Glimpses of the Far Future Several passages in the Bible provide glimpses of man's enhanced intellectual and spiritual development that he will enjoy in the far distant future. But in the meantime our world is a full dispensation and more behind the average planetary schedule. [My emphasis] [Urantia Book 52:3:6]
The reason for our tardy development is the Lucifer Rebellion that occurred about 200,000 years ago. Lucifer rebelled against the government of Jesus and God. Our Planetary Prince, Caligastia (the "devil") joined Lucifer, as did sixty members of his Staff of One Hundred. [UB Papers 53 and 67]
When Adam and Eve arrived on our planet about 39,000 years ago, planetary conditions were so confused that they faltered and fell. Our planet has been described as a sin-stricken, evil-dominated, self-seeking, isolated world. [UB Papers 74 and 75]In the following information are listed some of the conditions that would have prevailed if our planet had not experienced a rebellion of horrific proportions. This information is taken primarily from Papers 52 and 55 in The Urantia Book. These two papers discuss in some detail the planetary conditions mortals will enjoy as we march inexorably toward the era of light and life.
Post-Planetary Prince Man
Our Planetary Prince (Caligastia) arrived about 500,000 years ago. His arrival introduced a new dispensation.
When the Planetary Prince arrives, the evolved religion of fear and ignorance prevails. The Prince and his Staff of One Hundred make the first revelations of higher truth and universe organization. [UB 52:2:3]
Each dispensation, each mortal epoch, receives an enlarged presentation of spiritual truth and religious ethics. [UB 52:2:3] [The Urantia Book is our fifth epochal revelation.]
This is the dispensation of the realization of sex equality. The races are purified and brought up to a high state of physical perfection and intellectual strength before the end of this era. [UB 52:2:9]
Comment: It is apparent that the "realization of sex equality" is yet to be achieved. Also, no attempt has been made to further the "physical and intellectual strength" of the mortal races.Post-Adamic Man
Our Adam and Eve arrived almost 39,000 years ago. Adam and Eve introduced the second dispensation of grace and ministry.
This age usually witnesses the completion of the elimination of the unfit and the still further purification of the racial strains; on normal worlds the defective bestial tendencies are very nearly eliminated from the reproducing stocks of the realm. [UB 52:3:1,4]
Comment: Present-day mortals still bear "the defective bestial tendencies" [the mark of the beast] because we are descended from fighting animals. However, as the ages pass, mortals gradually eliminate the "mark of the beast."Adam and Eve are the parents of thousands of offspring of a high order. Eventually, the children of Adam and Eve begin to mate with the superior mortal strains. On an average world this is the era of the appearance of multiform manufacture and the control of natural forces; it is the golden age of exploration and the final subduing of the planet.
Comment: It is very heartening to learn that at some point in the future we can control the weather rather than just talk about it.
By the end of the Adamic dispensation, God has made of one blood all the nations, and his Son [Adam and Eve] has made of one color all peoples. [the racial white] [Acts 17:26]
The brotherhood of man really begins to materialize. [UB 52:3:7,10]
Post-Magisterial Son Man
On a normal world, mortals can now expect the arrival of a high order of one of the Avonal Sons. [The Magisterial Sons. These Sons hail from Paradise.] When they come on a magisterial mission, they always incarnate, at least on the initial one, though they do not experience birth or death. [Melchizedek, Sage of Salem, of the Old Testament experienced neither birth nor death.]
A Magisterial Son may live on for several generations, even thousands of years. There may be numerous incarnations by the Magisterial Sons. [UB 52:4:1,2,3]
The workday of mortals is now about two and one-half hours. This age witnesses the further purification of the racial stocks by the restriction of reproduction among the less fit and poorly endowed. Mortals engage in the highest type of representative government. This is the age of the flowering of art, music, and higher learning.
Each new dispensation extends the revelation of truth.
In the fullness of time one of these Magisterial Sons will be born as the Paradise bestowal Son. [UB 52:4:3-6,8,10] NOTE: Here our planet is out of step with the normal progression of epochs in that Jesus was our Paradise bestowal Son two thousand years ago. Only one world in near ten million can enjoy such a gift; all other worlds are spiritually advanced by the bestowal of a Paradise Son of the Avonal order [The Magisterial Sons]. [UB 52:5:2]
Comment: When our local universe is fully developed, it will contain about ten million inhabited planets. [UB 15:2:11]Post-Bestowal Son Man
On a normal world, when a certain standard of intellectual and spiritual development is attained on an inhabited world, a Paradise bestowal Son always arrives. On normal worlds he does not appear in the flesh until the races have ascended to the highest levels of intellectual development and ethical attainment.
