- Author of:
Paper 91 The Evolution of Prayer
About Midwayers
At the last adjudication of this world, when Michael removed the slumbering survivors of time, the midway creatures were left behind, left to assist in the spiritual and semispiritual work on the planet. They now function as a single corps, embracing both orders and numbering 10,992. The United Midwayers of Urantia are at present governed alternately by the senior member of each order. This regime has obtained since their amalgamation into one group shortly after Pentecost.
The members of the older or primary order are generally known by numerals; they are often given names such as 1-2-3 the first, 4-5-6 the first, and so on. On Urantia the Adamic midwayers are designated alphabetically in order to distinguish them from the numerical designation of the primary midwayers.
Both orders are nonmaterial beings as regards nutrition and energy intake, but they partake of many human traits and are able to enjoy and follow your humor as well as your worship. When attached to mortals, they enter into the spirit of human work, rest, and play. But midwayers do not sleep, neither do they possess powers of procreation. In a certain sense the secondary group are differentiated along the lines of maleness and femaleness, often being spoken of as "he" or "she." They often work together in such pairs.
Midwayers are not men, neither are they angels, but secondary midwayers are, in nature, nearer man than angel; they are, in a way, of your races and are, therefore, very understanding and sympathetic in their contact with human beings; they are invaluable to the seraphim in their work for and with the various races of mankind, and both orders are indispensable to the seraphim who serve as personal guardians to mortals.
The United Midwayers of Urantia are organized for service with the planetary seraphim in accordance with innate endowments and acquired skills, in the following groups:
1. Midway messengers. This group bear names; they are a small corps and are of great assistance on an evolutionary world in the service of quick and reliable personal communication.
2. Planetary sentinels. Midwayers are the guardians, the sentinels, of the worlds of space. They perform the important duties of observers for all the numerous phenomena and types of communication which are of import to the supernatural beings of the realm. They patrol the invisible spirit realm of the planet.
3. Contact personalities. In the contacts made with the mortal beings of the material worlds, such as with the subject through whom these communications were transmitted, the midway creatures are always employed. They are an essential factor in such liaisons of the spiritual and the material levels.
4. Progress helpers. These are the more spiritual of the midway creatures, and they are distributed as assistants to the various orders of seraphim who function in special groups on the planet.
Midwayers vary greatly in their abilities to make contact with the seraphim above and with their human cousins below. It is exceedingly difficult, for instance, for the primary midwayers to make direct contact with material agencies. They are considerably nearer the angelic type of being and are therefore usually assigned to working with, and ministering to, the spiritual forces resident on the planet. They act as companions and guides for celestial visitors and student sojourners, whereas the secondary creatures are almost exclusively attached to the ministry of the material beings of the realm.
The 1,111 loyal secondary midwayers are engaged in important missions on earth. As compared with their primary associates, they are decidedly material. They exist just outside the range of mortal vision and possess sufficient latitude of adaptation to make, at will, physical contact with what humans call "material things." These unique creatures have certain definite powers over the things of time and space, not excepting the beasts of the realm.
Many of the more literal phenomena ascribed to angels have been performed by the secondary midway creatures. When the early teachers of the gospel of Jesus were thrown into prison by the ignorant religious leaders of that day, an actual "angel of the Lord" "by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth." But in the case of Peter's deliverance after the killing of James by Herod's order, it was a secondary midwayer who performed the work ascribed to an angel.
Their chief work today is that of unperceived personal-liaison associates of those men and women who constitute the planetary reserve corps of destiny. It was the work of this secondary group, ably seconded by certain of the primary corps, that brought about the co- ordination of personalities and circumstances on Urantia which finally induced the planetary celestial supervisors to initiate those petitions that resulted in the granting of the mandates making possible the series of revelations of which this presentation is a part. But it should be made clear that the midway creatures are not involved in the sordid performances taking place under the general designation of "spiritualism." The midwayers at present on Urantia, all of whom are of honorable standing, are not connected with the phenomena of so-called "mediumship"; and they do not, ordinarily, permit humans to witness their sometimes necessary physical activities or other contacts with the material world, as they are perceived by human senses. ~ The Urantia Book, (77:8.0)
THE PERMANENT CITIZENS OF URANTIA
Midwayers may be regarded as the first group of the permanent inhabitants to be found on the various orders of worlds throughout the universes in contrast with evolutionary ascenders like the mortal creatures and the angelic hosts. Such permanent citizens are encountered at various points in the Paradise ascent.
Unlike the various orders of celestial beings who are assigned to minister on a planet, the midwayers live on an inhabited world. The seraphim come and go, but the midway creatures remain and will remain, albeit they are nonetheless ministers for being natives of the planet, and they provide the one continuing regime which harmonizes and connects the changing administrations of the seraphic hosts.
As actual citizens of Urantia, the midwayers have a kinship interest in the destiny of this sphere. They are a determined association, persistently working for the progress of their native planet. Their determination is suggested by the motto of their order: "What the United Midwayers undertake, the United Midwayers do."
Although their ability to traverse the energy circuits makes planetary departure feasible to any midwayer, they have individually pledged themselves not to leave the planet prior to their sometime release by the universe authorities. Midwayers are anchored on a planet until the ages of settled light and life. With the exception of 1-2-3 the first, no loyal midway creatures have ever departed from Urantia.
1-2-3 the first, the eldest of the primary order, was released from immediate planetary duties shortly after Pentecost. This noble midwayer stood steadfast with Van and Amadon during the tragic days of the planetary rebellion, and his fearless leadership was instrumental in reducing the casualties in his order. He serves at present on Jerusem as a member of the twenty-four counselors, having already functioned as governor general of Urantia once since Pentecost.
Midwayers are planet bound, but much as mortals talk with travelers from afar and thus learn about remote places on the planet, so do midwayers converse with celestial travelers to learn about the far places of the universe. So do they become conversant with this system and universe, even with Orvonton and its sister creations, and so do they prepare themselves for citizenship on the higher levels of creature existence.
While the midwayers were brought into existence fully developed—experiencing no period of growth or development from immaturity—they never cease to grow in wisdom and experience. Like mortals they are evolutionary creatures, and they have a culture which is a bona fide evolutionary attainment. There are many great minds and mighty spirits among the Urantia midway corps.
In the larger aspect the civilization of Urantia is the joint product of the Urantia mortals and the Urantia midwayers, and this is true despite the present differential between the two levels of culture, a differential which will not be compensated prior to the ages of light and life.
The midway culture, being the product of an immortal planetary citizenry, is relatively immune to those temporal vicissitudes which beset human civilization. The generations of men forget; the corps of midwayers remembers, and that memory is the treasure house of the traditions of your inhabited world. Thus does the culture of a planet remain ever present on that planet, and in proper circumstances such treasured memories of past events are made available, even as the story of the life and teachings of Jesus has been given by the midwayers of Urantia to their cousins in the flesh.
Midwayers are the skillful ministers who compensate that gap between the material and spiritual affairs of Urantia which appeared upon the death of Adam and Eve. They are likewise your elder brethren, comrades in the long struggle to attain a settled status of light and life on Urantia. The United Midwayers are a rebellion-tested corps, and they will faithfully enact their part in planetary evolution until this world attains the goal of the ages, until that distant day when in fact peace does reign on earth and in truth is there good will in the hearts of men.
Because of the valuable work performed by these midwayers, we have concluded that they are a truly essential part of the spirit economy of the realms. And where rebellion has not marred a planet's affairs, they are of still greater assistance to the seraphim.
The entire organization of high spirits, angelic hosts, and midway fellows is enthusiastically devoted to the furtherance of the Paradise plan for the progressive ascension and perfection attainment of evolutionary mortals, one of the supernal businesses of the universe—the superb survival plan of bringing God down to man and then, by a sublime sort of partnership, carrying man up to God and on to eternity of service and divinity of attainment—alike for mortal and midwayer. ~ The Urantia Book, (77:9.1)
Also see Paper 77 The Midway Creatures
