The Cosmic Citizen

Happy New Year cosmic citizens! We kick of the New Year with a study of Paper 84, Marriage and Family Life. That family and marriage are evolutionary institutions deserving our full appreciation and study is poorly understood.  Like much in our society, we do not truly comprehend the fundamental building block of wider society and civilzation that makes for a good or poorly functioning society.  The primary supernaphim who is our second chief of seraphim on this planet to function since the bestowal of Michael, is more than conversant with our social evolution. Material necessity founded marriage, sex hunger embellished it, religion sanctioned and exalted it, the state demanded and regulated it, while in later times evolving love is beginning to justify and glorify marriage as the ancestor and creator of civilization’s most useful and sublime institution, the home. And home building should be the center and essence of all educational effort. Mating is purely an act of self-perpetuation associated with varying degrees of self-gratification; marriage, home building, is largely a matter of self-maintenance, and it implies the evolution of society. Society itself is the aggregated structure of family units. Individuals are very temporary as planetary factors — only families are continuing agencies in social evolution. The family is the channel through which the river of culture and knowledge flows from one generation to another. (931.1–2) 84:0.1–2  Marriage was not needed by primitive man, who indulged his sex appetite freely without encumbering himself with the responsibilities of wife, children, and home. (931.4) 84:1.1  In early times all descent was reckoned in the female line, that being the only part of inheritance which was at all certain. (932.7) 84:2.1 Please join us as we start this study! http://tobtr.com/12041117

This week we are featuring a special interview on an important topic, Restorative Justice. Our guest expert is Officer Mike Butler.  Restorative justice (RJ) leverages the principles of forgiveness, apology, relationship, respect, chosen accountability and repair in responding to those who have committed crimes and those who have been victimized by crimes. It redefines the nature of the meaning of justice as it seeks to see people through the lens of their goodness rather than the lens of their deficiencies. It is a viable alternative to the worn out and ineffective criminal justice system.  Mike Butler's career with the police spans 42 years. It began as a police officer with the Boulder Police Department in Colorado. He later transferred to the Longmont Police Department, where he eventually became Chief of Police. While serving as Chief of Police in Longmont, and then as Public Safety Chief, he has heavily emphasized the importance of community policing and its role in bringing together the public and the police to improve public safety. As the Public Safety Chief for the city of Longmont, Mike oversees police, fire, and support services. Under his leadership, Longmont pioneered mental health programs such as the Edge Program, which pairs mental health professionals with police officers to reduce ER visits and jail time, and the Angel Program, which prevents overdoses by providing opioid blocking medication and helps people struggling with addiction find treatment.  Mike raised his five daughters in Longmont, Colorado, where he still lives with his partner, Carol. He has been a student of The Urantia Book since 1978. He continues to work passionately for restorative justice.

Between our interview on Restorative Justice, with Mike Butler, on Saturday the 18th, and because we will be off on Christmas, we thought it would be great to have a special Tribute to Jesus show this week, in honor of the Holiday Season and Christmas.  We'll be reading from primarily two very important sections in The Urantia Book.  *  Paper 171, Section 7: "As Jesus Passed By" "Jesus spread good cheer everywhere he went. He was full of grace and truth. His associates never ceased to wonder at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. You can cultivate gracefulness, but graciousness is the aroma of friendliness which emanates from a love-saturated soul." *  Paper 100, Section 7: The Acme of Religious Living "The unfailing kindness of Jesus touched the hearts of men, but his stalwart strength of character amazed his followers. He was truly sincere; there was nothing of the hypocrite in him. He was free from affectation; he was always so refreshingly genuine." As always, there will be many spontaneous cross references on the nature and mission of Jesus, and we want to invite our listeners to please join in. If you wish to share a loving tribute to Jesus, call 646-716-8158, then press the "1" key to raise your hand. This lets us know that you wish to comment on air, during the live show. Otherwise, we'll think you just want to listen.  We hope you can join us for this joyful tribute to our beloved Father/Brother....Jesus.   Happy Holidays from the Cosmic Citizen crew!

We're back Saturday with Part 11 of our study of Urantia Paper 55 - The Spheres of Light and Life, and we'll be reading Section 11. The Minor and Major Sector Stages. The minor sector age. As far as observations can penetrate, the fifth or minor sector stage of stabilization has exclusively to do with physical status and with the co-ordinate settling of the one hundred associated local universes in the established circuits of the superuniverse. Apparently none but the power centers and their associates are concerned in these realignments of the material creation. The major sector age. Concerning the sixth stage, or major sector stabilization, we can only conjecture since none of us have witnessed such an event. Nevertheless, we can postulate much concerning the administrative and other readjustments which would probably accompany such an advanced status of inhabited worlds and their universe groupings.  Since the minor sector status has to do with co-ordinate physical equilibrium, we infer that major sector unification will be concerned with certain new intellectual levels of attainment, possibly some advanced achievements in the supreme realization of cosmic wisdom. (635.4–6) 55:11.2–4  It is by observing what takes place on long-settled worlds that we arrive at fairly reliable conclusions as to what will happen when a whole superuniverse is settled in light, even if we cannot safely postulate the event of the stabilization of the seven superuniverses. (636.1) 55:11.8 Please join us this week as we explore what it looks like when one billion and one hundred billion inhabited worlds reach their apex of evolution, that is, when they reach Light and Life. http://tobtr.com/12034923

