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Introduction
The "blog" format of this paper attempts to tease more meaning out of the complex statements in the revelationary "Foreword" to The Urantia Book.
Confusion of Terms
In the minds of the mortals of Urantia (AKA Earth), there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity.
Human beings are even more confused and uncertain about the relationships of the divine personalities designated by these numerous appellations.
Because of this conceptual poverty associated with so much ideational (abstract) confusion, I have been directed to formulate this introductory statement in explanation of the meanings which should be attached to certain word symbols as they may be hereinafter used in the The Book of Urantia papers which the Orvonton corps of truth revealers have been authorized to translate into the English language of Urantia (i.e. Earth).
Orvonton is the name of Superuniverse #7 to which Earth and our local universe of Nebadon belong.
There are seven Superuniverses comprising the Grand Universe. (Click on "Preface to the UB Foreword" at the top of this page for additional information on the Grand Universe.)
Note #1
The writer of the Foreword identifies himself as an Orvonton Divine Counselor, Chief of the Corps of Superuniverse Personalities assigned to portray on Urantia the truth concerning the Paradise Deities and the universe of universes.
The Divine Counselors are Trinity-origin beings. There are twenty-one billion Counselors in service, and three billion are assigned to each superuniverse.
Acknowledgment
In formulating the succeeding presentations having to do with the portrayal of the character of the Universal Father and the nature of his Paradise associates, together with an attempted description of the perfect central universe and the encircling seven superuniverses, we are to be guided by the mandate of the superuniverse rulers which directs that we shall, in all our efforts to reveal truth and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give preference to the highest existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects to be presented. We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of presentation has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind.
Successive planetary revelations of divine truth invariably embrace the highest existing concepts of spiritual values as a part of the new and enhanced coordination of planetary knowledge. Accordingly, in making these presentations about God and his universe associates, we have selected as the basis of these papers more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe meanings. Wherein these human concepts, assembled from the God-knowing mortals of the past and the present, are inadequate to portray the truth as we are directed to reveal it, we will unhesitatingly supplement them, for this purpose drawing upon our own superior knowledge of the reality and divinity of the Paradise Deities and their transcendent residential universe.
We are fully cognizant of the difficulties of our assignment; we recognize the impossibility of fully translating the language of the concepts of divinity and eternity into the symbols of the language of the finite concepts of the mortal mind. But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience — God-consciousness.
(The fragment of God - the Universal Father - resides within the mind of each mortal after the age of six. The Spirit of Truth is the composite spirit of the Master Universe Creator Sons – those who have completed lives living as the inhabitants of seven levels of their created universes.)
Difficulties and Limitations of Assignment
It is exceedingly difficult to present enlarged concepts and advanced truth, in our endeavor to expand cosmic consciousness and enhance spiritual perception, when we are restricted to the use of a circumscribed language of the realm. But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue. We have been instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning.
In the hope of facilitating comprehension and of preventing confusion on the part of every mortal who may peruse these papers, we deem it wise to present in this initial statement an outline of the meanings to be attached to numerous English words which are to be employed in designation of Deity and certain associated concepts of the things, meanings, and values of universal reality.
But in order to formulate this Foreword of definitions and limitations of terminology, it is necessary to anticipate the usage of these terms in the subsequent presentations in the book. This Foreword is not, therefore, a finished statement within itself; it is only a definitive guide designed to assist those who shall read the accompanying papers dealing with Deity and the universe of universes which have been formulated by our Orvonton commission sent to Urantia for this purpose.
Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon (the local universe of which the planet Earth is a part) .This universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton,from whose capital, Uversa, our commission hails.
Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection - the central universe of Havona. At the heart of this eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity and the dwelling place of the eternal God.
The seven evolving superuniverses in association with the central and divine universe, we commonly refer to as the grand universe. These are the now organized and inhabited creations. They are all a part of the master universe, which also embraces the uninhabited but mobilizing universes of outer space.
Deity and Divinity
The universe of universes presents phenomena (supernatural events) of deity activities on diverse levels of cosmic realities, mind meanings, and spirit values, but all of these ministrations - personal or otherwise - are divinely coordinated.
Deity is personalizable (an “idea” that can be altered to fit a personal entity) just as God, is pre-personal and super personal in ways not altogether comprehensible by man.
Deity is characterized by the quality of unity - actual or potential - on all super material levels of reality. This unifying quality is best comprehended by creatures as divinity.
Deity functions on pre-personal (such as the Father fragment in the human mind), personal, and super personal levels.
Reader Alert
The following paragraph is a difficult and complex statement of the deity hierarchy.
But do not despair. These papers do not - cannot - even begin to exhaust the story of the living creatures, creators, eventuators (children of the Ultimate God), and still-otherwise-existent beings who live and worship and serve in the swarming universes of time and in the central universe of eternity.
You mortals are persons; hence we can describe beings who are personalized (in the Supreme God's worlds of Time and Space, but how could an absonitized being ever be explained to you? Absonity exists in worlds that transcend time and space - the worlds of the Ultimate God.
Total Deity (all of deity) is functional (operative) on Seven Levels
1. Static - self-contained and self-existent Deity.
This incomprehensible aspect of Deity may be static, potential, and associative but is not experientially creative or evolutional as concerns the intelligent personalities now functioning in the master universe.
Absolute primal causation in infinity is attributed to the Universal Father functioning as the infinite, the eternal, and the absolute I AM.
No qualification can be applied to the Infinite except to state that the I AM is.
2. Potential - self-willed and self-purposive Deity as opposed to the present actual.
3. Associative (akin) - self-personalized and divinely fraternal Deity.
4. Creative - self-distributive and divinely revealed Deity. For example, the Eternal Son of the Paradise Trinity is like the Father in that he seeks to bestow everything possible of himself upon his coordinate Sons and upon their subordinate hierarchial Sons.
5. Evolutional - self-expansive and creature-identified Deity (such as the Creator Sons in their own universes).
6. Supreme - self-experiential and creature-Creator-unifying Deity. These are deity functioning on the first creature-identificational level as time-space over-controllers of the grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of Deity.
7. Ultimate - self-projected and time-space-transcending Deity. Deity omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. This deity functions on the second level of unifying divinity expression as effective over-controllers and absonite upholders of the master universe. This function in the master universe is sometimes called the Ultimacy of Deity.
Note #2 - Seven
The number seven is key to the spiritual and atomic worlds. Seven is a birthmark of spiritual origin in the seven relationships of the Trinity:
The seven relationships of the Paradise Trinity are:
1. The Universal Father working alone;
2. The Eternal Son working alone;
3. The Infinite Spirit working alone;
4. The relationship of the Father and Son working together;
5. The relationship of the Father and the Infinite Spirit working together;
6. The relationship of the Son and the Infinite Spirit working together as the Conjoint Actor;
7. All the above Trinity Relationships working in synchronicity together.
On Earth, reflective of the Trinity structure, the atomic world of matter replicates a periodic characterization that occurs in groups of seven.
When arranged in the order of their atomic weights, the basic chemical elements show a recurrence of similar physical and chemical properties in separated groups of seven. When arranged in a row, any given quality or property tends to recur by sevens. While this periodic change by sevens recurs diminishingly and with variations throughout the entire chemical table, it is observable in the earlier or less dense atomic groupings.
Starting with any property of an element, such a quality will change for six consecutive elements, but on reaching the eighth, it tends to reappear. The eighth chemically active element resembles the first, the ninth the second, and so on.
There are also seven colors in the natural spectrum with each color reflecting an aspect of that Trinity identity.
The Seven Aspects of God
To compensate for the mental imperfections of creatures (non-deity), the Universal Father established a sevenfold approach to Deity. Spiritual ascension for creatures originating in time and space marks the evolutionary achievement of the following seven levels:
The Paradise Creator Son (in the local universes)
The Ancients of Days (in the Super Universes)
The Master Spirit of the pertinent Super Universe
The Supreme Being
God the Infinite Spirit
God the Eternal Son
God the Father.
Upon attainment of the discovery and recognition of the divine personality of the Universal Father on Paradise, the ascending pilgrim serves in the Corps of Mortal Finality.
Note #3 – God the Sevenfold
God the Sevenfold provides the living ladder of divine personalities that bridges the gap between man and the Paradise Father.
This deity association functions on the seven levels and its members are classified in three major groups:
1. The Universal Father
2. The Eternal Son > The Paradise Deities
3. The Infinite Spirit
4. The Supreme Being (Experiential Deity harmonizing the upper and lower three planes - triads)
5. The Master Spirits
6. The Ancients of Days > The Corps of Supreme Creators
7. The Creator Sons
We are familiar with the Paradise Deities - Father, Son, and Spirit. The Corps of the Supreme Creators is something new. These are the creators who made their appearance after eternal Havona. They are the post-Havona creators. Their work is to organize and perfect the seven the superuniverses and their projected 700,000 local universes.
Each of the Master Spirits pervades one of the superuniverses, thus determining its individual nature.
In threes on each superunivere headquarters, the Ancients of Days function as the direct rulers of the seven superuniverse creations.
The Creator Sons (and their associated Creative Spirits - daughters of the absolute Infinite Spirit) organize the local universes, and create (or evolve) the living beings who are native to these realms.
The Supreme Being is an evolving, experiential Deity. He is slowly emerging as a summarizing result of the successes of the Supreme Creators in the time-space realms, as a result of their successful collaboration with the Paradise Deities, and as a result of his own efforts to grow.
Note # 4
Spiritual Evolution
Evolution is the process of bringing the “lower nature” of man's physical, emotional, and mental selves into integration and alignment with the will of the personality and the soul working with the Thought Adjuster (the fragment of the Father) to achieve atonement or more properly, “at-one-ment.” It is this transformation that leads to “right human relations” and spiritual revelation or awakening.
Steps on the spiritual path occur as the evolving consciousness enters into new and wider fields of awareness, relationships, responsibilities, and power. The note of the soul is imposed (or superimposed) on the note of the personality if the personality wills it to be.
As man progresses upward in the scale of intelligence and spiritual perception, man’s body eventually consists of seven layers of vibrations. These vibrations are the oscillation of atoms about their equilibrium positions within a molecular system.
Note #5
Triads
Everywhere in the sevenfold universes, the multitudes of seven planes of atomic matter are divided into higher and lower Triads of the seven planes with the separating fourth plane harmonizing the upper and lower triads.
Triads are hierarchical beings who manifest the power of three planes within a structure of seven planes. At the planetary level, the primary triad consists of the planes of higher mind, will and intuition.
The Quaternary, (the four lower planes), and the Septenary (all seven planes), play powerful roles in evolution.
The Thought Adjuster (God fragment) expresses itself through the Higher Triad. The planes of the Lower Triad form the body of the Soul of man.
The Soul expresses itself through the mental, emotional, and physical planes. The lower planes are a reflection of the higher Triad.
Mind links the lower and the higher Triads.
Mind is the path to at-one-ment (fusion of the personality, the soul and the Thought Adjuster) and brotherhood.
In addition, in the architecture of the planes of matter, the fourth Adjutant Mind Spirit, (Knowledge) leads men to harmony, which is the spiritual energy point of at-one-ment.
