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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 67
THE PLANETARY REBELLION
67:0.1
THE problems associated with human existence on Urantia
are impossible of understanding without a knowledge of
certain great epochs of the past, notably the occurrence
and consequences of the planetary rebellion. Although
this upheaval did not seriously interfere with the
progress of organic evolution, it did markedly modify
the course of social evolution and of spiritual
development. The entire superphysical history of the
planet was profoundly influenced by this devastating
calamity.
1. THE CALIGASTIA BETRAYAL
67:1.1
For three hundred thousand years Caligastia had been in
charge of Urantia when Satan, Lucifer's assistant, made
one of his periodic inspection calls. And when Satan
arrived on the planet, his appearance in no way
resembled your caricatures of his nefarious majesty. He
was, and still is, a Lanonandek Son of great brilliance.
"And no marvel, for Satan himself is a brilliant
creature of light."
67:1.2
In the course of this inspection Satan informed
Caligastia of Lucifer's then proposed "Declaration of
Liberty," and as we now know, the Prince agreed to
betray the planet upon the announcement of the
rebellion. The loyal universe personalities look with
peculiar disdain upon Prince Caligastia because of this
premeditated betrayal of trust. The Creator Son voiced
this contempt when he said: "You are like your leader,
Lucifer, and you have sinfully perpetuated his iniquity.
He was a falsifier from the beginning of his
self-exaltation because he abode not in the truth."
67:1.3
In all the administrative work of a local universe no
high trust is deemed more sacred than that reposed in a
Planetary Prince who assumes responsibility for the
welfare and guidance of the evolving mortals on a newly
inhabited world. And of all forms of evil, none are more
destructive of personality status than betrayal of trust
and disloyalty to one's confiding friends. In committing
this deliberate sin, Caligastia so completely distorted
his personality that his mind has never since been able
fully to regain its equilibrium.
67:1.4
There are many ways of looking at sin, but from the
universe philosophic viewpoint sin is the attitude of a
personality who is knowingly resisting cosmic reality.
Error might be regarded as a misconception or distortion
of reality. Evil is a partial realization of, or
maladjustment to, universe realities. But sin is a
purposeful resistance to divine reality -- a conscious
choosing to oppose spiritual progress -- while iniquity
consists in an open and persistent defiance of
recognized reality and signifies such a degree of
personality disintegration as to border on cosmic
insanity.
67:1.5
Error suggests lack of intellectual keenness; evil,
deficiency of wisdom; sin, abject spiritual poverty; but
iniquity is indicative of vanishing personality control.
67:1.6
And when sin has so many times been chosen and so often
been repeated, it may become habitual. Habitual sinners
can easily become iniquitous, become wholehearted rebels
against the universe and all of its divine realities.
While all manner of sins may be forgiven, we doubt
whether the established iniquiter would ever sincerely
experience sorrow for his misdeeds or accept forgiveness
for his sins.
2. THE OUTBREAK OF REBELLION
67:2.1
Shortly after Satan's inspection and when the planetary
administration was on the eve of the realization of
great things on Urantia, one day, midwinter of the
northern continents, Caligastia held a prolonged
conference with his associate, Daligastia, after which
the latter called the ten councils of Urantia in session
extraordinary. This assembly was opened with the
statement that Prince Caligastia was about to proclaim
himself absolute sovereign of Urantia and demanded that
all administrative groups abdicate by resigning all of
their functions and powers into the hands of Daligastia
as trustee, pending the reorganization of the planetary
government and the subsequent redistribution of these
offices of administrative authority.
67:2.2
The presentation of this astounding demand was followed
by the masterly appeal of Van, chairman of the supreme
council of co-ordination. This distinguished
administrator and able jurist branded the proposed
course of Caligastia as an act bordering on planetary
rebellion and appealed to his conferees to abstain from
all participation until an appeal could be taken to
Lucifer, the System Sovereign of Satania; and he won the
support of the entire staff. Accordingly, appeal was
taken to Jerusem, and forthwith came back the orders
designating Caligastia as supreme sovereign on Urantia
and commanding absolute and unquestioning allegiance to
his mandates. And it was in reply to this amazing
message that the noble Van made his memorable address of
seven hours' length in which he formally drew his
indictment of Daligastia, Caligastia, and Lucifer as
standing in contempt of the sovereignty of the universe
of Nebadon; and he appealed to the Most Highs of Edentia
for support and confirmation.
