Key concepts (a glossary)

A Brief Glossary of Urantia Book Terminology

 

Christ Michael (Michael, Jesus Christ)—our local universe father, creator, and sovereign, also know to us as Jesus Christ, who incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth on our planet. He is of the order of Michael—high beings with creator prerogatives who are also known as Creator Sons; they are directly of origin from God the Father and God the Son (see God the Father). In partnership with the Mother Spirits who are their equals (see “Mother Spirit”), Michaels create local universes and their myriad inhabitants, over which they rule with love and mercy. Their unending love for us is typified in the fact that they may incarnate in the likeness of their creatures on the worlds they have created, as our own Michael did on our planet Urantia.

 

Correcting Time—an umbrella term used by celestial teachers for the current period of celestially-inspired transformations occurring throughout the planet. The Correcting Time is a much more vast project than the Teaching Mission. The Teaching Mission is characterized by its explicit use of the Urantia revelation as a reference; the Correcting Time does not. The common element of the Correcting Time in all its features is a dramatic increase in celestial assistance for the purpose of fostering planetary evolution, both secular and spiritual. Technically speaking, the possibility for such celestial intervention had to await the reconnection of certain “spiritual circuits” made possible by the lifting of the quarantine that was placed on our planet because of its involvement in the Lucifer rebellion (see below).

 

God the Father (also God, Father, Paradise Father)—God is love; as the universal Father, God is the first person of deity, the First Source and Center of all things and beings. According to the Urantia revelation, the term God always denotes personality. God the Father is the infinite and eternal God of love, as well as Creator, Controller, and Upholder of the universe of all universes. The first person of deity—God the Father—loves us with an attitude analogous to that of a divine father; the love and mercy of God the Son, the second person of deity—, can be considered akin to the love of a mother. God the Spirit is the third person of deity, also know as the Infinite Spirit.

 

Father fragment—see Thought Adjuster

 

Light and Life (also Age of Light and Life)—the goal of all inhabited planets, the final evolutionary attainment of any world of time and space, is know as the Age of Light and Life. When a world has reached this utopian state of evolutionary consummation, its achievements along the way will have included the attainment of one world-wide language, one blended race, one unified world religion, universal peace, and a very advanced state of prosperity and happiness.

 

local universe—In Urantia Book cosmology, Paradise is a stationary body at the center of the space-time universe (see “Paradise”), which is surrounded by a central universe of inherently perfect worlds (not covered here), which is in turn encircled by seven discrete aggregations of galaxies —(galaxy clusters) called superuniverses. Each superuniverse is comprised of 700,000 local universes. The Urantia Book indicates that a local universe is made up of approximately 10,000,000 inhabitable planets and is evolving toward perfection. Each local universe is ruled by one of the Creator Sons of God of the order of Michael. Our local universe, called Nebadon, is graced by the rulership of Christ Michael, who incarnated on our planet as Jesus of Nazereth.

 

Lucifer Rebellion—Lucifer was a high celestial being and brilliant administrator of a system of 607 inhabited planets, who with his first assistant Satan launched a rebellion against the local universe government of Christ Michael some 200,000 years ago. Lucifer’s insurrection created pandemonium in the celestial hierarchy and on our planet—as well as in 36 other planets in our local system. Among other contentions, Lucifer claimed that the Universal Father does not really exist, and he attacked the right of Christ Micael to assume sovereignty of Nebadon in the name of the Father. The majority of celestial beings in the celestial hierarchy of our planet went over to the way of Lucifer, causing major distortions and aberrations ever since in the evolution and history of our planet. The planetwide era of conscious awakening known as the Correcting Time (of which the Teaching Mission is a part), was launched in the mid-1980’s, we are told, after the final adjudication of the Lucifer rebellion in celestial courts.

 

mansion worlds—in the afterlife, those mortals who survive the transition of death are repersonalized on these worlds; these seven heavenly planets are the first post-mortal residences for all survivors of life in the flesh. The mansion worlds are training worlds—the first two providing remedial training—whose purpose is to prepare us for the vast career ahead as we journey across the universe in our age-long ascent to God on Paradise. Some Teaching Mission lessons are based in part on the curriculum of the mansion worlds.

