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The Urantia Book
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The
Story of Everything
An
abridged edition of The Urantia Book
Paper
50: The Planetary Princes
A Planetary Prince is a Lanonandek Son charged with organizing and administrating an inhabited sphere. Every planet receives a Planetary Prince soon after intelligent evolutionary beings have been developed by the Life Carriers. Planetary Princes are severely tested but seldom fail.
The Prince's staff consists of personalities of the Infinite Spirit, high evolved beings, and ascending mortals. The staff organizes schools where the highest members of the evolutionary races engage in physical labor, social activity, vocational training, and spiritual culture. A keen rivalry usually develops among indigenous people seeking to gain entrance into the Prince's schools. Eventually, an uplifting and civilizing influence begins to emanate into the evolving races by way of the graduates of the Prince's training.
The progress of civilization is not alike on any two planets, but an average world passes through the following seven stages of development:
The nutrition epoch-when the quest for food is the primary focus.
The security age-when attention is paid to increasing personal and clan security.
The material comfort era-when people use their new leisure to seek personal comfort.
The quest for knowledge and wisdom-a time for the development of culture.
The epoch of philosophy and brotherhood-when people become interested in ethics and accurate judgment.
The age of spiritual striving-when people seek spiritual satisfactions and cosmic understandings.
The era of light and life-during which the blend of human accomplishments produces cosmic unity and unselfish service.
When compared to normal worlds, Urantia seems intellectually confused and spiritually retarded, but we should not imagine that life on other worlds is easy. A mortal's first life is always attended by struggle. Urantia's isolation provides a unique opportunity for faith development. Surviving Urantians will be known on Jerusem as agondonters-evolutionary will creatures who can believe without seeing, persevere when isolated, and triumph over difficulties even when alone. This distinct grouping persists even into the Corps of the Mortal Finality.