Finite, Absonite and Absolute Levels
The finite level of reality is characterized by creature life and time-space limitations in the worlds of the Supreme God. Finite realities may not have endings, but they always have beginnings - they are created in time and space.
The absonite level of reality is characterized by things and beings without beginnings or endings and by the transcendence of time and space. Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated - they simply are. The Deity level of Ultimacy connotes a function in relation to absonite realities. No matter in what part of the master universe, whenever time and space are transcended, such an absonite phenomenon is an act of the Ultimacy of Deity.
The absolute level is beginningless, endless, timeless, and spaceless. For example: On Paradise, time and space are nonexistent; the time-space status of Paradise is the absolute NOW. This level is Trinity attained, existentially, by the Paradise Deities, but this third level of unifying Deity expression is not fully unified experientially. Whenever, wherever, and however the absolute level of Deity functions, Paradise-absolute values and meanings are manifest.
Existential/Experiential Definitions
A Study of the Master Universe, (William S. Sadler, Jr., page 12, edited.)
http://www.urantia.org/study-master-universe/study-master-universe
Existential as used in the The Urantia Book means something eternal, without a beginning or an ending. There is no time at which it did not exist. An existential being has full knowledge before any experience. God is existential. The word “existential” is used as the opposite of experiential.
Experiential designates beings and things that have origins. It also designates all beings that can grow by experience. Some existential realities can have experiential growth to higher levels. Other realities are wholly experiential; man is wholly experiential in his growth.
Existential deity enjoy existence as free and responsible agents determining their own development through acts of the will.
Experiential deity or non-deity require learning based on experience and free will choices.
Deity may be existential, undivided (as in the Paradise Trinity) or existential as in the Eternal Son; experiential, as in the Supreme Being; or associative (working closely together), as in God the Sevenfold.
Divinity
Deity is the source of all that is divine. Deity is characteristically and invariably divine, but all that which is divine is not necessarily Deity, though it will be coordinated with Deity and will tend towards some phase of unity with Deity - spiritual, mindal, or personal.
Divinity is the characteristic, unifying, and coordinating quality of Deity.
Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; coordinated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.
Divinity may be perfect - complete - as on existential and creator levels of Paradise perfection; it may be imperfect, as on experiential and creature levels of time-space evolution; or it may be relative, neither perfect nor imperfect, as on certain Havona levels of existential-experiential relationships.
When we attempt to conceive of perfection in all phases and forms of relativity, we encounter seven conceivable types:
1. Absolute perfection in all aspects.
2. Absolute perfection in some phases and relative perfection in all other aspects.
3. Absolute, relative, and imperfect aspects in varied association.
4. Absolute perfection in some respects, imperfection in all others.
5. Absolute perfection in no direction, relative perfection in all manifestations.
6. Absolute perfection in no phase, relative in some, imperfect in others.
7. Absolute perfection in no attribute, imperfection in all.
Note #6
Edited excerpt from Transcripts of a Lecture and Discussion of “THE FOREWORD” By William Sadler, Jr., Presented June 12, 1961
The first half of section 1 in the Foreword is nothing more nor less than a discussion of how deity functions and they give us seven levels on which deity functions. These levels vary from the quiet to the active and they encompass all of the known, comprehensible functions of deity.
Deity can be very quiet. Deity can also plan, and that means that there is a potential, a plan which will be fulfilled, a plan that will be consummated.
Deity can be fraternal as in the case of Father, Son and Spirit. Deity creates and spreads itself out over creation.
Deity engages in creativity in time as well as instantaneous creativity, because evolution is simply creativity in time and evolution simply means that creatures go into partnership with deity.
God
Evolving mortal creatures experience an irresistible urge to symbolize in words their finite concepts of God. Man’s consciousness of moral duty and his spiritual idealism represent a value level - an experiential reality - that is difficult to symbolize.
Cosmic consciousness implies the recognition of a First Cause, the one and only reality not brought into existence by any antecedent cause.
God, the Universal Father, functions on three Deity-personality levels of sub-infinite value and relative divinity expression:
1. Pre-personal - as in the ministry of the Father fragments, such as the Thought Adjusters.
2. Personal - as in the evolutionary experience of created and procreated beings.
3. Super-personal - as in the eventuated existences of certain absonite (Ultimate regime) and associated beings. (Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated - they simply are. They transcend time and space.)
Note #7
Edited excerpt from Transcripts of a Lecture and Discussion of “THE FOREWORD” By William Sadler, Jr., Presented June 12, 1961
The word God has more than one meaning in The UB Papers;. The word God is used with seven different meanings. We are familiar with the first three, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
We are not as familiar with God the Supreme, this is the emerging deity of the finite level of existence (the fourth usage of the term God). God the Supreme is evolutionary deity. This is God in time, not God in eternity. This is God in space, not God in infinity. God the Supreme is a consequence of the acts of infinite deity.
The fifth usage of God is God the Sevenfold, which is an association of deity. Our encounter with God the Sevenfold is in the bestowal of Jesus, a very real encounter. When Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” He spoke as God and for God, and this is the truest illustration that we can apprehend concerning the function of God the Sevenfold.
God the Sevenfold is God-any-where in time and space; God in action, in the imperfect evolutionary domains.
What God the Supreme is to the finite level, God the Ultimate (the sixth usage of the term God) is to the super-finite, the absonite level, which separates the finite from the absolute.)
God the Absolute is the seventh god mentioned in the Papers. He would be the final expression of deity. Just as the Eternal Son is the existential expression of the Father, God the Absolute is the final experiential or comprehensible expression of the Father.
Existential meaning is that which comes into being by the inherent acts of God. Experiential meaning is that which creatures have had a hand in, hence, understandable. If God the Absolute could ever appear in fact and in completion, then through God the Absolute we might understand God the Father as infinite. (This suggests that God the Absolute will never complete His growth, because we will never understand, the Father as infinite, we will merely grow in that understanding.)
The Term “God”
God is a word symbol designating all personalizations of Deity. The term “God” requires a different definition on each personal level of Deity function and must be still further redefined within each of these levels, as this term may be used to designate the diverse coordinate and subordinate personalizations of Deity; for example: the Paradise Creator Sons - the local universe fathers.
The term God, as we make use of it, may be understood:
1. By designation - as God the Father.
2. By context - as when used in the discussion of some one deity level or association. When in doubt as to the exact interpretation of the word God, it would be advisable to refer it to the person of the Universal Father.
The term God always denotes personality. Deity may, or may not, refer to divinity personalities.
Further Explication of “God” in The Urantia Book
The word “God” is used, in The Urantia Book papers, with the following meanings:
1. God the Father - Creator, Controller, and Upholder. The Universal Father, the First Person of Deity.
2. God the Son - Coordinate Creator, Spirit Controller, and Spiritual Administrator. The Eternal Son, the Second Person of Deity.
3. God the Spirit - Conjoint Actor working to manifest the plans of the Father and the Son, Universal Integrator, and Mind Bestower. The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity.
4. God the Supreme - the actualizing or evolving God of time and space. Personal Deity associatively realizing the time-space experiential achievement of creature-Creator identity. The Supreme Being is personally experiencing the achievement of Deity unity as the evolving and experiential God of the evolutionary creatures of time and space.
5. God the Sevenfold - Deity personality anywhere actually functioning in time and space. The personal Paradise Deities and their creative associates functioning in and beyond the borders of the central universe and power-personalizing as the Supreme Being on the first creature level of unifying Deity revelation in time and space. This level, the grand universe, is the sphere of the time-space descension of Paradise personalities in reciprocal association with the time-space ascension of evolutionary creatures.
6. God the Ultimate - the eventuating God of super-time and transcended space. The second experiential level of unifying Deity manifestation. God the Ultimate implies the attained realization of the synthesized absonite-super-personal, time-space-transcended, and eventuated-experiential values, coordinated on final creative levels of Deity reality. This will occur in the now forming Tertiary Space Level.
7. God the Absolute - the experientializing God of transcended super-personal values and divinity meanings, now existential as the Deity Absolute. This is the third level of unifying Deity expression and expansion. On this super-creative level, Deity experiences exhaustion of personalizable potential, encounters completion of divinity, and undergoes depletion of capacity for self-revelation to successive and progressive levels of other-personalization. Deity now encounters, impinges upon, and experiences identity with, the Unqualified Absolute. This is energy-matter becoming personalized deity through experience and evolution (the goal of the Universal Father). This will occur in the now forming Quartan Level of Outer Space.
Note #8
Edited excerpt from Transcripts of a Lecture and Discussion of “THE FOREWORD” By William Sadler, Jr., Presented June 12, 1961
Section 3 of Foreword
The upcoming third section of The UB Foreword speaks initially of the First, Second, and Third Sources and Centers of the seven sources and centers. Interestingly, there are only two Papers in The Urantia Book that use these captions. They discuss the First Source and Center (the Father) and the Third Source and Center (the Infinite Spirit). The reason is that God the Father and God the Infinite Spirit are quite alike, and They are both quite different from God the Son (the Second Source and Center).
The Father and the Spirit are personal, as is the Son, but They are also everything else in addition to being personal. They have many, other-than-personal characteristics. The Son is only personal, and that is why the Son can’t fragment Himself as both the Father and the Spirit can. You can’t fragment a personality, and the Son can find nothing in His deity to fragment, because there is nothing in His deity which is not personal. He is the full, personal expression of God.
The Father and the Spirit are equally personal, but They are also much that is, other-than-personal, hence, They can fragment Themselves, and so you have both Father-fragments and Spirit-fragments. Some fragments come from the Creator Sons, not from the Eternal Son. Son fused mortals derive their spirit endowment not from the Eternal Son but from the Creator Son of their local universe.
The non-personified Father fragment that inhabits the mind of mortals gains personality status upon fusing with a mortal.
In this third section of the Foreword, we are, for the first time, introduced to all seven absolutes of infinity. And we’re told about the relationship which the First Source and Center has to the other six absolutes. The easiest way to think about these six absolutes is to think of them in terms of spirit, mind, and matter.
The Second Source and Center (the Eternal Son) is the source of spirit, the Third Source and Center (the Infinite Spirit) is the source of mind, (but there is also spiritual ministry in the Third Source and Center).
The Seven Sources and Centers
Total, infinite reality is existential in seven phases and as seven coordinate Absolutes:
1. The First Source and Center.
2. The Second Source and Center.
3. The Third Source and Center.
4. The Isle of Paradise.
5. The Deity Absolute.
6. The Universal Absolute.
7. The Unqualified Absolute.
God, as the First Source and Center, is primal in relation to total reality - unqualifiedly. The First Source and Center is infinite as well as eternal and is therefore limited or conditioned only by volition.
God - the Universal Father - is the personality of the First Source and Center and as such maintains personal relations of infinite control over all coordinate and subordinate sources and centers. Such control is personal and infinite in potential, even though it may never actually function owing to the perfection of the function of such coordinate and subordinate sources and centers and personalities.
The First Source and Center is, therefore, primal in all domains: deified or undeified, personal or impersonal, actual or potential, finite or infinite. No thing or being, no relativity or finality, exists except in direct or indirect relation to, and dependence on, the primacy of the First Source and Center.