 

Michael—see Christ Michael

 

Mother Spirit—just as Michael is our local universe father, the Mother Spirit is our local universe mother. As Christ Michael is a personalization of the first and second persons of the Trinity, the Creative Mother Spirit is a personalization of the third person of deity. She is Christ Michael’s consort in the administration and in the ministry of love and mercy to the myriad of planets in Nebadon (see “Nebadon”). Among the many powers and duties of Mother Spirits is the ability to give life; she supplies the essential factor of living plasm to all creatures high and low. She also loves and ministers to us through her vast retinue of angels and other ministering celestial beings.

 

Mystery Monitor—see Thought Adjuster

 

Nebadon—is the local universe in which our planet is located and presently contains approximately 3,800,000 inhabited planets. It is a relatively young

universe and sits on the outer edges of Orvonton, the superuniverse in which it is located. Nebadon is ruled by Christ Michael, also known as Jesus Christ, and his consort, the Mother Spirit.

 

Paradise—at the literal center of the cosmos, yet outside of space and time, is the only stationary body in all creation, and the Urantia revelation designates this as Paradise. God is personally present on Paradise, and from his infinite being flow the floodstreams of life, energy and personality to all universe. Paradise is a stupendously large island located at the geographical center of infinity. All physical energy and all cosmic-force circuits, including all forms of gravity, also have their origin at Paradise. It also has residential zones; all God-conscious mortal will someday attain and reside on Paradise.

 

personality—is that part of a person by which we know them as unique, those personal qualities that endure and which are recognizable regardless of changes in age, status, behavior or other external qualities. We are told that personality is a high and divine gift to each person from God the Father—it is that changeless metaphysical quality (or entity) that confers upon them their unique identity in the cosmos. It could be called the “image of God” within us. Personality is absolutely unique and immutable; it does not in itself evolve, but its relationship with the indwelling spirit (Thought Adjuster) and the soul (see “soul”) continually evolves. Functionally, personality also acts as the unifier and integrator of all aspects of an individual’s relationship with his or her environment. Each individual’s personality continues with them throughout the long ascent throught the local universe, the superuniverse and all the way to Paradise.

 

soul—the indwelling spirit is a perfect gift of God, but the soul is an experiential achievement. As we choose the divine will our our lives, the effect of this experience is that our soul grows in substance and quality. We are told in The Urantia Book that the indwelling spirit is the father of our soul, just as the material mind—as a result of its moral choice—is the mother of the emerging soul. In the afterlife— (see “mansion worlds”)—, it is the soul that survives death and becomes the container of our actual identity­, through the agency of our personality.

 

Spirit of Truth—is the unique spiritual endowment conferred on each person on this planet from our Creator Son, Christ Michael. This high and pure spiritual influence was first gifted to humankind on the day of Pentecost, just after Jesus’ resurrection. The Spirit of Truth enhances each person’s ability to recognize truth. Its effectiveness is limited by each person’s free-will consecration of his or her will to doing the will of God, but its influence is universal. When actively sought, the Spirit of Truth purifies the human heart and leads the individual to formulate a life purpose based on the love of truth.

 

Thought Adjuster (indwelling spirit, Mystery Monitor, Adjuster, atman)—this is the specialized Urantia Book term for “God-within”—the indwelling spirit—and we are told that it is an actual fragment of God the Father that indwells every normal-minded and morally conscious human being. The TA is wholly subservient to our will, yet represents the actual will of God, resident in our own minds! Through the practice of stillness, meditative worship, and loving service to others, we can attune ourselves to the influence of this inner divinity, thereby discerning the will of God for us as individuals. Also known as the Father fragment or Mystery Monitor, the Adjuster is God’s gift to each of us in addition to our personality, and its influence arouses our hunger for perfection, our quest for the divine. In addition, our Thought Adjuster and our material mind, working together, actually create our soul (see “soul”). According to The Urantia Book, the great goal of our spriritual evolution is to actually fuse with—i.e., come into complete union and identification with—the Thought Adjuster,— the indwelling spirit of God, and by so doing achieve immortality.

 

Urantia (“you-ran-sha”)—is planet earth; Urantia is the name by which our planet is known in our local universe, according to the celestial authors of The Urantia Book.. Urantia is said to be a disturbed planet by virtue of its participation in the Lucifer rebellion (see “Lucifer rebellion”), and yet is a blessed planet because it was the site of the incarnation bestowal of Michael, as Jesus of Nazareth.