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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 77
THE MIDWAY CREATURES
77:0.1
MOST of the inhabited worlds of Nebadon harbor one or
more groups of unique beings existing on a
life-functioning level about midway between those of the
mortals of the realms and of the angelic orders; hence
are they called midway creatures. They appear to be an
accident of time, but they occur so widespreadly and are
so valuable as helpers that we have all long since
accepted them as one of the essential orders of our
combined planetary ministry.
77:0.2
On Urantia there function two distinct orders of
midwayers: the primary or senior corps, who came into
being back in the days of Dalamatia, and the secondary
or younger group, whose origin dates from the times of
Adam.
1. THE PRIMARY MIDWAYERS
77:1.1
The primary midwayers have their genesis in a unique
interassociation of the material and the spiritual on
Urantia. We know of the existence of similar creatures
on other worlds and in other systems, but they
originated by dissimilar techniques.
77:1.2
It is well always to bear in mind that the successive
bestowals of the Sons of God on an evolving planet
produce marked changes in the spiritual economy of the
realm and sometimes so modify the workings of the
interassociation of spiritual and material agencies on a
planet as to create situations indeed difficult of
understanding. The status of the one hundred corporeal
members of Prince Caligastia's staff illustrates just
such a unique interassociation: As ascendant morontia
citizens of Jerusem they were supermaterial creatures
without reproductive prerogatives. As descendant
planetary ministers on Urantia they were material sex
creatures capable of procreating material offspring (as
some of them later did). What we cannot satisfactorily
explain is how these one hundred could function in the
parental role on a supermaterial level, but that is
exactly what happened. A supermaterial (nonsexual)
liaison of a male and a female member of the corporeal
staff resulted in the appearance of the first-born of
the primary midwayers.
77:1.3
It was immediately discovered that a creature of this
order, midway between the mortal and angelic levels,
would be of great service in carrying on the affairs of
the Prince's headquarters, and each couple of the
corporeal staff was accordingly granted permission to
produce a similar being. This effort resulted in the
first group of fifty midway creatures.
77:1.4
After a year of observing the work of this unique group,
the Planetary Prince authorized the reproduction of
midwayers without restriction. This plan was carried out
as long as the power to create continued, and the
original corps of 50,000 was accordingly brought into
being.
77:1.5
A period of one-half year intervened between the
production of each midwayer, and when one thousand such
beings had been born to each couple, no more were ever
forthcoming. And there is no explanation available as to
why this power was exhausted upon the appearance of the
one thousandth offspring. No amount of further
experimentation ever resulted in anything but failure.
77:1.6
These creatures constituted the intelligence corps of
the Prince's administration. They ranged far and wide,
studying and observing the world races and rendering
other invaluable services to the Prince and his staff in
the work of influencing human society remote from the
planetary headquarters.
77:1.7
This regime continued until the tragic days of the
planetary rebellion, which ensnared a little over four
fifths of the primary midwayers. The loyal corps entered
the service of the Melchizedek receivers, functioning
under the titular leadership of Van until the days of
Adam.
2. THE NODITE RACE
77:2.1
While this is the narrative of the origin, nature, and
function of the midway creatures of Urantia, the kinship
between the two orders -- primary and secondary -- makes
it necessary to interrupt the story of the primary
midwayers at this point in order to follow out the line
of descent from the rebel members of the corporeal staff
of Prince Caligastia from the days of the planetary
rebellion to the times of Adam. It was this line of
inheritance which, in the early days of the second
garden, furnished one half of the ancestry for the
secondary order of midway creatures.
77:2.2
The physical members of the Prince's staff had been
constituted sex creatures for the purpose of
participating in the plan of procreating offspring
embodying the combined qualities of their special order
united with those of the selected stock of the Andon
tribes, and all of this was in anticipation of the
subsequent appearance of Adam. The Life Carriers had
planned a new type of mortal embracing the union of the
conjoint offspring of the Prince's staff with the
first-generation offspring of Adam and Eve. They had
thus projected a plan envisioning a new order of
planetary creatures whom they hoped would become the
teacher-rulers of human society. Such beings were
designed for social sovereignty, not civil sovereignty.
But since this project almost completely miscarried, we
shall never know what an aristocracy of benign
leadership and matchless culture Urantia was thus
deprived of. For when the corporeal staff later
reproduced, it was subsequent to the rebellion and after
they had been deprived of their connection with the life
currents of the system.
