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''The Urantia Book'' devotes the majority of one of its four Parts, totaling 434 pages, to a broad story about Urantia's past, from the development of the Solar System billions of years ago to the rise of early human civilization, and devotes the entirety of its fourth and final Part to a detailed narrative of the life of Jesus Of Nazareth , spanning 37 years. In Paper 52, "Planetary Mortal Epochs" , the "typical" stages of societal development for an inhabited planet are listed: From the inception of life on an evolutionary planet to the time of its final flowering in the era of light and life, there appear upon the stage of world action at least seven epochs of human life. These successive ages are determined by the planetary missions of the divine Sons, and on an average inhabited world these epochs appear in the following order: Urantia is said to have deviated widely from the plan, and is considered a markedly "dark and confused" planet that is "greatly retarded in all phases of intellectual progress and spiritual attainment" compared to more typical inhabited worlds, due to an unusually severe history of rebellion and default by its spiritual supervisors. EARLY HUMAN DEVELOPMENT The first primitive humans are described as Andon and Fonta, a brother and sister living approximately a million years ago who were the first evolutionary primates to have the mental capacity for free will and spiritual receptivity. Their decision to separate from their less advanced relatives constituted the first instance when human will operated. They mated to produce offspring who went on to evolve into various races of primitive humans, and ultimately, modern humans. On a typical planet, a certain amount of time transpires between the appearance of free will and the arrival of the first spiritual ruler of a planet to assist with the growth of society, the Planetary Prince. The length of the epoch varies from 150,000 to 1,000,000 years on an ordinary planet. Hallmarks of a typical "Pre-Planetary Prince Man" epoch include that primitive man chiefly engages in survival pursuits as hunter-gatherers, is bellicose toward strangers, and has only rudimentary fear-based superstitions as a religious reaction to life. The "Pre-Planetary Prince" stage of evolution is said to be the "dark and bloody" era of a planet's history, and on Urantia, it was "prolonged and extraordinarily brutal". But "notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of the early ages of human emergence, the performances of primitive man represent a splendid, even a heroic, chapter in the annals of an evolutionary world of time and space." THE LUCIFER REBELLION The arrival of a "Planetary Prince" brings the next era of development, the "Post-Planetary Prince" stage of a planet's social evolution. Though not visible to people, the Prince has a loyal corps of superhuman staff who are material and interact directly with the primitive tribes of a world. In a normal evolutionary path, agricultural activity and the domestication of animals occurs, human government emerges, and the tribes begin to advance in increased organization toward a "high state of civilization". The Planetary Prince and his staff provide religious revelations and contribute to the higher human social achievements. The average length of time for this period is 500,000 years. The planetary prince of Urantia is identified as "Caligastia", who arrived with assistants about a half million years ago and established a settlement near the Persian Gulf , in the area that later became Mesopotamia . In ''The Urantia Book'', the "Lucifer Rebellion" is discussed as a part of the history of Urantia during its Post-Planetary Prince stage. Lucifer is described as a brilliant spirit personality, a high "Son of God" who was the chief executive ruler of the local system of "Satania", with oversight and authority over more than 600 inhabited worlds and their planetary princes. Through self-contemplation and pride, Lucifer became corrupt and ultimately denied the existence of God , issuing a "Declaration of Liberty" Manifesto in a rebellion against the established hierarchial Universe governments of the "Creator Son" and the "Ancients of Days". He declared that he personally was sovereign in his local system of Satania, and he asserted that the liberty of self-governance also was due to each planetary prince concerning their individual planets within Satania. Caligastia was one of 37 planetary princes who joined with Lucifer, and each attempted to make the mortal populations of their planets view them as godheads. On Urantia, the result was a "devastating calamity" to early human society, sinking it back to a much more primitive state. In response to the rebellion, the entire system of Satania was put into spiritual isolation by higher authorities to protect the rest of the local universe. Jesus, as the Creator Son whose government was rebelled against, adopted a policy of noninterference, and allowed the rebellion to run its course for hundreds of thousands of years. ''The Urantia Book'' discusses the causes and repercussions of the rebellion to explain the reasons why Urantia has so many varying and confused concepts of God. ADAM AND EVE Also known as a "Material Son and Daughter", the arrival of an Adam and Eve begins the "Post-Adamic" epoch in human development. The chief mission of an Adam and Eve pair is to multiply and create an additional race of superior humans that will go on to mix with the evolutionary races and "biologically uplift" them. An Adam and Eve also are meant to be the supermortal "material rulers" who represent the spiritual government of the planet to the human races, providing continuous advancements in religious understandings and remaining as visible heads of planetary affairs even far into the age of light and life. When they arrive on a planet, a "Garden of Eden" is constructed. According to ''The Urantia Book'', they came to Earth approximately 38,000 years ago, and their garden was located in an area now under