Note #9
The Metamorphosis of and Self Distribution of the I AM
Edited excerpt from Transcripts of a Lecture and Discussion of “THE FOREWORD” by William Sadler, Jr., Presented June 12, 1961
Paradise is the Fourth Source and Center. The Eternal Isle, is the source (generator) and controller of all things material.
The easiest way to think of the next three absolutes (the fifth, sixth, and seventh sources and centers) is as reservoirs out of which, the matter, the mind, and the spirit of the evolving present and the unexpressed future is coming. From the Unqualified Absolute comes the energy-matter of the evolving universes, from the Deity Absolute comes the spirit beings which are being created and will be created, while the Universal Absolute is the reservoir of mind.
How our local universe creators utilize these reservoirs is unknown. For example, when a local universe Mother-Spirit creates seraphim (a class of angels), they appear in unit formations of 100. That is a large number of seraphim, and they don’t come from nothing.
When a cloud appears in the sky, that cloud does not come from nothing. The cloud was present in the form of invisible water vapor before a change in temperature made it visible. The seraphim that are created were potential in the universe, before the Creative Spirit (the companion of the Creator Son) transformed them from a potential to an actual by her creative action.
Note #10
Diety and Creatures Both Create from Potentials
Appendices to a Study of The Master Universe, William S. Sadler. Jr., Appendix VIII, Transformative Techniques, § 1-F Footnote: Concerning Procreation, p. 107.
Creation is a transformative technique for bringing new things and new beings into existence. Procreation is a transmissive technique for reproducing one's own kind, for transmitting germ plasm from one generation to another. Stated another way - creation is a productive process; procreation is a reproductive process.
Dominance of Universal Father
This section of the Foreword makes an unqualified statement: “There are seven Absolutes of Infinity, but the First Source and Center is primal [primary] in relation to total reality.”
God, the Universal Father, is the personality of the First Source and Center. God is related to creation, to the universes, through, his six associated Absolutes, except in one particular. He is the direct Father of every personality in existence.
All personalities derive that quality of being from the Universal Father, and they are linked to the Father by His personality circuit. The other six Absolutes do not participate with the Father in this bestowal of personality, again with one exception. The Infinite Spirit (the Third Source and Center) has the Father’s “proxy.” (He is the Father’s “attorney-in-fact” - an agent authorized to act on behalf of another person), and He can act for the Father, but this is the delegation of creative power.
Mortal Comprehension
Speaking further about Reality, the authors of the Foreword point out that the maximum reality mortals can understand is a finite God.We need God to have a beginning. A beginningless God is simply beyond our comprehension.
Conceptually, mortals need a beginning, and though there never was a beginning, the authors provide one while warning us this is not reality.
To God, to deity, prior to any self distribution, the authors give the name, the I AM , but they say,” This is a philosophic concept, this is not a reality.”
Control Centers
The gravity forces of the material universes are convergent in the gravity center of nether (lower) Paradise. That is why the geographic location of the First Source and Center person is eternally fixed in absolute relation to the force-energy center of the nether or material plane of Paradise. But the absolute personality of Deity exists on the upper or spiritual plane of Paradise.
The mind forces are convergent in the Infinite Spirit; the differential and divergent cosmic mind in the Seven Master Spirits; the factualizing (precise) mind of the Supreme as a time-space experience in Majeston.
[The Supreme God created Majeston who is a true person, the personal and infallible center of the reflectivity phenomena in all seven super universes of time and space.]
The Conjoint Actor is able to coordinate all levels of universe actuality in such manner as to make possible the simultaneous recognition of the mental, the material, and the spiritual. This is the phenomenon of universe reflectivity.
Reflectivity is the unique and inexplicable power to see, hear, sense, and know all things as they transpire throughout a super universe, and to focalize [bring together], by reflectivity, all this information and knowledge at any desired point.
The action of reflectivity is shown in perfection on each of the headquarters worlds of the seven super universes. It is also operative throughout all sectors of the super universes and within the boundaries of the local universes. Reflectivity finally focalizes [converges] on Paradise.
Note #10
The temporal relation of man to the Supreme is the foundation for cosmic morality, the universal sensitivity to, and acceptance of, duty.
This is a morality which transcends the temporal sense of relative right and wrong. It is a morality directly predicated on the self-conscious creature’s appreciation of experiential obligation to experiential Deity. Mortal man and all other finite creatures are created out of the living potential of energy, mind, and spirit existent in the Supreme.
It is upon the Supreme that the fused Adjuster-mortal ascender draws for the creation of the immortal and divine character of a finaliter. (Finaliter is the designation given the fused mortal-father fragment upon completing the ascension to Paradise.) It is out of the very reality of the Supreme that the human's Thought Adjuster, with the consent of the human will, weaves the patterns of the eternal nature of an ascending son of God.
Clarification of Deity Control
The universe spirit forces are convergent in the Eternal Son.
The unlimited capacity for deity action resides in the Deity Absolute.
The unlimited capacity for infinity response exists in the Unqualified Absolute.
The two Absolutes - Qualified and Unqualified - are coordinated and unified in and by the Universal Absolute.
The potential personality of an evolutionary moral being or of any other moral being is centered in the personality of the Universal Father.
Mortal Perception of Reality
Reality, as comprehended by finite beings, is partial, relative, and shadowy. The maximum Deity reality fully comprehensible by evolutionary finite creatures is embraced within the Supreme Being.
Nevertheless, there are antecedent and eternal realities (super-finite realities) that are ancestral to this Supreme Deity of evolutionary time-space creatures. In attempting to portray the origin and nature of universal reality, we Urantia Book authors are forced to employ the technique of time-space reasoning to reach the level of the finite mind. Therefore, many of the simultaneous events of eternity must be presented as sequential transactions.
As a time-space creature would view the origin and differentiation of Reality, the eternal and infinite I AM achieved Deity liberation from the fetters of unqualified infinity through the exercise of inherent and eternal free will. This severance from unqualified (energy-matter) infinity produced the first absolute divinity-tension. The tension of infinity differential [differences] is resolved by the Universal Absolute, who is functionally equalizing the tension that is produced by the separation of Total Reality into the deified and the undeified (the Unqualifed Absolute).
Sequential Presentation of Reality
In the original transition of the theoretical I AM, the I AM achieved the realization of personality by becoming the Eternal Father of the Original Son simultaneously with becoming the Eternal Source of the Isle of Paradise.
Coexistent with the differentiation of the Son from the Father, and in the presence of Paradise, there appeared the person of the Infinite Spirit and the central universe of Havona.
With the appearance of co-existent personal Deity, (the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit), the Father escaped, as a personality, from otherwise inevitable diffusion throughout the potential of Total Deity.
Thereafter, it is only in Trinity association with his two Deity equals that the Father fills all Deity potential, while increasingly experiential Deity is being actualized on the divinity levels of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.
Concept of The Father Infinite
The Infinite is used to denote the fullness - the finality - implied by the primacy of the First Source and Center.
The theoretical I AM is a creature-philosophic extension of the “infinity of will,” but the Infinite is an actual value-level representing the eternity-intension [increase in degree] of the true infinity of the absolute and unfettered free will of the Universal Father. This concept is sometimes designated the Father-Infinite.
Much of the confusion of all orders of beings, high and low, in their efforts to discover the Father-Infinite, is inherent in their limitations of comprehension.
The absolute primacy of the Universal Father is not apparent on sub-infinite levels. Therefore, it is probable that only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit truly know the Father as an infinity. To all other personalities such a concept is an exercise of faith.
Universe Reality
Reality actualizes differently on diverse universe levels.
Reality originates in and by the infinite volition of the Universal Father and is realizable in three primal phases on many different levels of universe actualization:
1. Undeified reality ranges from the energy domains of the non-personal to the reality realms of the non-personalizable values of universal existence, even to the presence of the Unqualified Absolute.
2. Deified reality embraces all infinite Deity potentials ranging upward through all realms of personality from the lowest finite to the highest infinite, thus encompassing the domain of all that which is personalizable and more - even to the presence of the Deity Absolute.
3. Inter-associated reality. Universe reality is supposedly either deified or undeified, but to sub-deified beings there exists a vast domain of inter-associated reality, potential and actualizing, which is difficult of identification. Much of this coordinate reality is embraced within the realms of the Universal Absolute.
In summary, the primal concept of original reality is: The Father initiates and maintains Reality. The primal differentials [differences] of reality are the deified and the undeified - the Deity Absolute and the Unqualified Absolute. The primal relationship is the tension between them. This Father-initiated divinity-tension is perfectly resolved by, and eternalizes as, the Universal Absolute.
Reality Viewed from Time and Space
From the viewpoint of time and space, reality is further divisible as:
1. Actual and Potential - Realities existing in fullness of expression in contrast to those that carry undisclosed capacity for growth. The Eternal Son is an absolute spiritual actuality; mortal man is largely an unrealized spiritual potentiality.
2. Absolute and Sub-absolute - Absolute realities are eternity existences. Sub-absolute realities are projected on two levels:
a. Absonites - realities that are relative with respect to both time and eternity (midway between).
b. Finites - realities that are projected in space and are actualized in time (evolutionary).
3. Existential and Experiential - Paradise Deity is existential, but the emerging Supreme and Ultimate Gods are experiential.
4. Personal and Impersonal - Deity expansion, personality expression, and universe evolution are forever conditioned by the Father’s freewill act that forever separated the mind-spirit-personal meanings and values of actuality and potentiality centering in the Eternal Son (a person) from those things that center and inhere in the eternal Isle of Paradise (a non-person).
Paradise Reality
The term, “Paradise” comprehensively includes all of the personal and the non-personal focal [foremost] Absolutes of all phases of universe reality.
Paradise, properly qualified, may connote any and all forms of reality - Deity, divinity, personality, and energy (spiritual, mindal, or material). All share Paradise as the place of origin, function, and destiny, as regards values, meanings, and factual existence.
The Isle of Paradise - Paradise not otherwise qualified - is the Absolute of the material-gravity control of the First Source and Center. Paradise is motionless, being the only stationary thing in the universe of universes. The Isle of Paradise has a universe location but no position in space. This eternal Isle is the actual source of the physical universes - past, present, and future. The nuclear Isle of Light is a Deity derivative, but it is not Deity. Neither are the material creations a part of Deity; they are a consequence.
Paradise is not a creator; it is a unique controller of many universe activities, far more of a controller than a reactor. Throughout the material universes, Paradise influences the reactions and conduct of all beings having to do with force, energy, and power, but Paradise itself is unique, exclusive, and isolated in the universes. Paradise is neither a force nor a presence; it is simply Paradise.
Personality Realities
Personality is a level of deified reality and ranges from the mortal and midwayer level of the higher mind activation of worship and wisdom up through the morontial and spiritual to the attainment of finality of personality status. That is the evolutionary ascent of mortal (and kindred-creature) personality, but there are numerous other orders of universe personalities.
Definition. Midwayers are creatures who appear on most inhabited worlds, and always on life-experiment decimal worlds such as Urantia (Earth). They exist and function in the realm "midway" between human and angel.