77:2.3
The postrebellion era on Urantia witnessed many unusual
happenings. A great civilization -- the culture of
Dalamatia -- was going to pieces. "The Nephilim
(Nodites) were on earth in those days, and when these
sons of the gods went in to the daughters of men and
they bore to them, their children were the `mighty men
of old,' the `men of renown.'" While hardly "sons of the
gods," the staff and their early descendants were so
regarded by the evolutionary mortals of those distant
days; even their stature came to be magnified by
tradition. This, then, is the origin of the well-nigh
universal folk tale of the gods who came down to earth
and there with the daughters of men begot an ancient
race of heroes. And all this legend became further
confused with the race mixtures of the later appearing
Adamites in the second garden.
77:2.4
Since the one hundred corporeal members of the Prince's
staff carried germ plasm of the Andonic human strains,
it would naturally be expected that, if they engaged in
sexual reproduction, their progeny would altogether
resemble the offspring of other Andonite parents. But
when the sixty rebels of the staff, the followers of
Nod, actually engaged in sexual reproduction, their
children proved to be far superior in almost every way
to both the Andonite and the Sangik peoples. This
unexpected excellence characterized not only physical
and intellectual qualities but also spiritual
capacities.
77:2.5
These mutant traits appearing in the first Nodite
generation resulted from certain changes which had been
wrought in the configuration and in the chemical
constituents of the inheritance factors of the Andonic
germ plasm. These changes were caused by the presence in
the bodies of the staff members of the powerful
life-maintenance circuits of the Satania system. These
life circuits caused the chromosomes of the specialized
Urantia pattern to reorganize more after the patterns of
the standardized Satania specialization of the ordained
Nebadon life manifestation. The technique of this germ
plasm metamorphosis by the action of the system life
currents is not unlike those procedures whereby Urantia
scientists modify the germ plasm of plants and animals
by the use of X rays.
77:2.6
Thus did the Nodite peoples arise out of certain
peculiar and unexpected modifications occurring in the
life plasm which had been transferred from the bodies of
the Andonite contributors to those of the corporeal
staff members by the Avalon surgeons.
77:2.7
It will be recalled that the one hundred Andonite germ
plasm contributors were in turn made possessors of the
organic complement of the tree of life so that the
Satania life currents likewise invested their bodies.
The forty-four modified Andonites who followed the staff
into rebellion also mated among themselves and made a
great contribution to the better strains of the Nodite
people.
77:2.8
These two groups, embracing 104 individuals who carried
the modified Andonite germ plasm, constitute the
ancestry of the Nodites, the eighth race to appear on
Urantia. And this new feature of human life on Urantia
represents another phase of the outworking of the
original plan of utilizing this planet as a
life-modification world, except that this was one of the
unforeseen developments.
77:2.9
The pure-line Nodites were a magnificent race, but they
gradually mingled with the evolutionary peoples of
earth, and before long great deterioration had occurred.
Ten thousand years after the rebellion they had lost
ground to the point where their average length of life
was little more than that of the evolutionary races.
77:2.10
When archaeologists dig up the clay-tablet records of
the later-day Sumerian descendants of the Nodites, they
discover lists of Sumerian kings running back for
several thousand years; and as these records go further
back, the reigns of the individual kings lengthen from
around twenty-five or thirty years up to one hundred and
fifty years and more. This lengthening of the reigns of
these older kings signifies that some of the early
Nodite rulers (immediate descendants of the Prince's
staff) did live longer than their later-day successors
and also indicates an effort to stretch the dynasties
back to Dalamatia.
77:2.11
The records of such long-lived individuals are also due
to the confusion of months and years as time periods.
This may also be observed in the Biblical genealogy of
Abraham and in the early records of the Chinese. The
confusion of the twenty-eight-day month, or season, with
the later introduced year of more than three hundred and
fifty days is responsible for the traditions of such
long human lives. There are records of a man who lived
over nine hundred "years." This period represents not
quite seventy years, and such lives were regarded for
ages as very long, "threescore years and ten" as such a
life span was later designated.
77:2.12
The reckoning of time by the twenty-eight-day month
persisted long after the days of Adam. But when the
Egyptians undertook to reform the calendar, about seven
thousand years ago, they did it with great accuracy,
introducing the year of 365 days.
