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The Urantia Book
Fellowship
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The
Story of Everything
An
abridged edition of The Urantia Book
Paper
74: Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve had been employed in the physical laboratories of Jerusem for fifteen thousand years when they were selected for their mission to Urantia. The volunteer pool from which they were chosen included the entire senior corps of Material Sons and Daughters. Adam and Eve were thoroughly instructed concerning every danger and duty awaiting them on their strife-torn planet.
Leaving behind fifty sons and fifty daughters, Adam and Eve left Edentia for Earth almost thirty-eight thousand years ago. After being rematerialized in the Father's temple, they were greeted by Van, Amadon, and a large audience of supporters. Adam spoke to the Garden dwellers of his plans for the rehabilitation of the world. Concurrent with their formal installation as the new rulers of the world, the broadcast voice of Gabriel decreed that a new dispensation-the Age of Adam-had begun, and the sleeping survivors from the age of the Planetary Prince were resurrected on the mansion worlds.
Adam and Eve's second day on Urantia was spent learning details of the tragic history of the planet. On subsequent days they toured the garden, addressed the garden assembly, organized a temporary government, and inspected the various men and animals. On the seventh day they rested. The fable that our planet was created in six days was based on this period of time that Adam and Eve spent in surveying the Garden.
The Garden dwellers wholeheartedly accepted Adam and Eve as their rulers. After seven years, the Melchizedeks returned to Jerusem. Van and Amadon, who had been on Urantia for over four hundred and fifty thousand years, left with the Melchizedeks. The Material Son and Daughter were alone with their enormous task.
Eve bore sixty-three children who enjoyed a great appreciation for music, play, and humor. They attended school until they were sixteen, were betrothed at eighteen, and were allowed to marry at twenty.
The purpose of the schools of Eden was socialization. Younger children were taught by their siblings about healthcare, the golden rule, the relationship of individual rights to group rights, the history and cultures of the earth races, world trade, coordination of conflicting duties, play, humor, and competitive substitutes for fighting. Mornings were devoted to horticulture and agriculture, afternoons to competitive play, and evenings to developing social skills and friendships. Public worship was at noon, family worship at sunset.
For a while all went fairly well. Adam and Eve tried to teach sex equality and improve worship by substituting offerings of fruit for animal sacrifice. They fostered trade relations and manufacturing, and began to establish laws and social organization. Yet whenever they tried to work outside the Garden, trouble arose. Caligastia, still present on earth, resisted all plans for the rehabilitation of society. Although Adam had a difficult task leading these mixed and mongrel savages in the better way, the more intelligent of the races looked forward to a future time when they would be permitted to intermarry with the children of the violet race.