67:2.3
Meantime the system circuits had been severed; Urantia
was isolated. Every group of celestial life on the
planet found itself suddenly and without warning
isolated, utterly cut off from all outside counsel and
advice.
67:2.4
Daligastia formally proclaimed Caligastia "God of
Urantia and supreme over all." With this proclamation
before them, the issues were clearly drawn; and each
group drew off by itself and began deliberations,
discussions destined eventually to determine the fate of
every superhuman personality on the planet.
67:2.5
Seraphim and cherubim and other celestial beings were
involved in the decisions of this bitter struggle, this
long and sinful conflict. Many superhuman groups that
chanced to be on Urantia at the time of its isolation
were detained here and, like the seraphim and their
associates, were compelled to choose between sin and
righteousness -- between the ways of Lucifer and the
will of the unseen Father.
67:2.6
For more than seven years this struggle continued. Not
until every personality concerned had made a final
decision, would or did the authorities of Edentia
interfere or intervene. Not until then did Van and his
loyal associates receive vindication and release from
their prolonged anxiety and intolerable suspense.
3. THE SEVEN CRUCIAL YEARS
67:3.1
The outbreak of rebellion on Jerusem, the capital of
Satania, was broadcast by the Melchizedek council. The
emergency Melchizedeks were immediately dispatched to
Jerusem, and Gabriel volunteered to act as the
representative of the Creator Son, whose authority had
been challenged. With this broadcast of the fact of
rebellion in Satania the system was isolated,
quarantined, from her sister systems. There was "war in
heaven," the headquarters of Satania, and it spread to
every planet in the local system.
67:3.2
On Urantia forty members of the corporeal staff of one
hundred (including Van) refused to join the
insurrection. Many of the staff's human assistants
(modified and otherwise) were also brave and noble
defenders of Michael and his universe government. There
was a terrible loss of personalities among seraphim and
cherubim. Almost one half of the administrator and
transition seraphim assigned to the planet joined their
leader and Daligastia in support of the cause of
Lucifer. Forty thousand one hundred and nineteen of the
primary midway creatures joined hands with Caligastia,
but the remainder of these beings remained true to their
trust.
67:3.3
The traitorous Prince marshaled the disloyal midway
creatures and other groups of rebel personalities and
organized them to execute his bidding, while Van
assembled the loyal midwayers and other faithful groups
and began the great battle for the salvation of the
planetary staff and other marooned celestial
personalities.
67:3.4
During the times of this struggle the loyalists dwelt in
an unwalled and poorly protected settlement a few miles
to the east of Dalamatia, but their dwellings were
guarded day and night by the alert and ever-watchful
loyal midway creatures, and they had possession of the
priceless tree of life.
67:3.5
Upon the outbreak of rebellion, loyal cherubim and
seraphim, with the aid of three faithful midwayers,
assumed the custody of the tree of life and permitted
only the forty loyalists of the staff and their
associated modified mortals to partake of the fruit and
leaves of this energy plant. There were fifty-six of
these modified Andonite associates of the staff, sixteen
of the Andonite attendants of the disloyal staff
refusing to go into rebellion with their masters.
67:3.6
Throughout the seven crucial years of the Caligastia
rebellion, Van was wholly devoted to the work of
ministry to his loyal army of men, midwayers, and
angels. The spiritual insight and moral steadfastness
which enabled Van to maintain such an unshakable
attitude of loyalty to the universe government was the
product of clear thinking, wise reasoning, logical
judgment, sincere motivation, unselfish purpose,
intelligent loyalty, experiential memory, disciplined
character, and the unquestioning dedication of his
personality to the doing of the will of the Father in
Paradise.
67:3.7
This seven years of waiting was a time of heart
searching and soul discipline. Such crises in the
affairs of a universe demonstrate the tremendous
influence of mind as a factor in spiritual choosing.