Reality is subject to universal expansion, personality to infinite diversification. Both are capable of well-nigh unlimited Deity coordination and eternal stabilization. While the metamorphic range of non-personal reality is definitely limited, we know of no limitations to the progressive evolution of personality realities. (The adjective metamorphic pertains to the changes in form or metamorphosis of personality creatures.)
On attained experiential levels, all personality orders or values are capable of associative (working together) and even co-creational (non physical mating). Even God and man can coexist in a unified personality, as is so exquisitely demonstrated in the present status of Christ Michael - Son of Man and Son of God.
Personality Is a Gift
All sub-infinite orders and phases of personality are associative attainables and are potentially co-creational. The pre-personal, the personal, and the super-personal are all linked together by mutual potential of coordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and co-creational capacity.
But never does the impersonal directly transmute to the personal. Personality is never spontaneous; it is the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality is superimposed upon energy, and it is associated only with living energy systems. “Identity” can be associated with nonliving energy patterns.
The Universal Father is the secret of the reality of personality, the bestowal of personality, and the destiny of personality. The Eternal Son is the absolute personality, the secret of spiritual energy, morontia spirits, (midway between flesh and spirit), and perfected spirits. The Conjoint Actor is the spirit-mind personality, the source of intelligence, reason, and the universal mind. But the Isle of Paradise is non-personal and extra-spiritual, being the essence of the universal body, the source and center of physical matter, and the absolute master pattern of universal material reality.
Man's Body, Mind, Spirit, and Soul
The qualities of universal reality are manifest in Urantian (Earthly) human experience on the following levels:
1. Body. The material or physical organism of man. The living electrochemical mechanism of animal nature and origin.
2. Mind. The thinking, perceiving, and feeling mechanism of the human organism. The total conscious and unconscious experience. The intelligence associated with the emotional life reaching upward through worship and wisdom to the spirit level.
3. Spirit. The divine spirit that indwells the mind of man - the Thought Adjuster. This immortal spirit is pre-personal - not a personality, though destined to become a part of the personality of the surviving mortal creature.
4. Soul. The soul of man is an experiential acquirement. As a mortal creature chooses to “do the will of the Father in heaven,” so the indwelling spirit becomes the father of a new reality in human experience. The mortal and material mind is the mother of this same emerging reality. The substance of this new reality is neither material nor spiritual - it is morontial (midway between flesh and spirit). The emerging and immortal soul is destined to survive mortal death and begin the Paradise ascension.
Personality Unifies Integral Parts
The personality of mortal man is neither body, mind, spirit or soul. Personality is the one changeless reality in an otherwise ever-changing creature experience; and it unifies all other associated factors of individuality.
The personality is the unique bestowal which the Universal Father makes upon the living and associated energies of matter, mind, and spirit, and which survives with the survival of the morontial soul.
Morontia is a term designating a vast level intervening between the material and the spiritual. It may designate personal or impersonal realities, living or nonliving energies. The warp of morontia is spiritual; its woof is physical. (http://www.urantiabook.org/newbook/glossary.htm)
Energy and Pattern
Any and all things responding to the personality circuit of the Father, are called personal. Any and all things responding to the spirit circuit of the Son, are called spirit. Any and all things that respond to the mind circuit of the Conjoint Actor, are called mind, as mind is an attribute of the Infinite Spirit - mind in all its phases. Any and all things that respond to the material-gravity circuit centering in nether Paradise, are called matter (energy-matter in all its metamorphic states).
“Energy” is used as an all-inclusive term applied to spiritual, mindal, and material realms. “Force” is also broadly used. “Power” is ordinarily limited to the designation of the electronic level of material or linear-gravity-responsive matter in the grand universe. (Power is also employed to designate sovereignty.)
Mortal definitions of force, energy, and power can not be utilized because of the paucity of language.
Examining Physical Energy
“Physical energy” is a general term denoting all phases and forms of phenomenal motion, action, and potential.
In discussing physical-energy manifestations, The Urantia Book generally use the terms “cosmic force,” “emergent energy,” and “universe power.” These terms describing energy evolution are often employed as follows:
1. Cosmic force embraces all energies (space potency) deriving from the Unqualified Absolute, but which are as yet unresponsive to Paradise gravity.
2. Emergent energy embraces those energies that are responsive to Paradise gravity but are as yet unresponsive to local or linear gravity. This is the pre-electronic level of energy-matter.
3. Universe power includes all forms of energy which, while still responding to Paradise gravity, are directly responsive to linear gravity (in the universes). This is the electronic level of energy-matter and all subsequent evolutions.
Mind
Mind is a phenomenon that signifies the presence-activity of living spiritual ministry. This is true on all levels of intelligence.
In personality, mind always intervenes between spirit and matter. The universes are illuminated by three kinds of light: material light, intellectual insight, and spirit luminosity.
Spirit luminosity connotes the personality manifestation characteristic of spirit beings of diverse orders. This luminous emanation is in not related to either intellectual insight or to physical-light manifestations.
The Universal Father is the fountainhead of all luminosity. In becoming a Master Son, Michael, the Creator of our local universe, earned the quality of luminosity through the Spirit of Truth, which serves in his universe.
Note #11
Universal Regulation
The universe is not static. Stability is the product of balanced energies, cooperative minds, coordinated morontias, spirit over-control, and personality unification. Stability is proportional to divinity - oneness.
Morontias. Morontia mind functions differently in response to the 570 levels of morontia life, which disclose increasingly associative capacity with the cosmic mind on the higher levels of attainment. This is the evolutionary path of mortal creatures.
In contemplating universal phenomena, mortals must take into consideration the interrelation of physical, intellectual, and spiritual energies. Also, mortals must allow for unexpected phenomena complemental to their own unification by personality, and for the unpredictable phenomena resulting from the actions and reactions of experiential Deity and the Absolutes.
The universe is highly predictable only in the quantitative or gravity-measurement sense. Qualitatively, the universe is not highly predictable as regards new associations of forces, either physical, mindal, or spiritual.
When matter, mind, and spirit are unified by creature personality, the decisions of such freewill beings are unpredictable. Due to its quality of free will, the human personality is not merely a concomitant (accessory) of time-and-space events; the human personality can also act as the cosmic cause of such events.
Pattern
Pattern can be projected as material, spiritual, or mindal, or any combination of these energies. It can pervade (infuse) personalities, identities, entities, or nonliving matter. But pattern is pattern and remains pattern; only copies are multiplied.
Pattern (like a template) may configure energy, but it does not control it. Gravity is the sole control of energy-matter. Neither space nor pattern are gravity responsive. There is no relationship between space and pattern. Space is neither pattern nor potential pattern. Pattern is a configuration of reality which has already paid all gravity debt; the reality of any pattern consists of its energies, its mind, spirit, or material components.
In contrast to the aspect of the total, pattern discloses the individual aspect of energy and of personality. Personality or identity forms are patterns resultant from energy (physical, spiritual, or mindal) but are not inherent therein. That quality of energy or of personality by virtue of which pattern is caused to appear may be attributed to God - Deity - to Paradise force endowment, to the coexistence of personality and power.
Pattern is a master design from which copies are made. Eternal Paradise is the absolute of patterns; the Eternal Son is the pattern personality; the Universal Father is the direct ancestor-source of both. However, Paradise does not bestow pattern, and the Son cannot bestow personality.
Note #12
The Life Carriers
The creation of energy and the bestowal of life are the prerogatives of the Universal Father and his associate Creator personalities. The river of energy and life is a continuous outpouring from the Deities, the universal and united stream of Paradise force going forth to all space. This divine energy pervades all creation. The force organizers initiate those changes and institute those modifications of space-force which eventuate in energy; the power directors transmute energy into matter; and the material worlds are born.
The Life Carriers initiate those processes in dead matter which we call life, material life.
When the Life Carriers have designed the patterns of life, after they have organized the energy systems, there must occur an additional phenomenon. The “breath of life” must be imparted to these lifeless forms by the local universe Mother Spirit (the partner of the Creator Son) after her own appearance in the spark of life (aka, the primary eruption).
Note #13
The Spark of Life
Each Creator Son and Daughter are “born” as unique concepts of the Paradise Trinity deities.
In the creation of a universe, the Creator Son provides the pattern while the Universe Mother Spirit initiates the materialization of physical realities. The Son operates in the power designs; the Spirit transforms these energy creations into physical substances.
After the completion of the physical organization of a starry and planetary cluster by the Creator Son and the establishment of the energy circuits by the super universe power centers, the agencies of the Infinite Spirit, operating through, and under the direction of, his local universe “focalization” (the imminent creative daughter), the Creator Son proclaims that life is to be projected into his newly organized universe.
Upon the Paradise recognition of this declaration of intention, there occurs a reaction of approval in the Paradise Trinity, followed by the “disappearance” in the spiritual shining of the Deity of the Master Spirit in whose super universe this new creation is organizing. The Master Spirits of the other six super universes draw near the central home of the Paradise Deities, and when the Deity-embraced Master Spirit emerges to the recognition of his fellows, there occurs what is known as a “primary eruption.”
This is a tremendous spiritual flash or spark, a phenomenon clearly discernible as far away as the headquarters of the super universe concerned. Simultaneously, there immediately personalizes, in the very presence of the Creator Son, a new personal representation of the Infinite Spirit. This is the Creative Daugher who will become the Divine Minister. This individualized Creative Spirit companion of the Creator Son is his perfect personal counterpart, his creative associate, the local universe Mother Spirit.
Note #14
The Breath of Life
The breath of life conferred by the Creative Daughter is more than a metaphor. Life is the sum of the distinguishing phenomena of organisms, especially metabolism, growth, reproduction, and adaptation to environment.
Life does not originate spontaneously. Life is constructed according to plans formulated by the (unrevealed) Architects of Being and appears on the potentially inhabitable planets either by direct importation or as a result of the operations of the Life Carriers of the local universes. These carriers of life are entrusted with designing and carrying creature life to the planetary spheres. After planting this life on new worlds, the Life Carriers remain there for long periods to foster its development.
The Divine Minister cooperates with the Creator Son in the formulation of life and the creation of new orders of beings up to the time of the Son's seventh bestowal. Subsequently, after his elevation to the full sovereignty of his universe, She continues to collaborate with the Son and the Son’s bestowed Spirit of Truth in the further work of world ministry and planetary progression.
Note #15
Evolutionary Progression
On the inhabited worlds of their universe, the Creative Spirit Daughter begins the work of evolutionary progression starting with the lifeless material of the realm - first endowing vegetable life, then the animal organisms, then the first orders of human existence.
Each succeeding impartation contributes to the further unfolding of the evolutionary potential of planetary life from the initial and primitive stages to the appearance of will creatures. This labor of the Creative Spirit is largely effected through the seven adjutant-spirit mind circuits, the unifying and coordinating spirit-mind of the evolving planets, ever and unitedly leading the races of men towards higher ideas and spiritual ideals.
The seven adjutant mind-spirits are called by names that are the equivalents of: 1. intuition; 2. understanding; 3. courage; 4. knowledge; 5. counsel; 6. worship; and 7. wisdom.
Mortal man first experiences the ministry of the Creative Spirit in conjunction with mind when the purely animal mind of evolutionary creatures develops reception capacity for the adjutants of 6. worship and 7. wisdom. This ministry of the sixth and seventh adjutants indicates mind evolution crossing the threshold of spiritual ministry. Immediately, such minds of worship and wisdom function are included in the spiritual circuits of the Divine Minister, the “Holy Spirit.”
When mind is thus endowed with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it possesses the capacity for (consciously or unconsciously) choosing the spiritual presence of the Universal Father - the Thought Adjuster.
But it is not until a successful seventh bestowal Son has liberated the Spirit of Truth for planetary ministry to all mortals that all normal minds are automatically prepared for the reception of the Thought Adjusters.
Note #16
The Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit
The Spirit of Truth works as one with the presence of the spirit of the Divine Minister. This dual spirit liaison hovers over the worlds, seeking to teach truth and to spiritually enlighten the minds of men, to inspire the souls of the creatures of the ascending races, and to lead the peoples dwelling on the evolutionary planets ever towards their Paradise goal of divine destiny.
Though the Spirit of Truth is poured out upon all flesh, this spirit of the Son is almost wholly limited in function and power by man’s personal reception of that which constitutes the sum and substance of the mission of the bestowal Son [Jesus on Earth]. The Holy Spirit is partly independent of human attitude and partially conditioned by the decisions and cooperation of the will of man. Nevertheless, the ministry of the Holy Spirit becomes increasingly effective in the sanctification and spiritualization of the inner life of those mortals who the more fully obey the divine leadings.
Individuals do not personally possess a segregated portion or entity of the spirit of the Creator Father-Son or the Creative Mother Spirit. These ministries do not contact with, nor indwell, the thinking centers of the individual’s mind as do the Thought Adjusters. Thought Adjusters are definite individualizations of the pre-personal reality of the Universal Father, actually indwelling the mortal mind as a part of that mind, always working in perfect harmony with the combined spirits of the Creator Son and Creative Spirit.
The presences of the Holy Spirit of the Universe Daughter of the Infinite Spirit, of the Spirit of Truth of the Universe Son of the Eternal Son, and of the Adjuster-spirit of the Paradise Father in or with an evolutionary mortal, denotes symmetry of spiritual endowment and ministry and qualifies such a mortal consciously to realize the faith-fact of son-ship with God.
Binary Deity
The Deity mechanism of the master universe is twofold as concerns eternity relationships. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are eternal - they are existential beings - while God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute are actualizing Deity personalities of the post-Havona epochs in the time-space and the time-space-transcended spheres of master universe evolutionary expansion.
These actualizing Deity personalities are future eternals from the time when, and as, they power-personalize in the growing universes by the technique of the experiential actualization of the associative-creative potentials of the eternal Paradise Deities.
Deity is, therefore, dual in presence:
1. Existential - beings of eternal existence, past, present, and future.
2. Experiential - beings actualizing in the post-Havona present but of unending existence throughout all future eternity.
The Father, Son, and Spirit are existential - existential in actuality (though all potentials are supposedly experiential). The Supreme and the Ultimate are wholly experiential. The Deity Absolute is experiential in actualization but existential in potentiality. The essence of Deity is eternal, but only the three original persons of Deity are unqualifiedly eternal. All other Deity personalities have an origin, but they are eternal in destiny.
Metamorphosis of Duality
Having achieved existential Deity expression of himself in the Son and the Spirit, the Father is now achieving experiential expression on previously impersonal and unrevealed deity levels as God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute; but these experiential Deities are not now fully existent; they are in process of actualization.
God the Supreme in Havona is the personal spirit reflection of the triune Paradise Deity. This associative Deity relationship is now creatively expanding outward in God the Sevenfold and is synthesizing in the experiential power of the Almighty Supreme in the grand universe.
Paradise Deity, existential as three persons, is thus experientially evolving in two phases of Supremacy, while these dual phases are power-personality unifying as one Lord, the Supreme Being.
Note #17
From One To Three To Seven
The Universal Father achieves freewill liberation from the bonds of infinity and the fetters of eternity by the technique of trinitization, threefold Deity personalization. The Supreme Being is even now evolving as a sub-eternal personality unification of the seven-fold manifestation of Deity in the time-space segments of the grand universe.
The Supreme Being is not a direct creator (except that he fathered Majeston – the God of Reflectivity), but he is coordinating the synthesis of all creature-Creator universe activities.
When finally actualized, the Supreme Being will constitute the eternal fusion of the finite and the infinite - the everlasting and indissoluble union of experiential power and spirit personality.
All time-space finite reality, under the directive urge of the evolving Supreme Being, is engaged in an ever-ascending mobilization and perfecting unification (power-personality synthesis) of all phases and values of finite reality, in association with varied phases of Paradise reality, for the sole purpose of subsequently embarking upon the attempt to reach absonite (transcending time) levels of super creature attainment.
Note #18
Mortal Mastery of the Seven Psychic Circles
It is difficult to define the seven levels of human progression, because these levels are personal; they are variable for each individual and are apparently determined by the growth capacity of each human being.
The conquest of these levels of cosmic evolution is reflected in three ways:
1. Adjuster attunement. The spiritizing mind nears the Adjuster presence proportional to circle attainment.
2. Soul evolution. The emergence of the morontia soul indicates the extent and depth of circle mastery.
3. Personality reality. The degree of self-hood reality is directly determined by circle conquest. Persons become more real as they ascend from the seventh to the first level of mortal existence.
The seven circles embrace mortal experience extending from the highest purely animal level to the lowest actual contactual morontia (midway between flesh and spirit) level of self-consciousness as a personality experience.
The mastery of the first (highest) cosmic circle signals the attainment of pre-morontia mortal maturity and marks the termination of the Creative Mother Spirit's conjoint ministry of the adjutant mind spirits as an exclusive influence of mind action in the human personality. Beyond the first circle, mind becomes increasingly akin to the intelligence of the morontia stage of evolution, the conjoined ministry of the cosmic mind and the super adjutant endowment of the Creative Mother Spirit of the local universe.
The great struggle of this universe age is between the potential and the actual - the seeking for actualization by all that is as yet unexpressed. The volitional creation has the choice of accepting or of rejecting the role of personality participation in the adventure of eternity.
Note #18
Mortal man cannot destroy the supreme values of human existence, but he can very definitely prevent the evolution of these values in his own personal experience.
To the extent that the human self thus refuses to take part in the Paradise ascent, to that extent the Supreme is delayed in achieving divinity expression in the grand universe.
In the brotherhood of Jesus there is no place for sectarian rivalry, group bitterness, nor assertions of moral superiority and spiritual infallibility.
The moral values of the universe become intellectual possessions by the exercise of the three basic judgments, or choices, of the mortal mind:
Self-judgment - moral choice.
Social-judgment - ethical choice.
God-judgment - religious choice.
Note #19
The Kingdoms
The mineral kingdom is the densest point of concretion [solidification] for physical forms.
The vegetable kingdom is unique in the economy of our solar system, as it is vital to all lives.
Though the mineral kingdom has a consciousness of its own, sensation is more recognizable in the vegetable kingdom.
The distinction between the consciousnesses of the mineral kingdom and that of the animal kingdom is so vast that their respective consciousnesses are barely related.
The vegetable kingdom is the bridge between the mineral kingdom and the animal kingdom.
Man/God
Man is a god to the lower kingdoms, but due to his immaturity, man's beneficial oversight (as opposed to exploitation) of his lesser brothers is very poor.
Eating, digesting and excreting liberates entities to higher planes within kingdoms.
Such lives will themselves later be raised, and developed to the human stage.
Man in his lower nature is an aggregate of lesser lives, dependent upon him for their group nature, for their type of activity, and collective response.
Note #21
The Structural Planes of Creation
The creation of Time and Space reflects the dramatic process of trinitization in the repetitive structure of descending planes of existence assembled as ladders consisting of an upper three planes, a lower three planes, and a separating plane that seeks the equilibrium (harmony) of the upper and lower triads.
On Earth, The three higher sub planes are home to the more evolved forces (lives).
In actuality, there is no such thing as matter. There is only force In varying degrees.
There is only mind energy of differing quality - only lives emanating from different sources.
There is only consciousness producing intelligent effect through the medium of space.
Significance of God the Sevenfold
To atone for finity (i.e., subject to the limitations or conditions, as of space, time, circumstances, or the laws of nature) of status and to compensate for creature limitations of concept, the Universal Father has established the evolutionary creature’s seven fold approach to Deity through ascension approval of:
1. The Paradise Creator Sons.
2. The Ancients of Days.
3. The Seven Master Spirits.
4. The Supreme Being.
5. God the Spirit.
6. God the Son.
7. God the Father.
The experiential discovery-career of the realization of God begins with the recognition of the divinity of the Creator Son of the local universe and ascends through the super universe Ancients of Days and by way of the person of one of the Seven Master Spirits to the attainment of the discovery and recognition of the divine personality of the Universal Father on Paradise.
Creation's Rulers
The grand universe is the threefold Deity domain of the Trinity of Supremacy*, God the Seven-fold, and the Supreme Being.
God the Supreme is potential in the Paradise Trinity, from whom he derives his personality and spirit attributes; but he is now actualizing in the Creator Sons, Ancients of Days, and the Master Spirits, from whom he derives his power as Almighty** to the super universes of time and space.
This power manifestation of the immediate God of evolutionary creatures in time-space evolves concomitantly with them. The Almighty Supreme, evolving on the value-level of non-personal activities, and the spirit person of God the Supreme are one reality - the Supreme Being.
The Creator Sons in the Deity association of God the Seven-fold provide the mechanism whereby the mortal becomes immortal and the finite attains the embrace of the infinite.
The Supreme Being provides the technique for the power-personality mobilization, the divine synthesis, of all these manifold transactions, enabling the finite to attain the absonite and, through other possible future actualizations, to attempt the attainment of the Ultimate.
The Creator Sons and their associated Divine Ministers are participants in this supreme mobilization, but the Ancients of Days and the Seven Master Spirits are probably eternally fixed as permanent administrators in the grand universe.
The function of God the Seven-fold dates from the organization of the seven super universes, and it will probably expand in connection with the future evolution of the creations of outer space. The organization of these future universes of the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quartan space levels of progressive evolution will undoubtedly witness the inauguration of the transcendent and absonite approach to Deity.
* There are seven orders of Supreme Trinity Personalities. Throughout the grand universe the Supreme Trinity Personalities represent the administrative policies of the Paradise Trinity. They represent the justice and are the executive judgment of the Paradise Trinity. They form an interrelated line of administrative perfection extending from the Paradise spheres of the Father to the headquarters worlds of the local universes and to the capitals of their component constellations.
** The time-space mind, the cosmic mind, functions differently in the seven super universes, but it is coordinated by some unknown associative technique in the Supreme Being. The Almighty over-control of the grand universe is not exclusively physical and spiritual. In the seven super universes it is primarily material and spiritual, but there are also present phenomena of the Supreme which are both intellectual and spiritual.
God the Ultimate
Just as the Supreme Being progressively evolves from the antecedent divinity endowment of the encompassed grand universe potential of energy and personality, so does God the Ultimate eventuate from the potentials of divinity residing in the transcended time-space domains of the master universe.
[The Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated - they simply are. Absoniters “occur” - conceptually “conceived in thought” by deity.]