On our planet, our bestowal Son, Jesus, appeared at the close of the Adamic dispensation. [My emphasis] [UB 52:5:1,2]
If our planet had been a normal world, the following planetary conditions would have prevailed when Jesus arrived: The bestowal Son arrives on a world of high educational culture and encounters a race spiritually trained and prepared to assimilate advanced teachings and to appreciate the bestowal mission. This is an age characterized by the worldwide pursuit of moral culture and spiritual truth. The mortal passion of this dispensation is the penetration of cosmic reality and communion with spiritual reality. The revelations of truth are extended to include the superuniverse. Entirely new systems of education and government grow up to supplant the crude regimes of former times. The joy of living takes on new color, and the reactions of life are exalted to heavenly heights of tone and timbre. [UB 52:5:3]
Comment: We can be thankful that our fifth epochal revelation, The Urantia Book, describes our master universe from the inhabited world to Paradise and beyond.The bestowal Son lives and dies for the spiritual uplift of the mortal races of a world. He establishes the “new and living way”; his life is an incarnation of Paradise truth in mortal flesh, that very truth—even the Spirit of Truth—in the knowledge of which men shall be free.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [John 8:32]
We were most fortunate that Jesus sent his Spirit of Truth after he had ascended to the Father. Otherwise, our reception of the Spirit of Truth would have been delayed thousands of years into the future. [UB 52:5:4,6]During this era the problems of disease and delinquency are virtually solved. Degeneracy has already been largely eliminated by selective reproduction. Disease has been practically mastered through the high resistant qualities of the Adamic strains and by the intelligent and worldwide application of the discoveries of the physical sciences of preceding ages. The average length of life during this era climbs well above three hundred years. [UB 52:5:9]
Urantia's [Earth's] Postbestowal Age
The bestowal Son is the Prince of Peace. He arrives with the message, “Peace on earth and good will among men.” On normal worlds this is a dispensation of worldwide peace; the nations no more learn war. But such salutary influences did not attend the coming of your bestowal Son, Christ Michael. Urantia (earth) is not proceeding in the normal order. Your world is out of step in the planetary procession. [My emphasis] Your Master, when on earth, warned his disciples that his advent would not bring the usual reign of peace on Urantia. He distinctly told them that there would be “wars and rumors of wars,” and that nation would rise against nation. At another time he said, Think not that I have come to bring peace upon earth. [Matthew 10:34] [Matthew 24:6,7] [UB 52:6.1]Post-Teacher Son Man
The Trinity Sons are the divine Sons of the Trinity. [The Trinity Sons are created by the Trinity. As such, they hail from Paradise. (UB 19:1:1-4)] These Sons come in groups to the spiritualizing worlds. They remain on a world long enough to effect the transition from the evolutionary ages to the era of light and life. Mortals receive additional revelations of truth.
Comment: It should be apparent that revelation from God is a continuing process. Our planet will receive many more epochal revelations in the future.
The kingdom of heaven is appearing on earth, and the glory of God is being shed abroad in the world. The length of life approaches five hundred years, and the reproductive rate of racial increase is intelligently controlled.
The golden age is coming on apace . . . The workday is now about one hour each day. [UB 52:7:1-6]The Post-Teacher Son Man is the dispensation when many mortals are translated from among the living. As the era of Trinity Teacher Sons progresses, the spiritual allegiance of the mortals of time becomes more and more universal. Natural death becomes less frequent as the Adjusters increasingly fuse with their subjects during the lifetime in the flesh. [UB 52:7:4]
Comment: When the Urantia Papers were presented during the mid-1930s only two mortals had fused with their Thought Adjuster (the Indwelling Spirit) while still in the flesh: Enoch and Elijah.
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. [2Kings 2:11]
Comment: As the Ages pass, an increasing number of mortals fuse with their Thought Adjuster. Thought Adjusters are that true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. [John 1:9]The Trinity Teacher Sons may return many times to the same world. But sooner or later, in connection with the termination of one of their missions, our world will enter upon the era of light and life.
It was of the conclusion of the terminal mission of the Teacher Sons (at least that would be the chronology on a normal world) that John wrote: I saw a new heaven and a new earth and the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a princess adorned for the prince. [Revelation 21:2]Although the holy temples are spoken of as "coming down from heaven," the temples are actually constructed on each planet by celestial beings in accordance with plans and specifications previously approved. When the holy temple is built, this event signalizes the dawn of the era of light and life. The age of light and life is the final evolutionary attainment of a world of time and space. [UB 55:0] [UB 55:1:1,3]
This event is always honored by the personal presence of the Paradise bestowal Son of that planet, who comes to witness this great day. [UB 55:1:1]
Comment: As Jesus was our Paradise bestowal Son, he will be present at this momentous event. If this is the second coming of Jesus, then his second coming will be delayed for many ages into the future. Of course, he could choose to visit our planet in visible form during the interim ages.This is the same renovated earth, the advanced planetary stage, that the olden seer envisioned when he wrote: For, as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, so shall you and your children survive; and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. [Isaiah 66:23] [UB 52:7:12]
It is the mortals of such an age who are described as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, an exalted people; and you shall show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into this marvelous light. [1Peter 2:9]
We can join in the hope of the one who wrote: Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. [2Peter 3:13,14] [UB 52:7:10-15]There is little to be gained by lamenting about our present confused, backward world. We must go forward from where we are. But the future prognosis for mortals on our planet is truly glorious.
Source: The Urantia Book; The King James Study Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville.
NOTE: Numerous statements in this message were quoted verbatim from the source.
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