Education, training, and experience are factors in most
of the vital decisions of all evolutionary moral
creatures. But it is entirely possible for the
indwelling spirit to make direct contact with the
decision-determining powers of the human personality so
as to empower the fully consecrated will of the creature
to perform amazing acts of loyal devotion to the will
and the way of the Father in Paradise. And this is just
what occurred in the experience of Amadon, the modified
human associate of Van.
67:3.8
Amadon is the outstanding human hero of the Lucifer
rebellion. This male descendant of Andon and Fonta was
one of the one hundred who contributed life plasm to the
Prince's staff, and ever since that event he had been
attached to Van as his associate and human assistant.
Amadon elected to stand with his chief throughout the
long and trying struggle. And it was an inspiring sight
to behold this child of the evolutionary races standing
unmoved by the sophistries of Daligastia while
throughout the seven-year struggle he and his loyal
associates resisted with unyielding fortitude all of the
deceptive teachings of the brilliant Caligastia.
67:3.9
Caligastia, with a maximum of intelligence and a vast
experience in universe affairs, went astray -- embraced
sin. Amadon, with a minimum of intelligence and utterly
devoid of universe experience, remained steadfast in the
service of the universe and in loyalty to his associate.
Van utilized both mind and spirit in a magnificent and
effective combination of intellectual determination and
spiritual insight, thereby achieving an experiential
level of personality realization of the highest
attainable order. Mind and spirit, when fully united,
are potential for the creation of superhuman values,
even morontia realities.
67:3.10
There is no end to the recital of the stirring events of
these tragic days. But at last the final decision of the
last personality was made, and then, but only then, did
a Most High of Edentia arrive with the emergency
Melchizedeks to seize authority on Urantia. The
Caligastia panoramic reign-records on Jerusem were
obliterated, and the probationary era of planetary
rehabilitation was inaugurated.
4. THE CALIGASTIA ONE HUNDRED AFTER REBELLION
67:4.1
When the final roll was called, the corporeal members of
the Prince's staff were found to have aligned themselves
as follows: Van and his entire court of co-ordination
had remained loyal. Ang and three members of the food
council had survived. The board of animal husbandry were
all swept into rebellion as were all of the
animal-conquest advisers. Fad and five members of the
educational faculty were saved. Nod and all of the
commission on industry and trade joined Caligastia. Hap
and the entire college of revealed religion remained
loyal with Van and his noble band. Lut and the whole
board of health were lost. The council of art and
science remained loyal in its entirety, but Tut and the
commission on tribal government all went astray. Thus
were forty out of the one hundred saved, later to be
transferred to Jerusem, where they resumed their
Paradise journey.
67:4.2
The sixty members of the planetary staff who went into
rebellion chose Nod as their leader. They worked
wholeheartedly for the rebel Prince but soon discovered
that they were deprived of the sustenance of the system
life circuits. They awakened to the fact that they had
been degraded to the status of mortal beings. They were
indeed superhuman but, at the same time, material and
mortal. In an effort to increase their numbers,
Daligastia ordered immediate resort to sexual
reproduction, knowing full well that the original sixty
and their forty-four modified Andonite associates were
doomed to suffer extinction by death, sooner or later.
After the fall of Dalamatia the disloyal staff migrated
to the north and the east. Their descendants were long
known as the Nodites, and their dwelling place as "the
land of Nod."
67:4.3
The presence of these extraordinary supermen and
superwomen, stranded by rebellion and presently mating
with the sons and daughters of earth, easily gave origin
to those traditional stories of the gods coming down to
mate with mortals. And thus originated the thousand and
one legends of a mythical nature, but founded on the
facts of the postrebellion days, which later found a
place in the folk tales and traditions of the various
peoples whose ancestors had participated in these
contacts with the Nodites and their descendants.
67:4.4
The staff rebels, deprived of spiritual sustenance,
eventually died a natural death. And much of the
subsequent idolatry of the human races grew out of the
desire to perpetuate the memory of these highly honored
beings of the days of Caligastia.
