, this age is not perfect.
Public activities are financed through the tithe technique. All adult workers contribute 10% of their income:
Natural resources are social possessions (community property). Most social and administrative positions are held jointly by men and women, as well as teaching and judicial trusts are held by associated couples. The procreation period is not long, there is not much difference in age between siblings. But despite all the abundance of evil (actual and potential) is a stimulus for the selection between truth and error, good and evil, sin and righteousness.
Ascending beings, before reaching the minor sector, are destined to receive some transitory assignment to a planet passing through the most primitive stages of evolution.
Each of these successive ages represents advancing achievements in all phases of planetary progress. A planet the size of Urantia would have 100 sub-administrative centers, presided over by one of the following groups:
On Urantia we have the difficulty of our problems of disease, degeneracy, war, multicolored races and multilingualism. Although the fact that there is more than one race does not prevent the achievement of higher stages.
The Finality Volunteer Corps is made up of ascending mortals who have achieved Paradise and return to aid their brethren in the flesh. These finaliters act in cooperation with the Trinity Teacher Sons, but do not begin their real participation in world affairs until the morontia temple appears on earth.
When the Finality Corps ministry is formally inaugurated, most of the heavenly host withdraw, but the Seraphic Destiny Guardians continue their personal ministry. They are coming in increasing numbers for larger and larger groups of human beings to reach the third cosmic circle of mortal coordinated attainment during the planetary lifetime. This is the first of successive administrative adjustments accompanying the evolution of successive ages of ever brighter attainment on inhabited worlds from the first to the seventh stage of established existence.
We Urantians can hardly conceive of the physical perfection, intellectual achievement, and spiritual development that characterize these advanced epochs of evolution on a sinless planet. These epochs represent the peak of evolutionary material development. The poverty and frictions of earlier primitive ages have disappeared. Poverty and social inequality have almost disappeared; degeneration does not exist. Madness has ceased to exist and mental weakness is a rarity. Economic life has become ethical. War is history and there are no armies or police forces. The government is gradually disappearing.
Self-control is making human law-making obsolete. The degree of government is inversely proportional to the moral and spirituality of the citizenry. The schools have improved considerably and are dedicated to the training of the mind and the expansion of the soul.
When Eduardo asked me to introduce this paper 55 of the UB I felt very uncomfortable. Because? Because, if we study said document, we verify that it is very difficult to summarize, to make a work outline that helps to introduce the debate. But it is clear that he was not clearly focusing on this document.
The object of this document is the evolution of a planet until it becomes a sphere of LIGHT and LIFE.
If we start from what we know, the human being and his world, we find ourselves before a flagrant contradiction and an unfathomable mystery.
What is the human being? According to its daily manifestations, there are those who can consider it an intermediate being between the angel and the beast. And that is the wonder of the Urantia Book, which makes us question the nature of the human being and the planet on which he lives. And of the chances of its evolution.
From reading the newspapers and studying History, nothing seems to indicate that Good could triumph over Evil between the daily and internal struggle of Man and his society. However, despite the self-destructive capacity, the planet and society they subsist, and in certain areas of the planet the evolutionary capacity of human mortals and their society can be seen, which in turn gives individual samples of impressive quality. Which is a demonstration that between the fight of Good and Evil, Good continues to triumph. That is, there is more abundance of Good. For born pessimists it is an undeniable demonstration.
From here everything is possible on our planet. And the utopian evolution that paper 55 of the UB presents to us is totally possible.
Undoubtedly, simply due to the demographic evolution of the planet, if we want to survive we will have no choice but to change the development schemes of human society.
It is impossible on an overpopulated planet to continue with the indefinite development without limits to which the dominant ideologies lead us. Which will force us to change all currently prevailing patterns of behavior. And, as has always happened to us, we will have no other way out than to make a virtue of necessity.
The simple observation of our reality shows us the extreme and galloping fragility of our society at all levels. A probable economic crisis would destroy all the prevailing schemes and would make it necessary to search for other values that allow the construction of another possible sustainable development for the billions of inhabitants that are expected to inhabit our planet in the not too distant future.
I would like to make these reflections of a sleepless early retiree an introduction to the debate on said document.
The mortals of these spheres have the advantage of undergoing training on their worlds that would be equivalent to the training given on the morontia worlds. This document teaches us that utopia is not only possible, but also the destiny of all planets. For this reason it is a very hopeful document. One of the remarkable characteristics of these worlds is that they have a global ethic that also goes hand in hand with the economy.
Analyzing the situation of our world we see that the problems are becoming more and more globalized. Countries no longer function in isolation but rather interact with each other; the global economy is a fact. At the moment we are beginning to say: “this is my neighbor”, or “this is my friend”, which is already a good step towards the fraternity of men. As long as this is not a given in our daily lives and in the global economy, we will continue to view our fellow men as competitors. Fraternity must be assumed as a social concept.
This document gives us a policy lesson for the future. With the atheistic concept of society that currently prevails, we will have to make the journey towards light and life out of necessity, something that would not happen if we started from the religious concept of the brotherhood of men; in this last case, social and political concepts of a fraternal nature would appear naturally.
We have misunderstood the concept of religion. We must not confuse it with religious institutions or with monotheistic religions. The message of Jesus is not being understood, nor is it being applied beyond ten percent. As one of the attendees quoted, “The Church has put Christ inside a castle where not even God enters.”
As the Book tells us, true religion is a way of life. The sample was given to us by the first Christians. The transformation of the world has to come from the transformation of the individual through religion as a personal experience.