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Rebellious Reflections

It is a rather peculiar that Lucifer was designated as number 37 of his order, 53:0.1, and that in the rebellion he instituted 37 Planetary Princes joined him, 53:7.1. We are taught that his rebellion was the most widespread of all those instigated by the Primary Lanonandeks, of which there were three. If we were to apply the Pareto Principle and presume that the planets lost to the Lucifer rebellion were 80% of all those lost, that would suggest that the other three comprised 20% of the total. We could round these numbers up to an even fifty. So, that means, out of [a potential] ten million inhabited planets only 50 are rebellion tested. This would suggest that of all the planets in a Local System only 0.000005% produce Agondonters.

It is believed that our universe has had so much trouble with Lanonandek’s because our Michael has endowed them with ‘such a large degree of personal liberty.’ 35:9:8 (393.8) This would suggest that other Local Universes probably have considerably less than 0.000005%. This would place our planet in an exceptionally unique position in universe affairs: not only has it suffered rebellion worse compounded by Adamic defaults, but our Creator Son chose this sphere as his Nativity Sphere. It’s hard to appreciate the significance of all these things from within.

A close reading of the text divulges the apparent profound innocence of the celestial orders. For the angelic orders, used to countless eons of evolving stability and order, rebellion is profoundly unsettling – unimaginably so. 99.999% would never have encountered anything like this. They would never have been called upon to go against a superior 53:3.1. Never have experienced desertion by celestial brethren and absolutely never could have even dreamed a scenario so horrific as their own celestial brethren contriving to actually murder them 53:6.3! The vast majority of celestials would never have been tested like this. Nor would there be many tales to fall back on. Indeed, with so much good to contemplate and accomplish one imagines that few of the angelic orders would give serious thought to the root causes and consequent ravages of rebellion; terrible events taking place in faraway places with strange sounding names.

This specialness is worth considering: rebellion planets offer incredibly unique opportunities for genuinely testing divine values, for proving the many claims made by divine and superior beings. For example, it is claimed [118:1.2] that the fusion experience and its correlated mansion world ascension experience signals that the indwelt personality has made the final and irrevocable choice to do the Father’s will and so has forged its everlasting destiny. This is all well, but, given the relative uniformity of the morontia career there is certainly room for speculation as to whether that claim would hold true in less than ideal situations, like say during times of rebellion. However, when the test came it was proven to be true 53:7.12.

There is profound consolation in this assertion. The divines may have claimed this to be true but the universes have tested this claim and validated it. This testing gives the universe even greater stability and ascenders greater confidence. In a sense, such experiences rid a young universe of its ‘puppy fat’. One imagines that allowing rebellion is an essential part of the process of making universes stronger; much as certain childhood illnesses appear to play a role in the permanent elimination of hidden toxins.

The teachings tell us that the angelic orders, unlike mortals, are subject to an incredibly long testing: age upon age, world upon world, system upon system – on and on and on it goes with no let up, while our destinies are settled in a relatively short amount of time. Reading the Urantia Book you can see how there might be some substance to the myths of angels being jealous of mortals. Not only is our fate sealed fairly quickly, our post-Paradise careers range the universe of universes and even on into the exploration of the Master Universe [though this comes with its own cost], while such a destiny is open to apparently few of the angelic orders. One can see how Lucifer might be able to curry resentment and foment rebellion from such seemingly unfair structural arrangements.

I am often asked about the level of sin on this world and how difficult it is to believe under such circumstances. The UB talks about the testing of the virtues and how this necessitates confronting realities that are less than ideal. It would seem on most worlds these challenges are never too extreme, or at least the native beings are blessed with material natures more equal to the challenges, but on rebellion planets the divines are really asked to put their money where their mouth is. People are not risking merely their lives but their very souls. On this world Jesus didn’t just talk about love, he loved imperfect creatures. He didn’t just talk about forgiveness, he forgave those that literally crucified him. He was beaten, and spat upon, had his beard pulled, and every sort of indignity heaped upon his blessed and unresisting head and in the midst of all this foul treatment he displayed the unsettling majesty of a man consecrated to doing the will of the Father.

The Hosts of Heaven stared agog at this mystical and bewildering spectacle of co-mingled human wickedness and divine triumph. We can never appreciate the true impact this life had upon the celestial hosts, at least not this side of the grave.

Lucifer challenged the gods to show themselves and the response of Jesus was a display of divine love such as had never been seen in this universe before. That display ended the rebellion in all the sincere of heart who witnessed it. And today, even throughout all future time, this divine human spectacle will bring peace, hope, strength and salvation to all whom by faith witness this tremendous work and consecrate themselves to carrying it on.