Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 48
THE MORONTIA LIFE
1. The Gods cannot—at least they do not—transform a creature of gross animal nature into a perfected spirit by some mysterious act of creative magic ...Such beliefs are but ignorant superstitions and pleasing fables...The morontia realms are the local universe liaison spheres between the material and spiritual levels of creature existence.
2. All of those worlds are architectural spheres, and they have just double the number of elements of the evolved planets. Such made‑to‑order worlds not only abound in the heavy metals and crystals, having one hundred physical elements, but likewise have exactly one hundred forms of a unique energy organization called morontia material.
3. The Morontia Power Supervisors are able to effect a union of material and of spiritual energies, thereby organizing a morontia form of materialization which is receptive to the superimposition of a controlling spirit ...From the time of leaving the material worlds until you are constituted a first‑stage spirit on Salvington, you will undergo just 570 separate and. ascending morontia changes.
4. Morontia Power Supervisors are the offspring of a local universe Mother Spirit... They are the channels of morontia power which sustain and energize the morontia phases of the transition worlds.
5. When mansion world ascenders pass from one sphere to another, they are delivered by the transport seraphim to the receivers of the system co‑ordinators on the advanced world. Here...the necessary changes in creature form are skillfully effected by the system co‑ordinators. These early morontia‑form changes require about seven days of standard time for their accomplishment ...After the mansion worlds have been traversed, you will translate from one phase of morontia life to another without having to surrender consciousness. Unconsciousness attends only the earlier metamorphoses and the later transitions from one universe to another and from Havana to Paradise.
6. While the basic morontia forms of life and matter are identical from the first mansion world to the last universe transition sphere, there is a functional progression which gradually extends from the material to the spiritual...You may repeatedly subject yourself to the test of these examiners, and as soon as you register adequate spiritual achievement, they will gladly certify you for advanced standing. These progressive changes result in altered reactions to the morontia environment, such as modifications in food requirements and numerous other personal practices.
7. There are two distinct types of Morontia Companions; one type is aggressive, the other retiring, but otherwise they are equal in status ...They serve under the general supervision of the Sons of God and under the immediate direction of the Melchizedeks...The midway creatures of the worlds are your nearest of kin; then come the morontia cherubim, and after them the Morontia Companions. These companions are touchingly affectionate and charmingly social beings.
8. One of them (Morontia Companions) will certainly be on hand to welcome you when you awaken on the initial mansion world from the first transit sleep of time...They are the instructors of social conduct and morontia progress ...You will not acquire new languages automatically; you will learn a language over there much as you do down here, and these brilliant beings will be your language teachers. The first study on the mansion worlds will be the tongue of Satania and then the language of Nebadon...These companions will accompany you on the longer trips to the headquarters sphere and to the surrounding worlds of transition culture.. .You can forecast that these beings are probably going to contribute much to your enjoyment of the mansion worlds, whether your sojourn is to be long or short. And you will continue to enjoy them all the way up to Salvington.
9. Joyful mirth and the smile‑equivalent are as universal as music. There is a morontial and a spiritual equivalent of mirth and laughter. The ascendant life is about equally divided between work and play—freedom from assignment...The Morontia Companions are skillful play sponsors, and they are most ably supported by the reversion directors. You would probably best understand the work of the reversion directors if they were likened to the higher types of humorists on Urantia.
10. Our humor embraces three general levels of appreciation:
1. Reminiscent jests. Quips growing out of the memories of past episodes in one's experience of combat, struggle, and sometimes fearfulness, arid ofttimes foolish and childish anxiety...
2. Current humor. The senselessness of much that so often causes us serious concern, the joy at discovering the unimportance of much of our serious personal anxiety...
3. Prophetic joy. It will perhaps be difficult for mortals to envisage this phase of humor, but we do get a peculiar satisfaction out of the assurance "that all things work together for good" —for spirits and morontians as well as for mortals.
11. The early experiences of the race or the order are restful to reminisce...When we are tempted to magnify our self‑importance, if we stop to contemplate the infinity of the greatness and grandeur of our Makers, our own self‑glorification becomes sublimely ridiculous, even verging on the humorous. One of the functions of humor is to help all of us take ourselves less seriously. Humor is the divine antidote for exaltation of ego.
12. The higher the mortal species, the greater the stress and the greater the capacity for humor as well as the necessity for it...Humor should function as an automatic safety valve to prevent the building up of excessive pressures due to the monotony of sustained and serious self‑contemplation in association with the intense struggle for developmental progress and noble achievement. Humor also functions to lessen the shock of the unexpected impact of fact or of truth…Even on Urantia and as you now are, you always find it rejuvenating when for a short time you can suspend the exertions of the newer and higher intellectual efforts and revert to the more simple engagements of your ancestors. The principles of Urantia play life are philosophically sound.
13. The Mansion World Teachers are a corps of deserted. but glorified cherubim and sanobim... These teachers often visit the material worlds and function from the lowest mansion worlds on up to the highest of the educational spheres connected with the universe headquarters. Upon their own motion they may return to their former associative work with the ministering seraphim.
14. There are no royal roads, short cuts, or easy paths to Paradise ...One of the purposes of the morontia career is to effect the permanent eradication from the mortal survivors of such animal vestigial traits as procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking. The mansonia life early teaches the young morontia pupils that postponement is in no sense avoidance.