We're back this weekend with Part 10 of our study of Urantia Paper 55 - The Spheres of Light and Life, and we'll be reading Section 10. The Fourth or Local Universe Stage. Scientists are still speculating whether or not there is life on other planets. The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has gone on in earnest for decades. Perhaps soon, the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to show us what we've never seen, other inhabited worlds. Sooner or later, irrefutable evidence of life on other worlds will be presented to on our world. What changes will that revelation bring about on earth? Stop to consider that before Hubble showed us how big the cosmos is, The Urantia Book explained its immensity in great detail. The Urantia Book explains that there are millions of universes and trillions of inhabited planets, but that was not commonly believed in the early part of the 20th Century. The Urantia Book has depicted a cosmos that is bigger than ever imagined and is unequivocally teaming with growing, evolving, and intelligent life. Urantia Paper 55 describes the evolution of this living universe. Showing evolution of each part and the whole, to the apex stages of LIGHT and LIFE.  In our study we have so far explored these sections: 1.The Morontia Temple, 2.Death and Translation, 3.The Golden Ages, 4.Administrative Readjustments, 5.The Acme of Material Development, 6.The Individual Mortal, 7.The First or Planetary Stage, 8.The Second or System Stage, 9.The Third or Constellation Stage and this week it will be 10.The Fourth or Local Universe Stage. We may get to 11.The Minor and Major Sector Stages too. That will leave only 12.The Seventh or Superuniverse Stage to be explored.  Please join us this week as we explore what it looks like when 10 million inhabited worlds reach their apex of evolution, that is, when they reach Light and Life.

We continue §7 with a study of the constellation and local universe stages of light and life and their implications for the new adjustments made possible by such mutual attainment of the high planetary civilizations by these larger organizations of inhabited worlds.  What developments might humanity anticipate both within and without the realms of our present abilities to conceive? When a constellation is thus settled in light, the legislative function ceases, and the house of System Sovereigns, presided over by the Most Highs, functions instead. Now, for the first time, such administrative groups deal directly with the superuniverse government in matters pertaining to Havona and Paradise relationships. Otherwise the constellation remains related to the local universe as before. From stage to stage in the settled life the univitatia continue to administer the constellation morontia worlds. (633.5) 55:9.2 When a universe becomes settled in light and life, it soon swings into the established superuniverse circuits, and the Ancients of Days proclaim the establishment of the supreme council of unlimited authority. This new governing body consists of the one hundred Faithfuls of Days, presided over by the Union of Days, and the first act of this supreme council is to acknowledge the continued sovereignty of the Master Creator Son. (634.1) 55:10.1 The Creator Sons of such settled universes spend much of their time on Paradise and its associated worlds and in counseling the numerous finaliter groups ... In this way the man of Michael will find a fuller fraternity of association with the glorified finaliter mortals. ...There seems to be evolving a new and sublime relationship between the Creator Son, the Creative Spirit, the Evening Stars, the Teacher Sons, and the ever-increasing finaliter corps. (634.8,9) 55:10.8,9 Please join us! http://tobtr.com/12020941

We are fully immersed in our study of Paper 55, The Spheres of Light and Life. So far, we've covered the first 6 sections of this marvelous paper. We've studied 1.The Morontia Temple, 2.Death and Translation, 3.The Golden Ages, 4.Administrative Readjustments, 5.The Acme of Material Development and 6.The Individual Mortal.  The final attainment of an evolutionary world is the age of light and life. Once attained, the era of light and life continues forever. Most people who live on worlds in the advanced stages of light and life do not die; they are translated directly to the next phase of existence through fusion.  Entire universes pass through stages of light and life. The first stage begins when a single planet settles in light and life; the second stage occurs when a whole system is settled. The third is the constellation stage and the fourth is the local universe stage. The fifth and sixth stages (minor and major sectors) are relatively insignificant, but the seventh stage when an entire superuniverse settles in light and life may trigger sweeping changes in the entire superuniverse. The Mighty Messenger that authored this paper speculates that Machiventa Melchizedek, now the vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia, will occupy the seat of the Planetary Sovereign; and hints that he may be accompanied by a son and daughter of our own Adam and Eve who are currently on Edentia. This is just some of the intrigue this wonderful paper presents. Please join us as we explore together the marvelous discoveries to be made in The Urantia Book. Teachings that assure us that we are all evolving together, and though we cannot cause growth, we can supply favorable conditions for it. Evolution is the cosmic technique of growth. We're on our way to Light and Life, and Paper 55 shows us this. It may be far into the future but it's a destiny we CAN and WILL achieve.