The actualization of Ultimate Deity [in the “future”] signals absonite unification of the first experiential Trinity and signifies unifying Deity expansion on the second level [upward and inward beyond time and space] of creative self-realization.
This constitutes the personality-power equivalent of the universe experiential-Deity actualization of Paradise absonite realities on the eventuating levels of transcended time-space values. The completion of such an experiential unfoldment is designed to afford ultimate service-destiny for all time-space creatures who have attained absonite levels through the completed realization of the Supreme Being and by the ministry of God the Sevenfold.
God the Ultimate is designative [expressive] of personal Deity functioning on the divinity levels of the absonite and on the universe spheres of super time and transcended space. The Ultimate is a super supreme eventuation of Deity. The Supreme is the Trinity unification comprehended by finite beings; the Ultimate is the unification of the Paradise Trinity comprehended by absonite beings.
Ladder to the Absolute Level
The Universal Father, through the mechanism of evolutionary Deity, is actually engaged in the stupendous and amazing act of personality focalization and power mobilization [up-stepping], on their respective universe meaning-levels, of the divine reality values of the finite, the absonite, and even of the absolute.
The first three and past-eternal Deities of Paradise - the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit - are, in the eternal future, to be personality-complemented by the experiential actualization of associate evolutionary Deities - God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and possibly God the Absolute.
God the Supreme and God the Ultimate, now evolving in the experiential universes, are not existential - not past eternals, only future eternals, time-space-conditioned and transcendental-conditioned eternals.
They are Deities of supreme, ultimate, and possibly supreme-ultimate endowments, but they have experienced historic universe origins. They will never have an end, but they do have personality beginnings. They are indeed actualizations of eternal and infinite Deity potentials, but they themselves are neither unqualifiedly eternal nor infinite.
God the Absolute
There are many features of the eternal reality of the Deity Absolute that cannot be fully explained to the time-space finite mind, but the actualization of God the Absolute would be in consequence of the unification of the second experiential Trinity, the Absolute Trinity. This would constitute the experiential realization of absolute divinity, the unification of absolute meanings on absolute levels; but we are not certain regarding the encompassment of all absolute values since we have at no time been informed that the Qualified Absolute is the equivalent of the Infinite.
Super ultimate destinies are involved in absolute meanings and infinite spirituality, and without both of these [still to be achieved] realities we cannot establish absolute values.
God the Absolute is the realization-attainment goal of all super absonite beings, but the power and personality potential of the Deity Absolute transcends our concept, and we hesitate to discuss those realities that are so far removed from experiential actualization.
The Three Absolutes
When the combined thought of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, functioning in the God of Action, constituted the creation of the divine and central universe, the Father followed the expression of his thought into the word of his Son and the act of their Conjoint Executive by differentiating his Havona presence from the potentials of infinity.
These undisclosed infinity potentials remain space concealed in the Unqualified Absolute and divinely enshrouded in the Deity Absolute, while these two become one in the functioning of the Universal Absolute, the unrevealed infinity-unity of the Paradise Father.
Both potency of cosmic force and potency of spirit force are in process of progressive revelation-realization as the enrichment of all reality is effected by experiential growth and through the correlation of the experiential with the existential by the Universal Absolute.
By virtue of the equipoising [balancing] presence of the Universal Absolute, the First Source and Center [the Universal Father] realizes extension of experiential power, enjoys identification with his evolutionary creatures, and achieves expansion of experiential Deity on the levels of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.
1. The Deity Absolute
The Deity Absolute seems to be the all-powerful activator, while the Unqualified Absolute appears to be the all-efficient mechanizer of the supremely unified and ultimately coordinated universe of universes, even universes upon universes, made, making, and yet to be made.
The Deity Absolute cannot, or at least does not, react to any universe situation in a sub absolute manner. Every response of this Absolute to any given situation appears to be made in terms of the welfare of the whole creation of things and beings, not only in its present state of existence, but also in view of the infinite possibilities of all future eternity.
The Deity Absolute is that potential which was segregated from total, infinite reality by the freewill choice of the Universal Father, and within which all divinity activities - existential and experiential - take place. This is the Qualified Absolute in contradistinction to the Unqualified Absolute; but the Universal Absolute is super additive to both in the encompassment of all absolute potential.
2. The Unqualified Absolute
The Unqualified Absolute is non-personal, extra-divine, and undeified. The Unqualified Absolute is therefore devoid of personality, divinity, and all creator prerogatives. Neither fact nor truth, experience nor revelation, philosophy nor absonity are able to penetrate the nature and character of this Absolute without universe qualification.
Let it be made clear that the Unqualified Absolute is a positive reality pervading the grand universe and, apparently, extending with equal space presence on out into the force activities and pre-material evolutions of the staggering stretches of the space regions beyond the seven super universes.
The Unqualified Absolute is not a mere negativism of philosophic concept predicated on the assumptions of metaphysical sophistries concerning the universality, dominance, and primacy of the unconditioned and the unqualified. The Unqualified Absolute is a positive universe over-control in infinity; this over control is space-force unlimited but is definitely conditioned by the presence of life, mind, spirit, and personality, and is further conditioned by the will-reactions and purposeful mandates of the Paradise Trinity.
We are convinced that the Unqualified Absolute is not an undifferentiated and all-pervading influence comparable either to the pantheistic concepts of metaphysics or to the sometime ether hypothesis of science. The Unqualified Absolute is force unlimited and Deity conditioned, but we do not fully perceive the relation of this Absolute to the spirit realities of the universes.
3. The Universal Absolute
The Universal Absolute, we logically deduce, was inevitable in the Universal Father’s absolute freewill act of differentiating [separating] universe realities into deified and undeified - personalizable and non-personalizable [things] - values.
The Universal Absolute is the Deity phenomenon indicative of the resolution of the tension created by the freewill act of thus differentiating universe reality, and functions as the associative coordinator of these sum totals of existential potentialities.
The tension-presence of the Universal Absolute signifies the adjustment of differential between deity reality and undeified reality inherent in the separation of the dynamics of freewill divinity from the statics of unqualified infinity.
Always remember: Potential infinity is absolute and inseparable from eternity. Actual infinity in time can never be anything but partial and must therefore be non-absolute; neither can infinity of actual personality be absolute except in unqualified Deity. And it is the differential of infinity potential in the Unqualified Absolute and the Deity Absolute that eternalizes the Universal Absolute, thereby making it cosmically possible to have material universes in space and spiritually possible to have finite personalities in time.
The finite can coexist in the cosmos along with the Infinite only because the associative presence of the Universal Absolute so perfectly equalizes the tensions between time and eternity, finity and infinity, reality potential and reality actuality, Paradise and space, man and God. Associatively, the Universal Absolute constitutes the identification of the zone of progressing evolutional reality existent in the time-space, and in the transcended time-space, universes of sub-infinite Deity manifestation.
The Universal Absolute is the potential of the static-dynamic [Unqualified and Qualified] Deity functionally realizable on time-eternity levels as finite-absolute values and as possible of experiential-existential approach. This incomprehensible aspect of Deity may be static, potential, and associative but is not experientially creative or evolutional as concerns the intelligent personalities now functioning in the master universe.
The Three Absolutes Are One
The two Absolutes - qualified and unqualified - while so apparently divergent in function as they may be observed by mind creatures, are perfectly and divinely unified in and by the Universal Absolute. In the last analysis and in the final comprehension all three are one Absolute. On sub-infinite levels they are functionally differentiated, but in infinity they are ONE.
We never use the term the Absolute as a negation of aught [anything] or as a denial of anything. Neither do we regard the Universal Absolute as self-determinative, a sort of pantheistic and impersonal Deity. The Absolute, in all that pertains to universe personality, is strictly Trinity limited and Deity dominated.
When it is not possible fully to distinguish the Deity Absolute from the Unqualified Absolute, their supposedly combined function or coordinated presence is designated the action of the Universal Absolute.
The Trinities
The original and eternal Paradise Trinity is existential and was inevitable. This never-beginning Trinity was inherent in the fact of the differentiation of the personal and the non-personal by the Father’s unfettered will and factualized when his personal will coordinated these dual realities by mind.
The post-Havona Trinities are experiential - are inherent in the creation of two sub-absolute and evolutional levels of power-personality manifestation in the master universe [God the Ultimate and God the Absolute].
The Paradise Trinity - the eternal Deity union of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit - is existential in actuality, but all potentials are experiential [a work in progress]. Therefore this Trinity constitutes the only Deity reality embracing infinity, and therefore does there occur the universe phenomena of the actualization of God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute.
The First and Second Experiential Trinities
The first and second experiential Trinities, the post-Havona Trinities, cannot be infinite because they embrace derived Deities - Deities evolved by the experiential actualization of realities created or eventuated by the existential Paradise Trinity. Infinity of divinity is being ever enriched, if not enlarged, by finity and absonity of creature and Creator experience.
Trinities are truths of relationship and facts of coordinate Deity manifestation. Trinity functions encompass Deity realities, and Deity realities always seek realization and manifestation in personalization.
God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and even God the Absolute are therefore divine inevitabilities. These three experiential Deities were potential in the existential Trinity, the Paradise Trinity, but their universe emergence as personalities of power is dependent in part on their own experiential functioning in the universes of power and personality and in part on the experiential achievements of the post-Havona Creators and Trinities.
The Composition of the Post-Havona Trinities
The two post-Havona Trinities, the Ultimate and the Absolute experiential Trinities, are not now fully manifest; they are in process of universe realization. These Deity associations may be described as follows:
1. The Ultimate Trinity, now evolving, will eventually consist of the Supreme Being, the Supreme Creator Personalities, and the absonite Architects of the Master Universe, those unique universe planners who are neither creators nor creatures. God the Ultimate will eventually and inevitably powerize and personalize as the Deity consequence of the unification of this experiential Ultimate Trinity in the expanding arena of the well-nigh limitless master universe.
2. The Absolute Trinity - the second experiential Trinity - now in process of actualization, will consist of God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and the unrevealed Consummator of Universe Destiny. This Trinity functions on both personal and super personal levels, even to the borders of the non-personal, [the Unqualified absolute?] and its unification in universality would experientialize Absolute Deity.
The Ultimate Trinity is experientially unifying in completion, but we truly doubt the possibility of such full unification of the Absolute Trinity. Our concept, however, of the eternal Paradise Trinity is an ever-present reminder that Deity trinitization may accomplish what is otherwise non-attainable; hence do we postulate the sometime appearance of the Supreme-Ultimate and the possible trinitization-factualization of God the Absolute.
Wouldn't Miss This For The World
The philosophers of the universes postulate a Trinity of Trinities, an existential-experiential Trinity Infinite, but the philosophers are not able to envisage its personalization.
Possibly it would equivalate [be equivalent] to the person of the Universal Father on the conceptual level of the I AM.
But irrespective of all this, the original Paradise Trinity is potentially infinite since the Universal Father is actually infinite.
Note (# 22)
The Eternal Cycle of Deity
Appendix XXIII – The Trinity of Trinities, William S. Sadler, Jr., page 329, edited.
In the far, far distant epochs of the post-ultimate age the emergence of the Trinity of Trinities will begin the final reunification of all actual (and actualizing) deity - existential and experiential. In relation to deity, this multiple-trinity appears to be the total of totals. As we contemplate the past-eternity origin of the Paradise Trinity, then ponder the eventual appearance of this threefold trinity in the utter remoteness of the almost-eternal future, the feeling of the cyclical nature of deity personalization and trinity formation is likely to grow upon us as mortals too are deity.
The Urantia Book comments on this:
Human beings can best conceive of all that is Real, of Total Reality, by picturing ". . . an almost limitless ellipse which is produced by one absolute cause . . ." which, after great diversification converges in reunification, . . . ever seeking some absolute and infinite potential of destiny." (1152.1) 105:0.1
The cycle of deity starts in past eternity. It passes through many stages and many ages and is finally lost to concept beyond the distant horizon of future eternity. It all seems to start with the Infinite.
And our concluding and crowning concept of the final quest is the search for the Infinite.
Confusion of Terms
In the minds of the mortals of Urantia (AKA Earth), there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity.
Human beings are even more confused and uncertain about the relationships of the divine personalities designated by these numerous appellations.
Because of this conceptual poverty associated with so much ideational (abstract) confusion, I have been directed to formulate this introductory statement in explanation of the meanings which should be attached to certain word symbols as they may be hereinafter used in the The Book of Urantia papers which the Orvonton corps of truth revealers have been authorized to translate into the English language of Urantia (i.e. Earth).
Orvonton is the name of Superuniverse #7 to which Earth and our local universe of Nebadon belong.
There are seven Superuniverses comprising the Grand Universe. (Click on "Preface to the UB Foreword" at the top of this page for additional information on the Grand Universe.)
Note #1
The writer of the Foreword identifies himself as an Orvonton Divine Counselor, Chief of the Corps of Superuniverse Personalities assigned to portray on Urantia the truth concerning the Paradise Deities and the universe of universes.
The Divine Counselors are Trinity-origin beings. There are twenty-one billion Counselors in service, and three billion are assigned to each superuniverse.
Acknowledgment
In formulating the succeeding presentations having to do with the portrayal of the character of the Universal Father and the nature of his Paradise associates, together with an attempted description of the perfect central universe and the encircling seven superuniverses, we are to be guided by the mandate of the superuniverse rulers which directs that we shall, in all our efforts to reveal truth and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give preference to the highest existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects to be presented. We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of presentation has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind.
Successive planetary revelations of divine truth invariably embrace the highest existing concepts of spiritual values as a part of the new and enhanced coordination of planetary knowledge. Accordingly, in making these presentations about God and his universe associates, we have selected as the basis of these papers more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe meanings. Wherein these human concepts, assembled from the God-knowing mortals of the past and the present, are inadequate to portray the truth as we are directed to reveal it, we will unhesitatingly supplement them, for this purpose drawing upon our own superior knowledge of the reality and divinity of the Paradise Deities and their transcendent residential universe.
We are fully cognizant of the difficulties of our assignment; we recognize the impossibility of fully translating the language of the concepts of divinity and eternity into the symbols of the language of the finite concepts of the mortal mind. But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience — God-consciousness.
(The fragment of God - the Universal Father - resides within the mind of each mortal after the age of six. The Spirit of Truth is the composite spirit of the Master Universe Creator Sons – those who have completed lives living as the inhabitants of seven levels of their created universes.)
Difficulties and Limitations of Assignment
It is exceedingly difficult to present enlarged concepts and advanced truth, in our endeavor to expand cosmic consciousness and enhance spiritual perception, when we are restricted to the use of a circumscribed language of the realm. But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue. We have been instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning.
In the hope of facilitating comprehension and of preventing confusion on the part of every mortal who may peruse these papers, we deem it wise to present in this initial statement an outline of the meanings to be attached to numerous English words which are to be employed in designation of Deity and certain associated concepts of the things, meanings, and values of universal reality.
But in order to formulate this Foreword of definitions and limitations of terminology, it is necessary to anticipate the usage of these terms in the subsequent presentations in the book. This Foreword is not, therefore, a finished statement within itself; it is only a definitive guide designed to assist those who shall read the accompanying papers dealing with Deity and the universe of universes which have been formulated by our Orvonton commission sent to Urantia for this purpose.
Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon (the local universe of which the planet Earth is a part) .This universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton,from whose capital, Uversa, our commission hails.
Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection - the central universe of Havona. At the heart of this eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity and the dwelling place of the eternal God.
The seven evolving superuniverses in association with the central and divine universe, we commonly refer to as the grand universe. These are the now organized and inhabited creations. They are all a part of the master universe, which also embraces the uninhabited but mobilizing universes of outer space.
Deity and Divinity
The universe of universes presents phenomena (supernatural events) of deity activities on diverse levels of cosmic realities, mind meanings, and spirit values, but all of these ministrations - personal or otherwise - are divinely coordinated.
Deity is personalizable (an “idea” that can be altered to fit a personal entity) just as God, is pre-personal and super personal in ways not altogether comprehensible by man.
Deity is characterized by the quality of unity - actual or potential - on all super material levels of reality. This unifying quality is best comprehended by creatures as divinity.
Deity functions on pre-personal (such as the Father fragment in the human mind), personal, and super personal levels.
Reader Alert
The following paragraph is a difficult and complex statement of the deity hierarchy.
But do not despair. These papers do not - cannot - even begin to exhaust the story of the living creatures, creators, eventuators (children of the Ultimate God), and still-otherwise-existent beings who live and worship and serve in the swarming universes of time and in the central universe of eternity.
You mortals are persons; hence we can describe beings who are personalized (in the Supreme God's worlds of Time and Space, but how could an absonitized being ever be explained to you? Absonity exists in worlds that transcend time and space - the worlds of the Ultimate God.
Total Deity (all of deity) is functional (operative) on Seven Levels
1. Static - self-contained and self-existent Deity.
This incomprehensible aspect of Deity may be static, potential, and associative but is not experientially creative or evolutional as concerns the intelligent personalities now functioning in the master universe.
Absolute primal causation in infinity is attributed to the Universal Father functioning as the infinite, the eternal, and the absolute I AM.
No qualification can be applied to the Infinite except to state that the I AM is.
2. Potential - self-willed and self-purposive Deity as opposed to the present actual.
3. Associative (akin) - self-personalized and divinely fraternal Deity.
4. Creative - self-distributive and divinely revealed Deity. For example, the Eternal Son of the Paradise Trinity is like the Father in that he seeks to bestow everything possible of himself upon his coordinate Sons and upon their subordinate hierarchial Sons.
5. Evolutional - self-expansive and creature-identified Deity (such as the Creator Sons in their own universes).
6. Supreme - self-experiential and creature-Creator-unifying Deity. These are deity functioning on the first creature-identificational level as time-space over-controllers of the grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of Deity.
7. Ultimate - self-projected and time-space-transcending Deity. Deity omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. This deity functions on the second level of unifying divinity expression as effective over-controllers and absonite upholders of the master universe. This function in the master universe is sometimes called the Ultimacy of Deity.
Note #2 - Seven
The number seven is key to the spiritual and atomic worlds. Seven is a birthmark of spiritual origin in the seven relationships of the Trinity:
The seven relationships of the Paradise Trinity are:
1. The Universal Father working alone;
2. The Eternal Son working alone;
3. The Infinite Spirit working alone;
4. The relationship of the Father and Son working together;
5. The relationship of the Father and the Infinite Spirit working together;
6. The relationship of the Son and the Infinite Spirit working together as the Conjoint Actor;
7. All the above Trinity Relationships working in synchronicity together.
On Earth, reflective of the Trinity structure, the atomic world of matter replicates a periodic characterization that occurs in groups of seven.
When arranged in the order of their atomic weights, the basic chemical elements show a recurrence of similar physical and chemical properties in separated groups of seven. When arranged in a row, any given quality or property tends to recur by sevens. While this periodic change by sevens recurs diminishingly and with variations throughout the entire chemical table, it is observable in the earlier or less dense atomic groupings.
Starting with any property of an element, such a quality will change for six consecutive elements, but on reaching the eighth, it tends to reappear. The eighth chemically active element resembles the first, the ninth the second, and so on.
There are also seven colors in the natural spectrum with each color reflecting an aspect of that Trinity identity.
The Seven Aspects of God
To compensate for the mental imperfections of creatures (non-deity), the Universal Father established a sevenfold approach to Deity. Spiritual ascension for creatures originating in time and space marks the evolutionary achievement of the following seven levels:
The Paradise Creator Son (in the local universes)
The Ancients of Days (in the Super Universes)
The Master Spirit of the pertinent Super Universe
The Supreme Being
God the Infinite Spirit
God the Eternal Son
God the Father.
Upon attainment of the discovery and recognition of the divine personality of the Universal Father on Paradise, the ascending pilgrim serves in the Corps of Mortal Finality.
Note #3 – God the Sevenfold
God the Sevenfold provides the living ladder of divine personalities that bridges the gap between man and the Paradise Father.
This deity association functions on the seven levels and its members are classified in three major groups:
1. The Universal Father
2. The Eternal Son > The Paradise Deities
3. The Infinite Spirit
4. The Supreme Being (Experiential Deity harmonizing the upper and lower three planes - triads)
5. The Master Spirits
6. The Ancients of Days > The Corps of Supreme Creators
7. The Creator Sons
We are familiar with the Paradise Deities - Father, Son, and Spirit. The Corps of the Supreme Creators is something new. These are the creators who made their appearance after eternal Havona. They are the post-Havona creators. Their work is to organize and perfect the seven the superuniverses and their projected 700,000 local universes.
Each of the Master Spirits pervades one of the superuniverses, thus determining its individual nature.
In threes on each superunivere headquarters, the Ancients of Days function as the direct rulers of the seven superuniverse creations.
The Creator Sons (and their associated Creative Spirits - daughters of the absolute Infinite Spirit) organize the local universes, and create (or evolve) the living beings who are native to these realms.
The Supreme Being is an evolving, experiential Deity. He is slowly emerging as a summarizing result of the successes of the Supreme Creators in the time-space realms, as a result of their successful collaboration with the Paradise Deities, and as a result of his own efforts to grow.
Note # 4
Spiritual Evolution
Evolution is the process of bringing the “lower nature” of man's physical, emotional, and mental selves into integration and alignment with the will of the personality and the soul working with the Thought Adjuster (the fragment of the Father) to achieve atonement or more properly, “at-one-ment.” It is this transformation that leads to “right human relations” and spiritual revelation or awakening.
Steps on the spiritual path occur as the evolving consciousness enters into new and wider fields of awareness, relationships, responsibilities, and power. The note of the soul is imposed (or superimposed) on the note of the personality if the personality wills it to be.
As man progresses upward in the scale of intelligence and spiritual perception, man’s body eventually consists of seven layers of vibrations. These vibrations are the oscillation of atoms about their equilibrium positions within a molecular system.
Note #5
Triads
Everywhere in the sevenfold universes, the multitudes of seven planes of atomic matter are divided into higher and lower Triads of the seven planes with the separating fourth plane harmonizing the upper and lower triads.
Triads are hierarchical beings who manifest the power of three planes within a structure of seven planes. At the planetary level, the primary triad consists of the planes of higher mind, will and intuition.