15. Morontia World Seraphim—Transition Ministers ...are of the sixth order of seraphic servers and their ministry is devoted to facilitating the transit of material and mortal creatures from the temporal life in the flesh on into the early stages of morontia existence on the seven mansion worlds.
16. On the mansion worlds the seraphic evangel will help you to choose wisely among the optional routes to Edentia, Salvington, Uversa, and Havona...You are not given unrestricted choice as to your future course; but you may choose within the limits of that which the transition ministers and their superiors wisely determine to be most suitable for your future spirit attainment. The spirit world is governed on the principle of respecting your freewill choice provided the course you may choose is not detrimental to you or injurious to your fellows.
17. These seraphic evangels are dedicated to the proclamation of the gospel of eternal progression, the triumph of perfection attainment. On the mansion worlds they proclaim the great law of the conservation and dominance of goodness: No act of good is ever wholly lost; it may be long thwarted but never wholly annulled, and it is eternally potent in proportion to the divinity of its motivation.
18. On the worlds of time the seraphic racial interpreters further the efforts of the race commissioners to harmonize the varied viewpoints of the races, and they continue to function on the mansion worlds, where these same differences tend to persist in a measure. On a confused planet, such as Urantia, these brilliant beings have hardly had a fair opportunity to function, but they are the skillful sociologists and the wise ethnic advisers of the first heaven.
19. Mind Planners...are devoted to the effective grouping of morontia beings and to organizing their teamwork on the mansion worlds. They are the psychologists of the first heaven…They respect your newborn morontia will; they regard you as independent volitional beings, and they seek to encourage your speedy development and advancement. Here you are face to face with true friends and understanding counselors, angels who are really able to help you "to see yourself as others see you" and "to know yourself as angels know you."
20. Morontia Counselors…are the teachers of those who seek insight into the experiential unity of divergent life levels, those who are attempting the integration of meanings and the unification of values. This is the function of philosophy in mortal life, of mota on the morontia spheres. Mota is more than a superior philosophy; it is to philosophy as two eyes are to one; it has a stereoscopic effect on meanings and values.
21. Recorder‑Teachers…are the ideal instructors of all fact seekers. Before leaving Jerusem, you will become quite familiar with the history of Satania and its 619 inhabits worlds ...Some day they will teach you to seek truth as well as fact, to expand your soul as well as your mind. Even now you should learn to water the garden of your heart as well as to seek for the dry sands of knowledge. Forms are valueless when lessons are learned. No chick may be had without the shell, and no shell is of any worth after the chick is hatched...One can be technically right as to fact and everlastingly wrong in the truth.
22. Ministering Reserves…Next to the destiny guardians, these transition ministers draw the nearest to humans of all orders of seraphim, and many of your leisure moments will be spent with them...From them you will learn to let pressure develop stability and certainty; to be faithful and earnest and, withal, cheerful; to accept challenges without complaint and to face difficulties and uncertainties without fear ...Even as mortals, so have these angels been father to many disappointments, and they will point out that sometimes your most disappointing disappointments have become your greatest blessings.
23. You will learn that you increase your burdens and decrease the likelihood of success by taking yourself too seriously. Nothing can take precedence ever the work of your status sphere —this world or the next ...When you feel important, you lose energy to the wear and tear of ego dignity so that there is little energy left to do the work. Self-importance, not work‑importance, exhausts immature creatures; It is the self element that exhausts, not the effort to achieve. You can do important work if you do not become self‑important; you can do several things as easily as one if you leave yourself out. Variety in restful; monotony is what wears and exhausts.
24. The lower planes of morontia mota join directly with the higher levels of human philosophy ...Few mortals ever dare to draw anything like the sum of personality credits established by the combined ministries of nature and grace. The majority of impoverished souls are truly rich, but they refuse to believe it...To enjoy privilege without abuse, to have liberty without license, to possess power and steadfastly refuse to use it for self‑aggrandizement—these are the marks of high civilization...The greatest affliction of the cosmos is never to have been afflicted. Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation…
Whet the appetites of your associates for truth; give advice only when it is asked for ...Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet's nest ...Anxiety must be abandoned. The disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come ...The evolving soul is not made divine by what it does, but by what it strives to do...Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love. Progress demands development of individuality; mediocrity seeks perpetuation in standardization.
25. The mortal‑survival plan has a practical and serviceable objective; you are not the recipients of all this divine labor and painstaking training only that you may survive just to enjoy endless bliss and eternal ease. There is a goal of transcendent service concealed beyond the horizon of the present universe age…In traversing the ascending scale of living existence from mortal man to the Deity embrace, you actually live the very life of every possible phase and stage of perfected creature existence within the limits of the present universe age.
Discussion Questions
1. What is the advantage of the slow growth process of evolution?
2. How has the knowledge of the morontia life found expression in present-day religions?
3. Why do you think our sense of humor is better than our music or art?
4. How do we prepare for the immensity of our future education?
5. How do we guard against holding “fossilized truth?”
6. How do we face disappointment creatively?
7. How do we avoid impatience in our lives and not become stagnant in our growth?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship