Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 52
PLANETARY MORTAL EPOCHS
1. 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 epochs appear in the following order:
1. Pre‑Planetary Prince Man.
2. Post‑Planetary Prince Man.
3. Post‑Adamic Man.
4. Post‑Magisterial Son Man.
5. Post‑Bestowal Son Man.
6. Post‑Teacher Son Man.
7. The Era of Light and Life.
2. Primitive men are mighty hunters and fierce fighters. The law of this age is the physical survival of the fittest; the government of these times is wholly tribal... On normal and nonexperimental worlds this epoch is very different from the prolonged and extraordinarily brutal struggles which characterized this age on Urantia.
3. The early races ...make extensive use of the larger flying animals...These birds are most intelligent, very obedient, and unbelievably affectionate. Such passenger birds have been long extinct on Urantia, but your early ancestors enjoyed their services.
4. The survival of superstition in the Urantia races is hardly complimentary to your evolutionary development nor compatible with your otherwise splendid achievements in material progress. But this early fear religion serves a very valuable purpose in subduing the fiery tempers of these primitive creatures.
5. With the arrival of the Planetary Prince a new dispensation begins... Under normal conditions mortals attain a high state of civilization during this age ...The prince and his staff make the first revelations of higher truth and universe organization. These initial presentations of revealed religion are very simple, and they usually pertain to the affairs of the local system.
6. There uniformly run through all of these racial religions two strains: the early fears of primitive man and the later revelations of the Planetary Prince. In some respects Urantians do not seem to have wholly emerged from this stage of planetary evolution.
7. This is the great age of racial dispersion, and it culminates in a period of intense nationalism. Color is the basis of tribal and national groupings, and the different races often develop separate languages ...But the great social achievement of the prince's epoch is the emergence of family life ...This is the dispensation of the realization of sex equality.
8. During this age agriculture makes its appearance ...but there is little development of a mechanical order.
9. One of the great achievements of the age of the prince is this restriction of the multiplication of mentally defective and socially unfit individuals ...most worlds seriously address themselves to the tasks of race purification, something which the Urantia peoples have not even yet seriously undertaken... It is the false sentiment of your partially perfected civilizations that fosters, protects, and perpetuates the hopelessly defective strains of evolutionary human stocks. It is neither tenderness nor altruism to bestow futile sympathy upon degenerated human beings, unsalvable abnormal and inferior mortals.
10. When the highest possible level of evolutionary life has been attained, when primitive man has ascended as far as possible in the biologic scale, a Material Son and Daughter always appear on the planet, having been dispatched by the System Sovereign.
11. It is the prime purpose of the Adamic regime to influence evolving man to complete the transit from the hunter and herder stage of civilization to that of the agriculturist and. horticulturist, to be later supplemented by the appearance of the urban and industrial adjuncts to civilization.
12. On an average world the post‑.Adamic dispensation is an age of great invention, energy control, and mechanical development ...Much of the material progress of a world occurs during this time of the inauguration of the development of the physical sciences, just such an epoch as Urantia is now experiencing. Your world is a full dispensation and more behind, the average planetary schedule.
13. By the end of the Adamic dispensation on a normal planet the races are practically blended...The color of such an amalgamated race is somewhat of an olive shade of the violet hue, the racial "white" of the spheres.
14. Primitive man is for the most part carnivorous; the Material Sons and Daughters do not eat meat, but their offspring within a few generations usually gravitate to the omnivorous level ...The majority of these world races soon become omnivorous, subsisting upon a wide rang. of viands from both the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
15. The post‑Adamic epoch is the dispensation of internationalism ...Representative government begins to take the place of the monarchial or paternal form of rulership. The educational system becomes world‑wide, and gradually the languages of the races give way to the tongue of the violet people.
16. During the closing centuries of the post‑Adamic age there develops new interest in art, music, and literature, and this world‑wide awakening is the signal for the appearance of a. Magisterial Son. The crowning development of this era is the universal interest in intellectual realities, true philosophy...Truth is revealed up to the administration of the constellation. Great ethical advancement characterizes this era; the brotherhood of man is the goal of its society.
17. When the Paradise Avonals...come on magisterial missions, at least the initial one, they are always incarnated, though they do not experience birth, neither do they die the death of the realm.