We begin §6. The Individual Mortal in Paper 55, The Spheres of Light and Life, and will surely recap §5. The Acme of Material Development before proceeding. As worlds advance in the settled status of light and life, society becomes increasingly peaceful. The individual, while no less independent and devoted to his family, has become more altruistic and fraternal. On Urantia, and as you are, you can have little appreciation of the advanced status and progressive nature of the enlightened races of these perfected worlds. These people are the flowering of the evolutionary races. But such beings are still mortal; they continue to breathe, eat, sleep, and drink. This great evolution is not heaven, but it is a sublime foreshadowing of the divine worlds of the Paradise ascent. (630.4–5) 55:6.1–2 We conceive that physical evolution will have attained its full development by the end of the fifth epoch of the light-and-life era. We observe that the upper limits of spiritual development associated with evolving human mind are determined by the Adjuster-fusion level of conjoint morontia values and cosmic meanings. But concerning wisdom: While we do not really know, we conjecture that there can never be a limit to intellectual evolution and the attainment of wisdom. On a seventh-stage world, wisdom can exhaust the material potentials, enter upon mota insight, and eventually even taste of absonite grandeur. We observe that on these highly evolved and long seventh-stage worlds human beings fully learn the local universe language before they are translated; and I have visited a few very old planets where abandonters were teaching the older mortals the tongue of the superuniverse. And on these worlds I have observed the technique whereby the absonite personalities reveal the presence of the finaliters in the morontia temple. (631.1–2) 55:6.5–6 Join us! http://tobtr.com/12015054

We resume with ¶20 of §4. Administrative Readjustments, continuing into §5. The Acme of Material Development and §6. The Individual Mortal. On the evolutionary worlds a being must humanize to receive a Thought Adjuster. All ascendant members of the Mortal Corps of Finaliters have been Adjuster indwelt and fused except seraphim, and they are Father indwelt by another type of spirit at the time of being mustered into this corps. (629.9) 55:4.31 Mortal creatures living on a sin-stricken, evil-dominated, self-seeking, isolated world, such as Urantia, can hardly conceive of the physical perfection, the intellectual attainment, and the spiritual development which characterize these advanced epochs of evolution on a sinless sphere. (629.10) 55:5.1  War has become a matter of history, and there are no more armies or police forces. Government is gradually disappearing. Self-control is slowly rendering laws of human enactment obsolete. The extent of civil government and statutory regulation, in an intermediate state of advancing civilization, is in inverse proportion to the morality and spirituality of the citizenship. Schools are vastly improved and are devoted to the training of mind and the expansion of soul. The art centers are exquisite and the musical organizations superb. The temples of worship with their associated schools of philosophy and experiential religion are creations of beauty and grandeur. The open-air arenas of worship assembly are equally sublime in the simplicity of their artistic appointment. (630.1–2) 55:5.4–5 As worlds advance in the settled status of light and life, society becomes increasingly peaceful. The individual, while no less independent and devoted to his family, has become more altruistic and fraternal. (630.4) 55:6.1 Please join us!  http://tobtr.com/12014482

We resume our series on Paper 55 The Spheres of Light and Life with §4. Administrative Readjustments. (627.2) 55:4.4 1. The first stage of light and life. A world in this initial settled stage is being administered by three rulers: (627.3) 55:4.5 a. The Planetary Sovereign, presently to be advised by a counseling Trinity Teacher Son, in all probability the chief of the terminal corps of such Sons to function on the planet. (627.4) 55:4.6 b. The chief of the planetary corps of finaliters. (627.5) 55:4.7 c. Adam and Eve, who function jointly as the unifiers of the dual leadership of the Prince-Sovereign and the chief of finaliters. (627.6) 55:4.8 Acting as interpreters for the seraphic guardians and the finaliters are the exalted and liberated midway creatures. One of the last acts of the Trinity Teacher Sons on their terminal mission is to liberate the midwayers of the realm and to promote (or restore) them to advanced planetary status, assigning them to responsible places in the new administration of the settled sphere. Such changes have already been made in the range of human vision as enable mortals to recognize these heretofore invisible cousins of the early Adamic regime. This is made possible by the final discoveries of physical science in liaison with the enlarged planetary functions of the Master Physical Controllers. (628.7) 55:4.19 The finaliters are chiefly engaged in initiating the new and supermaterial activities of society — social, cultural, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual.  (628.8) 55:4.20 5. The fifth stage of light and life. The readjustments of this stage of settled existence pertain almost entirely to the physical domains and are of primary concern to the Master Physical Controllers. Please join us! http://tobtr.com/12008924