3. THE TOWER OF BABEL
77:3.1
After the submergence of Dalamatia the Nodites moved
north and east, presently founding the new city of
Dilmun as their racial and cultural headquarters. And
about fifty thousand years after the death of Nod, when
the offspring of the Prince's staff had become too
numerous to find subsistence in the lands immediately
surrounding their new city of Dilmun, and after they had
reached out to intermarry with the Andonite and Sangik
tribes adjoining their borders, it occurred to their
leaders that something should be done to preserve their
racial unity. Accordingly a council of the tribes was
called, and after much deliberation the plan of Bablot,
a descendant of Nod, was indorsed.
77:3.2
Bablot proposed to erect a pretentious temple of racial
glorification at the center of their then occupied
territory. This temple was to have a tower the like of
which the world had never seen. It was to be a
monumental memorial to their passing greatness. There
were many who wished to have this monument erected in
Dilmun, but others contended that such a great structure
should be placed a safe distance from the dangers of the
sea, remembering the traditions of the engulfment of
their first capital, Dalamatia.
77:3.3
Bablot planned that the new buildings should become the
nucleus of the future center of the Nodite culture and
civilization. His counsel finally prevailed, and
construction was started in accordance with his plans.
The new city was to be named
Bablot after
the architect and builder of the tower. This location
later became known as Bablod and eventually as Babel.
77:3.4
But the Nodites were still somewhat divided in sentiment
as to the plans and purposes of this undertaking.
Neither were their leaders altogether agreed concerning
either construction plans or usage of the buildings
after they should be completed. After four and one-half
years of work a great dispute arose about the object and
motive for the erection of the tower: The contentions
became so bitter that all work stopped. The food
carriers spread the news of the dissension, and large
numbers of the tribes began to forgather at the building
site. Three differing views were propounded as to the
purpose of building the tower:
77:3.5
1. The largest group, almost one half, desired to see
the tower built as a memorial of Nodite history and
racial superiority. They thought it ought to be a great
and imposing structure which would challenge the
admiration of all future generations.
77:3.6
2. The next largest faction wanted the tower designed to
commemorate the Dilmun culture. They foresaw that Bablot
would become a great center of commerce, art, and
manufacture.
77:3.7
3. The smallest and minority contingent held that the
erection of the tower presented an opportunity for
making atonement for the folly of their progenitors in
participating in the Caligastia rebellion. They
maintained that the tower should be devoted to the
worship of the Father of all, that the whole purpose of
the new city should be to take the place of Dalamatia --
to function as the cultural and religious center for the
surrounding barbarians.
77:3.8
The religious group were promptly voted down. The
majority rejected the teaching that their ancestors had
been guilty of rebellion; they resented such a racial
stigma. Having disposed of one of the three angles to
the dispute and failing to settle the other two by
debate, they fell to fighting. The religionists, the
noncombatants, fled to their homes in the south, while
their fellows fought until well-nigh obliterated.
77:3.9
About twelve thousand years ago a second attempt to
erect the tower of Babel was made. The mixed races of
the Andites (Nodites and Adamites) undertook to raise a
new temple on the ruins of the first structure, but
there was not sufficient support for the enterprise; it
fell of its own pretentious weight. This region was long
known as the land of Babel.
4. NODITE CENTERS OF CIVILIZATION
77:4.1
The dispersion of the Nodites was an immediate result of
the internecine conflict over the tower of Babel. This
internal war greatly reduced the numbers of the purer
Nodites and was in many ways responsible for their
failure to establish a great pre-Adamic civilization.
From this time on Nodite culture declined for over one
hundred and twenty thousand years until it was upstepped
by Adamic infusion. But even in the times of Adam the
Nodites were still an able people. Many of their mixed
descendants were numbered among the Garden builders, and
several of Van's group captains were Nodites. Some of
the most capable minds serving on Adam's staff were of
this race.
77:4.2
Three out of the four great Nodite centers were
established immediately following the Bablot conflict:
77:4.3
1. The western or
Syrian Nodites. The remnants of the nationalistic or
racial memorialists journeyed northward, uniting with
the Andonites to found the later Nodite centers to the
northwest of Mesopotamia. This was the largest group of
the dispersing Nodites, and they contributed much to the
later appearing Assyrian stock.
77:4.4
2. The eastern or
Elamite Nodites. The culture and commerce advocates
migrated in large numbers eastward into Elam and there
united with the mixed Sangik tribes. The Elamites of
thirty to forty thousand years ago had become largely
Sangik in nature, although they continued to maintain a
civilization superior to that of the surrounding
barbarians.