18. After the initial visitation of a Magisterial Son the races soon effect their economic liberation. The daily work required to sustain one's independence would be represented by two and one‑half hours of your time. It is perfectly safe to liberate such ethical and intelligent mortals. Such refined peoples well know how to utilize leisure for self‑improvement and planetary advancement.
19. During the closing ages of this dispensation, society begins to return to more simplified forms of living. The complex nature of an advancing civilization is running its course, and mortals are learning to live more naturally and effectively... This is the age of the flowering of art, music, and higher learning ...The termination of this age, on an ideal world, witnesses the fullness of a great religious awakening, a world‑wide spiritual enlightenment.
20. 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. 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.
21. 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 super‑universe.
22. On Urantia the establishment of this "new and living way" was a matter of fact as well as of truth. The isolation of Urantia in the Lucifer rebellion had suspended the procedure whereby mortals can pass, upon death, directly to the shores of the mansion worlds ...But ever since the day of Pentecost, Urantia mortals again may proceed directly to the morontia spheres.
23. Upon the resurrection of a bestowal Son ...the bestowal Avonal and the Creator Michael send their joint spirit, the Spirit of Truth, into the bestowal world ...Thereafter all normal-minded will creatures of that world will receive Adjusters as soon as they the attain the age of moral responsibility, of spiritual choice.
24. The teachings of Jesus are really applicable to a mortal world which has had the preliminary training of the prebestowal Sons with their dispensations of character ennoblement and culture augmentation.
25. During this era. the problems of disease and delinquency are virtually solved ...The average length of life, during this period, climbs well above the equivalent of three hundred years of Urantia time.
26. True self‑government is beginning to function; fewer and fewer restrictive laws are necessary. The military branches of national resistance are passing away; the era of international harmony is really arriving ...only one race., one language, and. one religion...This truly is a great and glorious age!
27. Urantia is not proceeding in the normal order. Your world is out of step in the planetary procession. Your Master, when on earth, warned his disciples that his advent would not bring the usual reign of peace on Urantia...Unaided. social evolution can hardly achieve such happy results on a spiritually isolated sphere. Religious revelation is essential to the realization of brotherhood on Urantia.
28. Social brotherhood on your world depends much on the achievement of the following personal transformations and planetary adjustments:
1. Social fraternity...2. Intellectual cross‑fertilization ...3. Ethical awakening... 4. Political wisdom ...5. Spiritual insight...The quickest way to realize the brotherhood. of man on Urantia is to effect the spiritual transformation of present‑day humanity.
29. Again we find Urantia out of step with its sister spheres in that your Jesus has promised to return. That promise he will certainly fulfill, but no one knows whether his second coming will precede or follow the appearances of Magisterial or Teacher Sons on Urantia.
30. The Teacher Sons come in groups to the spiritualizing worlds ...This corps will remain for some time on the world, long enough to effect the transition from the evolutionary ages to the era of light and life—not less than one thousand years of planetary time and often considerably longer ...The revelation of truth is now extended to the central universe and to Paradise ...The kingdom of heaven is appearing on earth... Natural death becomes less frequent as the Adjusters increasingly fuse with their subjects during the lifetime in the flesh.
31. Life during this era is pleasant and profitable ...The length of life approaches five hundred Urantia years, and the reproductive rate of racial increase is intelligently controlled. An entirely new order of society has arrived ...Representative government is vanishing, and the world is passing under the rule of individual self‑control... The physical administration of a world during this age requires about one hour each day on the part of every adult individual.
32. No matter what the special natural history of an individual planet way be...sooner or later the grace of God and the ministry of angels will usher in the day of the advent of the Trinity Teacher Sons; and their departure, following their final mission, will inaugurate this superb era of light and life.
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think the large passenger birds became extinct on our world?
2. What might determine whether men or women are dominant on a primitive planet?
3. Are we moving toward a world wide educational system and a common language?
4. Why do you think we have been given a revelation of the universe of universes when normal worlds are given revelation gradually?
5. Why was our world given a bestowal Son before being prepared like other worlds?
6. How do we apply “spiritual pressure from above?”
7. What is the next major step in Urantia’s non-typical development?
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The Urantia Book Fellowship