67:4.5
When the staff of one hundred came to Urantia, they were
temporarily detached from their Thought Adjusters.
Immediately upon the arrival of the Melchizedek
receivers the loyal personalities (except Van) were
returned to Jerusem and were reunited with their waiting
Adjusters. We know not the fate of the sixty staff
rebels; their Adjusters still tarry on Jerusem. Matters
will undoubtedly rest as they now are until the entire
Lucifer rebellion is finally adjudicated and the fate of
all participants decreed.
67:4.6
It was very difficult for such beings as angels and
midwayers to conceive of brilliant and trusted rulers
like Caligastia and Daligastia going astray --
committing traitorous sin. Those beings who fell into
sin -- they did not deliberately or premeditatedly enter
upon rebellion -- were misled by their superiors,
deceived by their trusted leaders. It was likewise easy
to win the support of the primitive-minded evolutionary
mortals.
67:4.7
The vast majority of all human and superhuman beings who
were victims of the Lucifer rebellion on Jerusem and the
various misled planets have long since heartily repented
of their folly; and we truly believe that all such
sincere penitents will in some manner be rehabilitated
and restored to some phase of universe service when the
Ancients of Days finally complete the adjudication of
the affairs of the Satania rebellion, which they have so
recently begun.
5. IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF REBELLION
67:5.1
Great confusion reigned in Dalamatia and thereabout for
almost fifty years after the instigation of rebellion.
The complete and radical reorganization of the whole
world was attempted; revolution displaced evolution as
the policy of cultural advancement and racial
improvement. Among the superior and partially trained
sojourners in and near Dalamatia there appeared a sudden
advancement in cultural status, but when these new and
radical methods were attempted on the outlying peoples,
indescribable confusion and racial pandemonium was the
immediate result. Liberty was quickly translated into
license by the half-evolved primitive men of those days.
67:5.2
Very soon after the rebellion the entire staff of
sedition were engaged in energetic defense of the city
against the hordes of semisavages who besieged its walls
as a result of the doctrines of liberty which had been
prematurely taught them. And years before the beautiful
headquarters went down beneath the southern waves, the
misled and mistaught tribes of the Dalamatia hinterland
had already swept down in semisavage assault on the
splendid city, driving the secession staff and their
associates northward.
67:5.3
The Caligastia scheme for the immediate reconstruction
of human society in accordance with his ideas of
individual freedom and group liberties, proved a swift
and more or less complete failure. Society quickly sank
back to its old biologic level, and the forward struggle
began all over, starting not very far in advance of
where it was at the beginning of the Caligastia regime,
this upheaval having left the world in confusion worse
confounded.
67:5.4
One hundred and sixty-two years after the rebellion a
tidal wave swept up over Dalamatia, and the planetary
headquarters sank beneath the waters of the sea, and
this land did not again emerge until almost every
vestige of the noble culture of those splendid ages had
been obliterated.
67:5.5
When the first capital of the world was engulfed, it
harbored only the lowest types of the Sangik races of
Urantia, renegades who had already converted the
Father's temple into a shrine dedicated to Nog, the
false god of light and fire.
6. VAN -- THE STEADFAST
67:6.1
The followers of Van early withdrew to the highlands
west of India, where they were exempt from attacks by
the confused races of the lowlands, and from which place
of retirement they planned for the rehabilitation of the
world as their early Badonite predecessors had once all
unwittingly worked for the welfare of mankind just
before the days of the birth of the Sangik tribes.
67:6.2
Before the arrival of the Melchizedek receivers, Van
placed the administration of human affairs in the hands
of ten commissions of four each, groups identical with
those of the Prince's regime. The senior resident Life
Carriers assumed temporary leadership of this council of
forty, which functioned throughout the seven years of
waiting. Similar groups of Amadonites assumed these
responsibilities when the thirty-nine loyal staff
members returned to Jerusem.
67:6.3
These Amadonites
were derived from the group of 144 loyal Andonites to
which Amadon belonged, and who have become known by his
name. This group comprised thirty-nine men and one
hundred and five women. Fifty-six of this number were of
immortality status, and all (except Amadon) were
translated along with the loyal members of the staff.