water on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea . Normally, an Adam and Eve work in combination with the resident Planetary Prince, but in the case of Urantia, Caligastia was still present as an active rebel who wanted to bring about the failure of their mission. Additionally, the isolation of the planet due to the rebellion deprived them of access to outside advice and support from superior spiritual beings. From Paper 75, "The Default of Adam and Eve" : Adam and Eve found themselves on a sphere wholly unprepared for the proclamation of the brotherhood of man, a world groping about in abject spiritual darkness and cursed with confusion worse confounded by the miscarriage of the mission of the preceding administration. Mind and morals were at a low level, and instead of beginning the task of effecting religious unity, they must begin all anew the work of converting the inhabitants to the most simple forms of religious belief. Instead of finding one language ready for adoption, they were confronted by the world-wide confusion of hundreds upon hundreds of local dialects. No Adam of the planetary service was ever set down on a more difficult world; the obstacles seemed insuperable and the problems beyond creature solution. In a deviation from the original and divine plan, which was for only their offspring to mate with the evolutionary races, Eve conceived directly with a primitive human to speed up the results. When Adam heard about her transgression, he realized the full predicament of the failure, and deliberately joined her in default to share her fate. Adam and Eve were punished by having the majority of their offspring taken into Universe custody and being deprived of the sustenance of the "Tree of Life". They became mortal. Even with that, they had a much longer life span and stronger immune systems than the evolutionary races. The population of the planet was deprived of the full benefit of the intended plan for upliftment and improvement. When the surrounding tribes discovered the default, it led to an attack and the destruction of the Garden of Eden. Adam, Eve, and their remaining children were forced to leave the area, and eventually they migrated and established a second garden where they lived out the rest of their natural lives while still working as much as they could to uplift the races of the planet. There is usually significant biological improvement in the human races during an Adam and Eve mission, an era that lasts about 25,000 years. With the "completion of the task of race blending", what is seen socially is a period where internationalism becomes widespread, nationalism receeds, and there develops the "brotherhood of mankind". "Great ethical advancement characterizes this era ... World-wide peace—the cessation of race conflict and national animosity—is the indicator of planetary ripeness for the advent of the third order of Sonship, the Magisterial Son". The mission of Adam and Eve was considered a partial success, but ''The Urantia Book'' teaches that their default deprived the human species of a superior physical nature that would have been more consonant with spiritual aspirations, the original divine plan. The book says that the high degree of conflict many people have between their spiritual and physical natures is because their remote ancestors "were not more fully Adamized by the Edenic bestowal." MACHIVENTA MELCHIZEDEK While humans continued to advance biologically and intellectually in the milleniums after Adam and Eve, ''The Urantia Book'' teaches that "revealed truth" became threatened with extinction as people lost ground spiritually due to the double deprivations caused by the Caligastia rebellion and the Adamic default. It says that by 3000 B.C., the concept of God had grown very hazy to people. A dozen spiritual beings of a type known as " Melchizedek " took a lead administrative role in the spiritual guidance of the world after Adam and Eve. ''The Urantia Book'' says that Melchizedeks are "widely known as emergency Sons, for they engage in an amazing range of activities on the worlds of a local universe. When any extraordinary problem arises, or when something unusual is to be attempted, it is quite often a Melchizedek who accepts the challenge." According to the book, Melchizedeks have been highly active on the Earth. Not long after the default, it was announced that Urantia had been chosen by "Michael of Nebadon", the ruler of the "local universe" of Nebadon -- a realm encompassing approximately 10 million worlds -- as the place where he would incarnate as a mortal to live a bestowal life, the only world where he would do so. The Melchizedeks knew of the impending bestowal, but it was unknown how soon it would occur, and because they feared that the "light of life" was being extinguished by the growing spiritual darkness of humanity, one of them, known as Machiventa Melchizedek, volunteered to incarnate as a mortal to help teach people directly about spiritual matters. A mortal incarnation by a Melchizedek had only occurred six other times in the long history of Nebadon. Machiventa is taught to have appeared as a flesh and blood adult male with a Sumerian appearance, able to speak Chaldean and a half dozen languages. He gradually organized a colony of truth seekers and became widely regarded as a great teacher and wise man. Within a few years Melchizedek had gathered around himself a group of pupils, disciples, and believers who formed the nucleus of the later community of Salem. He was soon known throughout Palestine as the priest of El Elyon, the Most High, and as the sage of Salem. Among some of the surrounding tribes he was often referred to as the sheik, or king, of Salem. Salem was the site which after the disappearance of Melchizedek became the city of Jebus, subsequently being called Jerusalem. He had two tasks: to promote the monotheistic message of one true God and to prepare the world for the coming bestowal of Michael. He was a contemporary of Abraham , and convinced Abraham to set aside his material ambitions to conquer neighboring tribes and instead embrace long-term spiritual plans. Melchizedek continued to instruct students and train missionaries for several decades, sending them especially to Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. He decided to end his bestowal when it seemed that the nearby tribes had grown to regard him as a demi-god. Abraham went on to become a great spiritual leader, and although the Salem missionaries spread as far as Europe and Japan, their teachings generally were subsumed by the evolutionary religions that were encountered, and it was only in Palestine that the idea of one God became rooted. The idea was only tenuously preserved and grew slowly through the work of Moses and the various Hebrew prophets, with many periods of spiritual deterioration. JESUS OF NAZARETH The fifth stage of typical religious evolution for an inhabited world is called the age of the "Post-Bestowal Son". A planet receiving the mission of a bestowal Son usually first achieves a certain level of educational culture. The bestowal Son is described as establishing "the new and living way". Bestowal Sons are required to die on the planet of their mission, and according to plan, they are resurrected on the third day and ascend to the "right hand of the Universe Father". The Post-Bestowal age generally lasts from 10,000 to 100,000 years. On virtually all worlds, the order of divine Sonship that visits is known as "Avonal". On one world out of every 10 million, a higher order of Son, the "Creator Son" of the local universe, incarnates as a mortal to live a bestowal life. The book teaches that Urantia was this one world that was chosen. From Paper 76: Urantians should count it all gain if the blunders of their ancestors and the mistakes of their early world rulers so plunged the planet into such a hopeless state of confusion, all the more confounded by evil and sin, that this very background of darkness should so appeal to Michael of Nebadon that he selected this world as the arena wherein to reveal the loving personality of the Father in heaven. It is not that Urantia needed a Creator Son to set its tangled affairs in order; it is rather that the evil and sin on Urantia afforded the Creator Son a more striking background against which to reveal the matchless love, mercy, and patience of the Paradise Father. When Jesus was incarnated as "God in man" and went up to , the Apostle John is said to have glimpsed this symbolically when he saw the tail of a dragon knock down one third of the stars. All of the high personalities who followed Lucifer were "dethroned and shorn of their governing powers". FUTURE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT When the population of an inhabited world has progressed to the point that the different races have blended and are biologically fit, the "brotherhood of man" is flourishing, and the nations of the earth are learning to live together in peace and tranquility the age of the "Magisterial Son" approaches readiness. While the Planetary Prince and the Material Sons (Adam and Eve) are of local universe origin, the Magisterial Son (also known as an Avonal Son) is of Paradise origin. The average time for this age is 25,000 to 50,000 years. Here, again, Urantia deviates: There has never been a magisterial mission on your world, neither was your bestowal Son of the Avonal order; your planet enjoyed the signal honor of becoming the mortal home planet of the Sovereign Son, Michael of Nebadon. When the Paradise Avonal Sons come to a planet on a magisterial mission, they are always incarnated, but they do not experience birth or death. They yield up their planetary life forms at the end of their mission and return to their Paradise status. Their visit on a planet extends the horizon of revealed religion and revealed truth, to portray the functioning of the local system and its tributaries. With the visit of the Magisterial (Avonal) Son, economic liberation of the planet often will occur: the daily work that is required to sustain each individual's independence is said to require just 2 1/2 hours of work a day. People of this age use much of their time in self-improvement and in advancement of the planet. Political government and social administration have advanced to a high level of efficiency. During the closing phases of the Magisterial age, society begins to return to more simplified, natural ways of living. There is a flowering of art, music, and higher learning. Towards the end of this period, a religious awakening is said to occur, bringing in an age of world-wide spiritual enlightenment. This is the beginning of the fifth stage of evolution, the age of the "Bestowal Son". On normal worlds bestowal Son does not appear in the flesh until the races have ascended to the highest levels of intellectual development and ethical attainment. But on Urantia the bestowal Son, even your own Creator Son, appeared at the close of the Adamic dispensation, but that is not the usual order of events on the worlds of space. The sixth stage of social evolution is known as the age of "Post-Teacher Sons". These beings have origination with the Trinity of Paradise. This mission is the Trinity's addition to the preceding efforts of all the divine personalities who have contributed to the development of an inhabited world. The revelation of truth in now extended to the central universe and to Paradise. An entirely new order of society has arrived, which is very spiritual. It is noted that the physical administration of a world during this age requires about 1 hour a day on the part of every adult individual. Natural death becomes less frequent, as there are more who bypass death through spirit fusion. The end of this stage leads into the first "age of light and life". It is the evolutionary destiny of humankind to reach this far off stage of life, "the final epoch". Urantia, as a whole, must traverse several more evolutionary stages before it reaches even the first stage of "light and life". SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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