77:4.5
After the establishment of the second garden it was
customary to allude to this near-by Nodite settlement as
"the land of Nod"; and during the long period of
relative peace between this Nodite group and the
Adamites, the two races were greatly blended, for it
became more and more the custom for the Sons of God (the
Adamites) to intermarry with the daughters of men (the
Nodites).
77:4.6
3. The central or
pre-Sumerian Nodites. A small group at the mouth of
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers maintained more of their
racial integrity. They persisted for thousands of years
and eventually furnished the Nodite ancestry which
blended with the Adamites to found the Sumerian peoples
of historic times.
77:4.7
And all this explains how the Sumerians appeared so
suddenly and mysteriously on the stage of action in
Mesopotamia. Investigators will never be able to trace
out and follow these tribes back to the beginning of the
Sumerians, who had their origin two hundred thousand
years ago after the submergence of Dalamatia. Without a
trace of origin elsewhere in the world, these ancient
tribes suddenly loom upon the horizon of civilization
with a full-grown and superior culture, embracing
temples, metalwork, agriculture, animals, pottery,
weaving, commercial law, civil codes, religious
ceremonial, and an old system of writing. At the
beginning of the historical era they had long since lost
the alphabet of Dalamatia, having adopted the peculiar
writing system originating in Dilmun. The Sumerian
language, though virtually lost to the world, was not
Semitic; it had much in common with the so-called Aryan
tongues.
77:4.8
The elaborate records left by the Sumerians describe the
site of a remarkable settlement which was located on the
Persian Gulf near the earlier city of Dilmun. The
Egyptians called this city of ancient glory Dilmat,
while the later Adamized Sumerians confused both the
first and second Nodite cities with Dalamatia and called
all three Dilmun. And already have archaeologists found
these ancient Sumerian clay tablets which tell of this
earthly paradise "where the Gods first blessed mankind
with the example of civilized and cultured life." And
these tablets, descriptive of Dilmun, the paradise of
men and God, are now silently resting on the dusty
shelves of many museums.
77:4.9
The Sumerians well knew of the first and second Edens
but, despite extensive intermarriage with the Adamites,
continued to regard the garden dwellers to the north as
an alien race. Sumerian pride in the more ancient Nodite
culture led them to ignore these later vistas of glory
in favor of the grandeur and paradisiacal traditions of
the city of Dilmun.
77:4.10
4. The northern
Nodites and Amadonites -- the Vanites. This group
arose prior to the Bablot conflict. These northernmost
Nodites were descendants of those who had forsaken the
leadership of Nod and his successors for that of Van and
Amadon.
77:4.11
Some of the early associates of Van subsequently settled
about the shores of the lake which still bears his name,
and their traditions grew up about this locality. Ararat
became their sacred mountain, having much the same
meaning to later-day Vanites that Sinai had to the
Hebrews. Ten thousand years ago the Vanite ancestors of
the Assyrians taught that their moral law of seven
commandments had been given to Van by the Gods upon
Mount Ararat. They firmly believed that Van and his
associate Amadon were taken alive from the planet while
they were up on the mountain engaged in worship.
77:4.12
Mount Ararat was the sacred mountain of northern
Mesopotamia, and since much of your tradition of these
ancient times was acquired in connection with the
Babylonian story of the flood, it is not surprising that
Mount Ararat and its region were woven into the later
Jewish story of Noah and the universal flood.
77:4.13
About 35,000 B.C. Adamson visited one of the easternmost
of the old Vanite settlements to found his center of
civilization.
5. ADAMSON AND RATTA
77:5.1
Having delineated the Nodite antecedents of the ancestry
of the secondary midwayers, this narrative should now
give consideration to the Adamic half of their ancestry,
for the secondary midwayers are also the grandchildren
of Adamson, the first-born of the violet race of
Urantia.
77:5.2
Adamson was among that group of the children of Adam and
Eve who elected to remain on earth with their father and
mother. Now this eldest son of Adam had often heard from
Van and Amadon the story of their highland home in the
north, and sometime after the establishment of the
second garden he determined to go in search of this land
of his youthful dreams.
77:5.3
Adamson was 120 years old at this time and had been the
father of thirty-two pure-line children of the first
garden. He wanted to remain with his parents and assist
them in upbuilding the second garden, but he was greatly
disturbed by the loss of his mate and their children,
who had all elected to go to Edentia along with those
other Adamic children who chose to become wards of the
Most Highs.
77:5.4
Adamson would not desert his parents on Urantia, he was
disinclined to flee from hardship or danger, but he
found the associations of the second garden far from
satisfying. He did much to forward the early activities
of defense and construction but decided to leave for the
north at the earliest opportunity. And though his
departure was wholly pleasant, Adam and Eve were much
grieved to lose their eldest son, to have him go out
into a strange and hostile world, as they feared, never
to return.
77:5.5
A company of twenty-seven followed Adamson northward in
quest of these people of his childhood fantasies. In a
little over three years Adamson's party actually found
the object of their adventure, and among these people he
discovered a wonderful and beautiful woman, twenty years
old, who claimed to be the last pure-line descendant of
the Prince's staff. This woman, Ratta, said that her
ancestors were all descendants of two of the fallen
staff of the Prince. She was the last of her race,
having no living brothers or sisters. She had about
decided not to mate, had about made up her mind to die
without issue, but she lost her heart to the majestic
Adamson. And when she heard the story of Eden, how the
predictions of Van and Amadon had really come to pass,
and as she listened to the recital of the Garden
default, she was encompassed with but a single thought
-- to marry this son and heir of Adam. And quickly the
idea grew upon Adamson. In a little more than three
months they were married.
77:5.6
Adamson and Ratta had a family of sixty-seven children.
They gave origin to a great line of the world's
leadership, but they did something more. It should be
remembered that both of these beings were really
superhuman. Every fourth child born to them was of a
unique order. It was often invisible. Never in the
world's history had such a thing occurred. Ratta was
greatly perturbed -- even superstitious -- but Adamson
well knew of the existence of the primary midwayers, and
he concluded that something similar was transpiring
before his eyes. When the second strangely behaving
offspring arrived, he decided to mate them, since one
was male and the other female, and this is the origin of
the secondary order of midwayers. Within one hundred
years, before this phenomenon ceased, almost two
thousand were brought into being.
77:5.7
Adamson lived for 396 years. Many times he returned to
visit his father and mother. Every seven years he and
Ratta journeyed south to the second garden, and
meanwhile the midwayers kept him informed regarding the
welfare of his people. During Adamson's life they did
great service in upbuilding a new and independent world
center for truth and righteousness.
77:5.8
Adamson and Ratta thus had at their command this corps
of marvelous helpers, who labored with them throughout
their long lives to assist in the propagation of
advanced truth and in the spread of higher standards of
spiritual, intellectual, and physical living. And the
results of this effort at world betterment never did
become fully eclipsed by subsequent retrogressions.
77:5.9
The Adamsonites maintained a high culture for almost
seven thousand years from the times of Adamson and
Ratta. Later on they became admixed with the neighboring
Nodites and Andonites and were also included among the
"mighty men of old." And some of the advances of that
age persisted to become a latent part of the cultural
potential which later blossomed into European
civilization.
77:5.10
This center of civilization was situated in the region
east of the southern end of the Caspian Sea, near the
Kopet Dagh. A short way up in the foothills of Turkestan
are the vestiges of what was onetime the Adamsonite
headquarters of the violet race. In these highland
sites, situated in a narrow and ancient fertile belt
lying in the lower foothills of the Kopet range, there
successively arose at various periods four diverse
cultures respectively fostered by four different groups
of Adamson's descendants. It was the second of these
groups which migrated westward to Greece and the islands
of the Mediterranean. The residue of Adamson's
descendants migrated north and west to enter Europe with
the blended stock of the last Andite wave coming out of
Mesopotamia, and they were also numbered among the
Andite-Aryan invaders of India.
6. THE SECONDARY MIDWAYERS
77:6.1
While the primary midwayers had a well-nigh superhuman
origin, the secondary order are the offspring of the
pure Adamic stock united with a humanized descendant of
ancestors common to the parentage of the senior corps.
77:6.2
Among the children of Adamson there were just sixteen of
the peculiar progenitors of the secondary midwayers.
These unique children were equally divided as regards
sex, and each couple was capable of producing a
secondary midwayer every seventy days by a combined
technique of sex and nonsex liaison. And such a
phenomenon was never possible on earth before that time,
nor has it ever occurred since.