The remainder of this noble band continued on earth to
the end of their mortal days under the leadership of Van
and Amadon. They were the biologic leaven which
multiplied and continued to furnish leadership for the
world down through the long dark ages of the
postrebellion era.
67:6.4
Van was left on Urantia until the time of Adam,
remaining as titular head of all superhuman
personalities functioning on the planet. He and Amadon
were sustained by the technique of the tree of life in
conjunction with the specialized life ministry of the
Melchizedeks for over one hundred and fifty thousand
years.
67:6.5
The affairs of Urantia were for a long time administered
by a council of planetary receivers, twelve
Melchizedeks, confirmed by the mandate of the senior
constellation ruler, the Most High Father of
Norlatiadek. Associated with the Melchizedek receivers
was an advisory council consisting of: one of the loyal
aids of the fallen Prince, the two resident Life
Carriers, a Trinitized Son in apprenticeship training, a
volunteer Teacher Son, a Brilliant Evening Star of
Avalon (periodically), the chiefs of seraphim and
cherubim, advisers from two neighboring planets, the
director general of subordinate angelic life, and Van,
the commander in chief of the midway creatures. And thus
was Urantia governed and administered until the arrival
of Adam. It is not strange that the courageous and loyal
Van was assigned a place on the council of planetary
receivers which for so long administered the affairs of
Urantia.
67:6.6
The twelve Melchizedek receivers of Urantia did heroic
work. They preserved the remnants of civilization, and
their planetary policies were faithfully executed by
Van. Within one thousand years after the rebellion he
had more than three hundred and fifty advanced groups
scattered abroad in the world. These outposts of
civilization consisted largely of the descendants of the
loyal Andonites slightly admixed with the Sangik races,
particularly the blue men, and with the Nodites.
67:6.7
Notwithstanding the terrible setback of rebellion there
were many good strains of biologic promise on earth.
Under the supervision of the Melchizedek receivers, Van
and Amadon continued the work of fostering the natural
evolution of the human race, carrying forward the
physical evolution of man until it reached that
culminating attainment which warranted the dispatch of a
Material Son and Daughter to Urantia.
67:6.8
Van and Amadon remained on earth until shortly after the
arrival of Adam and Eve. Some years thereafter they were
translated to Jerusem, where Van was reunited with his
waiting Adjuster. Van now serves in behalf of Urantia
while awaiting the order to go forward on the long, long
trail to Paradise perfection and the unrevealed destiny
of the assembling Corps of Mortal Finality.
67:6.9
It should be recorded that, when Van appealed to the
Most Highs of Edentia after Lucifer had sustained
Caligastia on Urantia, the Constellation Fathers
dispatched an immediate decision sustaining Van on every
point of his contention. This verdict failed to reach
him because the planetary circuits of communication were
severed while it was in transit. Only recently was this
actual ruling discovered lodged in the possession of a
relay energy transmitter where it had been marooned ever
since the isolation of Urantia. Without this discovery,
made as the result of the investigations of the Urantia
midwayers, the release of this decision would have
awaited the restoration of Urantia to the constellation
circuits. And this apparent accident of interplanetary
communication was possible because energy transmitters
can receive and transmit intelligence, but they cannot
initiate communication.
67:6.10
The technical status of Van on the legal records of
Satania was not actually and finally settled until this
ruling of the Edentia Fathers was recorded on Jerusem.
7. REMOTE REPERCUSSIONS OF SIN
67:7.1
The personal (centripetal) consequences of the
creature's willful and persistent rejection of light are
both inevitable and individual and are of concern only
to Deity and to that personal creature. Such a
soul-destroying harvest of iniquity is the inner reaping
of the iniquitous will creature.
67:7.2
But not so with the external repercussions of sin: The
impersonal (centrifugal) consequences of embraced sin
are both inevitable and collective, being of concern to
every creature functioning within the affect-range of
such events.
67:7.3
By fifty thousand years after the collapse of the
planetary administration, earthly affairs were so
disorganized and retarded that the human race had gained
very little over the general evolutionary status
existing at the time of Caligastia's arrival three
hundred and fifty thousand years previously. In certain
respects progress had been made; in other directions
much ground had been lost.
