The Inhabited Universe

Book excerpt: THE URANTIA REVELATION was presented by celestial authors through an anonymous human receiver. It was published in 1955 as The Urantia Book, a 2097-page volume divided into 196 papers. These papers describe God, the grand universe and its many inhabitants, the origin and history of our planet, the life and teachings of Jesus, and the glorious destiny God has planned for every creature throughout his vast domains-an endless life of boundless opportunity and unlimited progress. The Inhabited Universe consists of sixteen papers from the Urantia revelation. It focuses on the many worlds we will encounter as we journey through the universe, worlds teeming with life, both human and superhuman. " 'God is spirit, ' but Paradise is not. The material universe is always the arena wherein take place all spiritual activities; spirit beings and spirit ascenders live and work on physical spheres of material reality." (Paper 12, "The Universe of Universes") "Spirit beings do not dwell in nebulous space; they do not inhabit ethereal worlds; they are domiciled on actual spheres of a material nature, worlds just as real as those on which mortals live. The Havona worlds are actual and literal, albeit their literal substance differs from the material organization of the planets of the seven superuniverses." (Paper 14, "The Central and Divine Universe") "There is a great and glorious purpose in the march of the universes through space. All of your mortal struggling is not in vain. We are all part of an immense plan, a gigantic enterprise, and it is the vastness of the undertaking that renders it impossible to see very much of it at any one time and during any one life. We are all a part of an eternal project which the Gods are supervising and outworking. The whole marvelous and universal mechanism moves on majestically through space to the music of the meter of the infinite thought and the eternal purpose of the First Great Source and Center." (Paper 32, "The Evolution of Local Universes")