Appendix 2 – Bringers of Light
Planetary Prince
The first Epochal Revelation was five hundred thousand years ago when our planetary prince, Caligastia, arrived to take over leadership of this planet and to guide its inhabitants toward a fuller understanding of themselves, the nature of God and His creation.[1] While Caligastia is invisible to mortals, he brought with him one hundred physical beings similar in appearance to our ancestors and who were therefore able to interact with the mortals of the realm who had been evolving for about five hundred thousand years at that time.[2]
During the first three hundred thousand years of our planetary prince, events proceeded normally. The one hundred physical beings, called the corporeal staff, organized themselves into ten commissions, which included areas of importance to the progress of society. These commissions were: the council on food and material welfare, board of animal domestication, conquest of predatory animals, conservation of knowledge, commission of industry and trade, college of revealed religion, guardians of health and life, council of art and science, governors of advanced tribal relations, council of tribal coordination and racial cooperation.[3]
The staff of the planetary prince proclaimed seven commandments that were the law for three hundred thousand years; these were: you shall serve only the Father of all, you shall respect the superhuman associates of the planetary prince, you shall not lie when called before judges, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not touch your friend’s wife, you shall respect your parents and the elders of the tribe.[4] For three hundred thousand years events proceeded normally and our ancestors were guided gradually into a higher civilization.
Caligastia’s superior in the local government, the system sovereign who oversees about a thousand inhabited planets, was a brilliant being; after passing through the universe training schools his boss was ranked number 37 out of more than seven hundred thousand similar beings.[5] He subsequently became the sovereign of our local system; more than two hundred thousand years ago he went into open rebellion against higher authority. Caligastia’s boss was Lucifer and his assistant was Satan, both of whom are mentioned in the Bible.[6] Caligastia joined the Lucifer rebellion against the universe government; this event was a disaster for the nascent civilization on our planet.
Lucifer is relatively unknown on Earth because he sent his assistant, Satan, to the various planets to persuade their Planetary Princes to go into rebellion. Of the more than six hundred inhabited planets in our local system at that time, thirty seven went into rebellion.[7] While this is only a small portion, the havoc caused by this betrayal was devastating on the affected planets; Lucifer, with his assistant Satan, brought a very real evil into the lives of many billions of beings; while we have been unnecessarily exposed to this evil, we still have the free will to spiritually rise above it and chose a better life, an eternal life, for ourselves.
The rebellion was declared about two hundred thousand years ago and the charges were blasphemous. The first charge was God does not exist; the natural forces were inherent in the universe.[8] There have been such claims among our philosophers and radical theologians who state the same thing; there was even a Time magazine cover story to that effect on April 8, 1966.[9] The second charge was the local systems should rule themselves without interference from the universe government.[10] Lucifer declared resurrection was automatic and everyone would live forever were it not for interference by higher authorities. He urged his followers to believe if men and angels had courage and asserted themselves, they could have home rule.[11] The final charge was that too much time was wasted on training ascendant mortals, beings like us after survival of death.[12]
Self-assertion was his rallying cry;[13] he declared each of us must assert our rights and seek our own personal liberty. This doctrine of selfishness and greed has appeal even to some in our own times.
There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness. Only true and genuine liberty is compatible with the reign of love and the ministry of mercy.[14]
One of the consequences of the rebellion was to bring sin into our world.[15] As a result of the betrayal of Caligastia, events on our native sphere have been severely affected.[16] An immediate consequence of the rebellion, and one that is still in place, is that the communication lines between our planet and the rest of creation have been severed; we are not allowed to receive messages from outside our planet.[17] One reason we feel isolated is because of this communications blackout, a direct consequence of the rebellion.
Once the rebellion took place, the entire system was isolated so the rebellion could not spread any further, including all interplanetary communications within the system as well.[18] If the rebels cannot exchange messages outside of their planets, or outside the system, the rebellion cannot spread further.
Before this rebellion our planet had made progress, the light of truth was being gradually introduced; as a result of Caligastia’s betrayal, the cultural gains since his arrival were mostly lost and the consequences are still being felt by all of us today. An understanding of this betrayal is necessary for us to comprehend the problems of our existence on our native sphere.[19] We all have lived with the consequences of his actions and all human history has been altered[20] in such a way that this abnormal planet appears to us to be the way things should be. It is as if we lived upside down all our lives and are certain this is the natural state of things. His betrayal precipitated world-wide confusion and robbed all subsequent generations of the moral assistance which a well-ordered society would have provided.[21]
Even though the progress of society has been greatly altered by this rebellion we as individuals have not been 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.[22] Each of us makes our own moral decisions; our external environment may be drastically altered by the actions of others but our internal reality, what we choose to do and become within, is entirely under our own control. We cannot claim “the devil made me do it.”
The shadow of a hair’s turning, premeditated for an untrue purpose, the slightest twisting or perversion of that which is principle — these constitute falseness[23].
When we make the slightest compromise with evil, when we make the slightest assertion of our own rights over those of others, this constitutes falseness. Evil may reside in the smallest of decisions and if we follow these small decisions we could be heading into falseness or possibly worse. Caligastia chose to follow Lucifer in open rebellion; this was certainly nothing as subtle as a hair’s turning. Caligastia thought God’s plan could be improved upon; the result was total disaster.
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All references are to The Urantia Book unless noted otherwise. The number refers to the single column version in the format page.paragraph, 741.2 ↑
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742.3 ↑
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745.8-749.2 ↑
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751.4 – 751.10 ↑
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601.1 ↑
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Lucifer, Isiah 14:12 (King James version, not in American Standard Version); Satan, Revelation 12:9 ↑
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609.3 ↑
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603.3 ↑
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www.albertmohler.com/2009/09/21/looking-back-time-asks-is-God-dead/ ↑
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603.4 ↑
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603.5 ↑
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604.1 ↑
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604.4 ↑
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614.3 ↑
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1660.5 ↑
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754.3 ↑
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755.5 ↑
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607.4 ↑
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754.1 ↑
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752.4 ↑
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382.4 ↑
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761.6 ↑
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555.1 ↑