67:7.4
Sin is never purely local in its effects. The
administrative sectors of the universes are organismal;
the plight of one personality must to a certain extent
be shared by all. Sin, being an attitude of the person
toward reality, is destined to exhibit its inherent
negativistic harvest upon any and all related levels of
universe values. But the full consequences of erroneous
thinking, evil-doing, or sinful planning are experienced
only on the level of actual performance. The
transgression of universe law may be fatal in the
physical realm without seriously involving the mind or
impairing the spiritual experience. Sin is fraught with
fatal consequences to personality survival only when it
is the attitude of the whole being, when it stands for
the choosing of the mind and the willing of the soul.
67:7.5
Evil and sin visit their consequences in material and
social realms and may sometimes even retard spiritual
progress on certain levels of universe reality, but
never does the sin of any being rob another of the
realization of the divine right of personality survival.
Eternal survival can be jeopardized only by the
decisions of the mind and the choice of the soul of the
individual himself.
67:7.6
Sin on Urantia did very little to delay biologic
evolution, but it did operate to deprive the mortal
races of the full benefit of the Adamic inheritance. Sin
enormously retards intellectual development, moral
growth, social progress, and mass spiritual attainment.
But it does not prevent the highest spiritual
achievement by any individual who chooses to know God
and sincerely do his divine will.
67:7.7
Caligastia rebelled, Adam and Eve did default, but no
mortal subsequently born on Urantia has suffered in his
personal spiritual experience because of these blunders.
Every mortal born on Urantia since Caligastia's
rebellion has been in some manner time-penalized, but
the future welfare of such souls has never been in the
least eternity-jeopardized. No person is ever made to
suffer vital spiritual deprivation because of the sin of
another. Sin is wholly personal as to moral guilt or
spiritual consequences, notwithstanding its far-flung
repercussions in administrative, intellectual, and
social domains.
67:7.8
While we cannot fathom the wisdom that permits such
catastrophes, we can always discern the beneficial
outworking of these local disturbances as they are
reflected out upon the universe at large.
8. THE HUMAN HERO OF THE REBELLION
67:8.1
The Lucifer rebellion was withstood by many courageous
beings on the various worlds of Satania; but the records
of Salvington portray Amadon as the outstanding
character of the entire system in his glorious rejection
of the flood tides of sedition and in his unswerving
devotion to Van -- they stood together unmoved in their
loyalty to the supremacy of the invisible Father and his
Son Michael.
67:8.2
At the time of these momentous transactions I was
stationed on Edentia, and I am still conscious of the
exhilaration I experienced as I perused the Salvington
broadcasts which told from day to day of the
unbelievable steadfastness, the transcendent devotion,
and the exquisite loyalty of this onetime semisavage
springing from the experimental and original stock of
the Andonic race.
67:8.3
From Edentia up through Salvington and even on to
Uversa, for seven long years the first inquiry of all
subordinate celestial life regarding the Satania
rebellion, ever and always, was: "What of Amadon of
Urantia, does he still stand unmoved?"
67:8.4
If the Lucifer rebellion has handicapped the local
system and its fallen worlds, if the loss of this Son
and his misled associates has temporarily hampered the
progress of the constellation of Norlatiadek, then weigh
the effect of the far-flung presentation of the
inspiring performance of this one child of nature and
his determined band of 143 comrades in standing
steadfast for the higher concepts of universe management
and administration in the face of such tremendous and
adverse pressure exerted by his disloyal superiors. And
let me assure you, this has already done more good in
the universe of Nebadon and the superuniverse of
Orvonton than can ever be outweighed by the sum total of
all the evil and sorrow of the Lucifer rebellion.
67:8.5
And all this is a beautifully touching and superbly
magnificent illumination of the wisdom of the Father's
universal plan for mobilizing the Corps of Mortal
Finality on Paradise and for recruiting this vast group
of mysterious servants of the future largely from the
common clay of the mortals of ascending progression --
just such mortals as the impregnable Amadon.
67:8.6
Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.
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