77:6.3
These sixteen children lived and died (except for their
peculiarities) as mortals of the realm, but their
electrically energized offspring live on and on, not
being subject to the limitations of mortal flesh.
77:6.4
Each of the eight couples eventually produced 248
midwayers, and thus did the original secondary corps --
1,984 in number -- come into existence. There are eight
subgroups of secondary midwayers. They are designated as
A-B-C the first, second, third, and so on. And then
there are D-E-F the first, second, and so on.
77:6.5
After the default of Adam the primary midwayers returned
to the service of the Melchizedek receivers, while the
secondary group were attached to the Adamson center
until his death. Thirty-three of these secondary
midwayers, the chiefs of their organization at the death
of Adamson, endeavored to swing the whole order over to
the service of the Melchizedeks, thus effecting a
liaison with the primary corps. But failing to
accomplish this, they deserted their companions and went
over in a body to the service of the planetary
receivers.
77:6.6
After the death of Adamson the remainder of the
secondary midwayers became a strange, unorganized, and
unattached influence on Urantia. From that time to the
days of Machiventa Melchizedek they led an irregular and
unorganized existence. They were partially brought under
control by this Melchizedek but were still productive of
much mischief up to the days of Christ Michael. And
during his sojourn on earth they all made final
decisions as to their future destiny, the loyal majority
then enlisting under the leadership of the primary
midwayers.
7. THE REBEL MIDWAYERS
77:7.1
The majority of the primary midwayers went into sin at
the time of the Lucifer rebellion. When the devastation
of the planetary rebellion was reckoned up, among other
losses it was discovered that of the original 50,000,
40,119 had joined the Caligastia secession.
77:7.2
The original number of secondary midwayers was 1,984,
and of these 873 failed to align themselves with the
rule of Michael and were duly interned in connection
with the planetary adjudication of Urantia on the day of
Pentecost. No one can forecast the future of these
fallen creatures.
77:7.3
Both groups of rebel midwayers are now held in custody
awaiting the final adjudication of the affairs of the
system rebellion. But they did many strange things on
earth prior to the inauguration of the present planetary
dispensation.
77:7.4
These disloyal midwayers were able to reveal themselves
to mortal eyes under certain circumstances, and
especially was this true of the associates of Beelzebub,
the leader of the apostate secondary midwayers. But
these unique creatures must not be confused with certain
of the rebel cherubim and seraphim who also were on
earth up to the time of Christ's death and resurrection.
Some of the older writers designated these rebellious
midway creatures as evil spirits and demons, and the
apostate seraphim as evil angels.
77:7.5
On no world can evil spirits possess any mortal mind
subsequent to the life of a Paradise bestowal Son. But
before the days of Christ Michael on Urantia -- before
the universal coming of the Thought Adjusters and the
pouring out of the Master's spirit upon all flesh --
these rebel midwayers were actually able to influence
the minds of certain inferior mortals and somewhat to
control their actions. This was accomplished in much the
same way as the loyal midway creatures function when
they serve as efficient contact guardians of the human
minds of the Urantia reserve corps of destiny at those
times when the Adjuster is, in effect, detached from the
personality during a season of contact with superhuman
intelligences.
77:7.6
It is no mere figure of speech when the record states:
"And they brought to Him all sorts of sick peoples,
those who were possessed by devils and those who were
lunatics." Jesus knew and recognized the difference
between insanity and demoniacal possession, although
these states were greatly confused in the minds of those
who lived in his day and generation.
77:7.7
Even prior to Pentecost no rebel spirit could dominate a
normal human mind, and since that day even the weak
minds of inferior mortals are free from such
possibilities. The supposed casting out of devils since
the arrival of the Spirit of Truth has been a matter of
confounding a belief in demoniacal possession with
hysteria, insanity, and feeble-mindedness. But just
because Michael's bestowal has forever liberated all
human minds on Urantia from the possibility of
demoniacal possession, do not imagine that such was not
a reality in former ages.
77:7.8
The entire group of rebel midwayers is at present held
prisoner by order of the Most Highs of Edentia. No more
do they roam this world on mischief bent. Regardless of
the presence of the Thought Adjusters, the pouring out
of the Spirit of Truth upon all flesh forever made it
impossible for disloyal spirits of any sort or
description ever again to invade even the most feeble of
human minds. Since the day of Pentecost there never
again can be such a thing as demoniacal possession.
8. THE UNITED MIDWAYERS
77:8.1
At the last adjudication of this world, when Michael
removed the slumbering survivors of time, the midway
creatures were left behind, left to assist in the
spiritual and semispiritual work on the planet. They now
function as a single corps, embracing both orders and
numbering 10,992.
The United Midwayers of Urantia are at present
governed alternately by the senior member of each order.
This regime has obtained since their amalgamation into
one group shortly after Pentecost.
77:8.2
The members of the older or primary order are generally
known by numerals; they are often given names such as
1-2-3 the first, 4-5-6 the first, and so on. On Urantia
the Adamic midwayers are designated alphabetically in
order to distinguish them from the numerical designation
of the primary midwayers.
77:8.3
Both orders are nonmaterial beings as regards nutrition
and energy intake, but they partake of many human traits
and are able to enjoy and follow your humor as well as
your worship. When attached to mortals, they enter into
the spirit of human work, rest, and play. But midwayers
do not sleep, neither do they possess powers of
procreation. In a certain sense the secondary group are
differentiated along the lines of maleness and
femaleness, often being spoken of as "he" or "she." They
often work together in such pairs.
77:8.4
Midwayers are not men, neither are they angels, but
secondary midwayers are, in nature, nearer man than
angel; they are, in a way, of your races and are,
therefore, very understanding and sympathetic in their
contact with human beings; they are invaluable to the
seraphim in their work for and with the various races of
mankind, and both orders are indispensable to the
seraphim who serve as personal guardians to mortals.
77:8.5
The United Midwayers of Urantia are organized for
service with the planetary seraphim in accordance with
innate endowments and acquired skills, in the following
groups:
77:8.6
1. Midway
messengers. This group bear names; they are a small
corps and are of great assistance on an evolutionary
world in the service of quick and reliable personal
communication.
77:8.7
2. Planetary
sentinels. Midwayers are the guardians, the
sentinels, of the worlds of space. They perform the
important duties of observers for all the numerous
phenomena and types of communication which are of import
to the supernatural beings of the realm. They patrol the
invisible spirit realm of the planet.
77:8.8
3. Contact
personalities. In the contacts made with the mortal
beings of the material worlds, such as with the subject
through whom these communications were transmitted, the
midway creatures are always employed. They are an
essential factor in such liaisons of the spiritual and
the material levels.
77:8.9
4. Progress
helpers. These are the more spiritual of the midway
creatures, and they are distributed as assistants to the
various orders of seraphim who function in special
groups on the planet.
77:8.10
Midwayers vary greatly in their abilities to make
contact with the seraphim above and with their human
cousins below. It is exceedingly difficult, for
instance, for the primary midwayers to make direct
contact with material agencies. They are considerably
nearer the angelic type of being and are therefore
usually assigned to working with, and ministering to,
the spiritual forces resident on the planet. They act as
companions and guides for celestial visitors and student
sojourners, whereas the secondary creatures are almost
exclusively attached to the ministry of the material
beings of the realm.
77:8.11
The 1,111 loyal secondary midwayers are engaged in
important missions on earth. As compared with their
primary associates, they are decidedly material. They
exist just outside the range of mortal vision and
possess sufficient latitude of adaptation to make, at
will, physical contact with what humans call "material
things." These unique creatures have certain definite
powers over the things of time and space, not excepting
the beasts of the realm.
77:8.12
Many of the more literal phenomena ascribed to angels
have been performed by the secondary midway creatures.
When the early teachers of the gospel of Jesus were
thrown into prison by the ignorant religious leaders of
that day, an actual "angel of the Lord" "by night opened
the prison doors and brought them forth." But in the
case of Peter's deliverance after the killing of James
by Herod's order, it was a secondary midwayer who
performed the work ascribed to an angel.
77:8.13
Their chief work today is that of unperceived
personal-liaison associates of those men and women who
constitute the planetary reserve corps of destiny. It
was the work of this secondary group, ably seconded by
certain of the primary corps, that brought about the
co-ordination of personalities and circumstances on
Urantia which finally induced the planetary celestial
supervisors to initiate those petitions that resulted in
the granting of the mandates making possible the series
of revelations of which this presentation is a part. But
it should be made clear that the midway creatures are
not involved in the sordid performances taking place
under the general designation of "spiritualism." The
midwayers at present on Urantia, all of whom are of
honorable standing, are not connected with the phenomena
of so-called "mediumship"; and they do not, ordinarily,
permit humans to witness their sometimes necessary
physical activities or other contacts with the material
world, as they are perceived by human senses.
9. THE PERMANENT CITIZENS OF URANTIA
77:9.1
Midwayers may be regarded as the first group of the
permanent inhabitants to be found on the various orders
of worlds throughout the universes in contrast with
evolutionary ascenders like the mortal creatures and the
angelic hosts. Such permanent citizens are encountered
at various points in the Paradise ascent.
77:9.2
Unlike the various orders of celestial beings who are
assigned to
minister on a planet, the midwayers
live on an
inhabited world. The seraphim come and go, but the
midway creatures remain and will remain, albeit they are
nonetheless ministers for being natives of the planet,
and they provide the one continuing regime which
harmonizes and connects the changing administrations of
the seraphic hosts.
77:9.3
As actual citizens of Urantia, the midwayers have a
kinship interest in the destiny of this sphere. They are
a determined association, persistently working for the
progress of their native planet. Their determination is
suggested by the motto of their order: "What the United
Midwayers undertake, the United Midwayers do."
77:9.4
Although their ability to traverse the energy circuits
makes planetary departure feasible to any midwayer, they
have individually pledged themselves not to leave the
planet prior to their sometime release by the universe
authorities. Midwayers are anchored on a planet until
the ages of settled light and life. With the exception
of 1-2-3 the first, no loyal midway creatures have ever
departed from Urantia.
77:9.5
1-2-3 the first, the eldest of the primary order, was
released from immediate planetary duties shortly after
Pentecost. This noble midwayer stood steadfast with Van
and Amadon during the tragic days of the planetary
rebellion, and his fearless leadership was instrumental
in reducing the casualties in his order. He serves at
present on Jerusem as a member of the twenty-four
counselors, having already functioned as governor
general of Urantia once since Pentecost.
77:9.6
Midwayers are planet bound, but much as mortals talk
with travelers from afar and thus learn about remote
places on the planet, so do midwayers converse with
celestial travelers to learn about the far places of the
universe. So do they become conversant with this system
and universe, even with Orvonton and its sister
creations, and so do they prepare themselves for
citizenship on the higher levels of creature existence.
77:9.7
While the midwayers were brought into existence fully
developed -- experiencing no period of growth or
development from immaturity -- they never cease to grow
in wisdom and experience. Like mortals they are
evolutionary creatures, and they have a culture which is
a bona fide evolutionary attainment. There are many
great minds and mighty spirits among the Urantia midway
corps.
77:9.8
In the larger aspect the civilization of Urantia is the
joint product of the Urantia mortals and the Urantia
midwayers, and this is true despite the present
differential between the two levels of culture, a
differential which will not be compensated prior to the
ages of light and life.
77:9.9
The midway culture, being the product of an immortal
planetary citizenry, is relatively immune to those
temporal vicissitudes which beset human civilization.
The generations of men forget; the corps of midwayers
remembers, and that memory is the treasure house of the
traditions of your inhabited world. Thus does the
culture of a planet remain ever present on that planet,
and in proper circumstances such treasured memories of
past events are made available, even as the story of the
life and teachings of Jesus has been given by the
midwayers of Urantia to their cousins in the flesh.
77:9.10
Midwayers are the skillful ministers who compensate that
gap between the material and spiritual affairs of
Urantia which appeared upon the death of Adam and Eve.
They are likewise your elder brethren, comrades in the
long struggle to attain a settled status of light and
life on Urantia. The United Midwayers are a
rebellion-tested corps, and they will faithfully enact
their part in planetary evolution until this world
attains the goal of the ages, until that distant day
when in fact peace does reign on earth and in truth is
there good will in the hearts of men.
77:9.11
Because of the valuable work performed by these
midwayers, we have concluded that they are a truly
essential part of the spirit economy of the realms. And
where rebellion has not marred a planet's affairs, they
are of still greater assistance to the seraphim.
77:9.12
The entire organization of high spirits, angelic hosts,
and midway fellows is enthusiastically devoted to the
furtherance of the Paradise plan for the progressive
ascension and perfection attainment of evolutionary
mortals, one of the supernal businesses of the universe
-- the superb survival plan of bringing God down to man
and then, by a sublime sort of partnership, carrying man
up to God and on to eternity of service and divinity of
attainment -- alike for mortal and midwayer.
77:9.13
Presented by an Archangel of Nebadon.
*
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