The Quaternary, (the four lower planes), and the Septenary (all seven planes), play powerful roles in evolution.
The Thought Adjuster (God fragment) expresses itself through the Higher Triad. The planes of the Lower Triad form the body of the Soul of man.
The Soul expresses itself through the mental, emotional, and physical planes. The lower planes are a reflection of the higher Triad.
Mind links the lower and the higher Triads.
Mind is the path to at-one-ment (fusion of the personality, the soul and the Thought Adjuster) and brotherhood.
In addition, in the architecture of the planes of matter, the fourth Adjutant Mind Spirit, (Knowledge) leads men to harmony, which is the spiritual energy point of at-one-ment.
Finite, Absonite and Absolute Levels
The finite level of reality is characterized by creature life and time-space limitations in the worlds of the Supreme God. Finite realities may not have endings, but they always have beginnings - they are created in time and space.
The absonite level of reality is characterized by things and beings without beginnings or endings and by the transcendence of time and space. Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated - they simply are. The Deity level of Ultimacy connotes a function in relation to absonite realities. No matter in what part of the master universe, whenever time and space are transcended, such an absonite phenomenon is an act of the Ultimacy of Deity.
The absolute level is beginningless, endless, timeless, and spaceless. For example: On Paradise, time and space are nonexistent; the time-space status of Paradise is the absolute NOW. This level is Trinity attained, existentially, by the Paradise Deities, but this third level of unifying Deity expression is not fully unified experientially. Whenever, wherever, and however the absolute level of Deity functions, Paradise-absolute values and meanings are manifest.
Existential/Experiential Definitions
A Study of the Master Universe, (William S. Sadler, Jr., page 12, edited.)
http://www.urantia.org/study-master-universe/study-master-universe
Existential as used in the The Urantia Book means something eternal, without a beginning or an ending. There is no time at which it did not exist. An existential being has full knowledge before any experience. God is existential. The word “existential” is used as the opposite of experiential.
Experiential designates beings and things that have origins. It also designates all beings that can grow by experience. Some existential realities can have experiential growth to higher levels. Other realities are wholly experiential; man is wholly experiential in his growth.
Existential deity enjoy existence as free and responsible agents determining their own development through acts of the will.
Experiential deity or non-deity require learning based on experience and free will choices.
Deity may be existential, undivided (as in the Paradise Trinity) or existential as in the Eternal Son; experiential, as in the Supreme Being; or associative (working closely together), as in God the Sevenfold.
Divinity
Deity is the source of all that is divine. Deity is characteristically and invariably divine, but all that which is divine is not necessarily Deity, though it will be coordinated with Deity and will tend towards some phase of unity with Deity - spiritual, mindal, or personal.
Divinity is the characteristic, unifying, and coordinating quality of Deity.
Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; coordinated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.
Divinity may be perfect - complete - as on existential and creator levels of Paradise perfection; it may be imperfect, as on experiential and creature levels of time-space evolution; or it may be relative, neither perfect nor imperfect, as on certain Havona levels of existential-experiential relationships.
When we attempt to conceive of perfection in all phases and forms of relativity, we encounter seven conceivable types:
1. Absolute perfection in all aspects.
2. Absolute perfection in some phases and relative perfection in all other aspects.
3. Absolute, relative, and imperfect aspects in varied association.
4. Absolute perfection in some respects, imperfection in all others.
5. Absolute perfection in no direction, relative perfection in all manifestations.
6. Absolute perfection in no phase, relative in some, imperfect in others.
7. Absolute perfection in no attribute, imperfection in all.
Note #6
Edited excerpt from Transcripts of a Lecture and Discussion of “THE FOREWORD” By William Sadler, Jr., Presented June 12, 1961
The first half of section 1 in the Foreword is nothing more nor less than a discussion of how deity functions and they give us seven levels on which deity functions. These levels vary from the quiet to the active and they encompass all of the known, comprehensible functions of deity.
Deity can be very quiet. Deity can also plan, and that means that there is a potential, a plan which will be fulfilled, a plan that will be consummated.
Deity can be fraternal as in the case of Father, Son and Spirit. Deity creates and spreads itself out over creation.
Deity engages in creativity in time as well as instantaneous creativity, because evolution is simply creativity in time and evolution simply means that creatures go into partnership with deity.
God
Evolving mortal creatures experience an irresistible urge to symbolize in words their finite concepts of God. Man’s consciousness of moral duty and his spiritual idealism represent a value level - an experiential reality - that is difficult to symbolize.
Cosmic consciousness implies the recognition of a First Cause, the one and only reality not brought into existence by any antecedent cause.
God, the Universal Father, functions on three Deity-personality levels of sub-infinite value and relative divinity expression:
1. Pre-personal - as in the ministry of the Father fragments, such as the Thought Adjusters.
2. Personal - as in the evolutionary experience of created and procreated beings.
3. Super-personal - as in the eventuated existences of certain absonite (Ultimate regime) and associated beings. (Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated - they simply are. They transcend time and space.)
Note #7
Edited excerpt from Transcripts of a Lecture and Discussion of “THE FOREWORD” By William Sadler, Jr., Presented June 12, 1961
The word God has more than one meaning in The UB Papers;. The word God is used with seven different meanings. We are familiar with the first three, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
We are not as familiar with God the Supreme, this is the emerging deity of the finite level of existence (the fourth usage of the term God). God the Supreme is evolutionary deity. This is God in time, not God in eternity. This is God in space, not God in infinity. God the Supreme is a consequence of the acts of infinite deity.
The fifth usage of God is God the Sevenfold, which is an association of deity. Our encounter with God the Sevenfold is in the bestowal of Jesus, a very real encounter. When Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” He spoke as God and for God, and this is the truest illustration that we can apprehend concerning the function of God the Sevenfold.
God the Sevenfold is God-any-where in time and space; God in action, in the imperfect evolutionary domains.
What God the Supreme is to the finite level, God the Ultimate (the sixth usage of the term God) is to the super-finite, the absonite level, which separates the finite from the absolute.)
God the Absolute is the seventh god mentioned in the Papers. He would be the final expression of deity. Just as the Eternal Son is the existential expression of the Father, God the Absolute is the final experiential or comprehensible expression of the Father.
Existential meaning is that which comes into being by the inherent acts of God. Experiential meaning is that which creatures have had a hand in, hence, understandable. If God the Absolute could ever appear in fact and in completion, then through God the Absolute we might understand God the Father as infinite. (This suggests that God the Absolute will never complete His growth, because we will never understand, the Father as infinite, we will merely grow in that understanding.)
The Term “God”
God is a word symbol designating all personalizations of Deity. The term “God” requires a different definition on each personal level of Deity function and must be still further redefined within each of these levels, as this term may be used to designate the diverse coordinate and subordinate personalizations of Deity; for example: the Paradise Creator Sons - the local universe fathers.
The term God, as we make use of it, may be understood:
1. By designation - as God the Father.
2. By context - as when used in the discussion of some one deity level or association. When in doubt as to the exact interpretation of the word God, it would be advisable to refer it to the person of the Universal Father.
The term God always denotes personality. Deity may, or may not, refer to divinity personalities.
Further Explication of “God” in The Urantia Book
The word “God” is used, in The Urantia Book papers, with the following meanings:
1. God the Father - Creator, Controller, and Upholder. The Universal Father, the First Person of Deity.
2. God the Son - Coordinate Creator, Spirit Controller, and Spiritual Administrator. The Eternal Son, the Second Person of Deity.
3. God the Spirit - Conjoint Actor working to manifest the plans of the Father and the Son, Universal Integrator, and Mind Bestower. The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity.
4. God the Supreme - the actualizing or evolving God of time and space. Personal Deity associatively realizing the time-space experiential achievement of creature-Creator identity. The Supreme Being is personally experiencing the achievement of Deity unity as the evolving and experiential God of the evolutionary creatures of time and space.
5. God the Sevenfold - Deity personality anywhere actually functioning in time and space. The personal Paradise Deities and their creative associates functioning in and beyond the borders of the central universe and power-personalizing as the Supreme Being on the first creature level of unifying Deity revelation in time and space. This level, the grand universe, is the sphere of the time-space descension of Paradise personalities in reciprocal association with the time-space ascension of evolutionary creatures.
6. God the Ultimate - the eventuating God of super-time and transcended space. The second experiential level of unifying Deity manifestation. God the Ultimate implies the attained realization of the synthesized absonite-super-personal, time-space-transcended, and eventuated-experiential values, coordinated on final creative levels of Deity reality. This will occur in the now forming Tertiary Space Level.
7. God the Absolute - the experientializing God of transcended super-personal values and divinity meanings, now existential as the Deity Absolute. This is the third level of unifying Deity expression and expansion. On this super-creative level, Deity experiences exhaustion of personalizable potential, encounters completion of divinity, and undergoes depletion of capacity for self-revelation to successive and progressive levels of other-personalization. Deity now encounters, impinges upon, and experiences identity with, the Unqualified Absolute. This is energy-matter becoming personalized deity through experience and evolution (the goal of the Universal Father). This will occur in the now forming Quartan Level of Outer Space.
Note #8
Edited excerpt from Transcripts of a Lecture and Discussion of “THE FOREWORD” By William Sadler, Jr., Presented June 12, 1961
Section 3 of Foreword
The upcoming third section of The UB Foreword speaks initially of the First, Second, and Third Sources and Centers of the seven sources and centers. Interestingly, there are only two Papers in The Urantia Book that use these captions. They discuss the First Source and Center (the Father) and the Third Source and Center (the Infinite Spirit). The reason is that God the Father and God the Infinite Spirit are quite alike, and They are both quite different from God the Son (the Second Source and Center).
The Father and the Spirit are personal, as is the Son, but They are also everything else in addition to being personal. They have many, other-than-personal characteristics. The Son is only personal, and that is why the Son can’t fragment Himself as both the Father and the Spirit can. You can’t fragment a personality, and the Son can find nothing in His deity to fragment, because there is nothing in His deity which is not personal. He is the full, personal expression of God.
The Father and the Spirit are equally personal, but They are also much that is, other-than-personal, hence, They can fragment Themselves, and so you have both Father-fragments and Spirit-fragments. Some fragments come from the Creator Sons, not from the Eternal Son. Son fused mortals derive their spirit endowment not from the Eternal Son but from the Creator Son of their local universe.
The non-personified Father fragment that inhabits the mind of mortals gains personality status upon fusing with a mortal.
In this third section of the Foreword, we are, for the first time, introduced to all seven absolutes of infinity. And we’re told about the relationship which the First Source and Center has to the other six absolutes. The easiest way to think about these six absolutes is to think of them in terms of spirit, mind, and matter.
The Second Source and Center (the Eternal Son) is the source of spirit, the Third Source and Center (the Infinite Spirit) is the source of mind, (but there is also spiritual ministry in the Third Source and Center).
The Seven Sources and Centers
Total, infinite reality is existential in seven phases and as seven coordinate Absolutes:
1. The First Source and Center.
2. The Second Source and Center.
3. The Third Source and Center.
4. The Isle of Paradise.
5. The Deity Absolute.
6. The Universal Absolute.
7. The Unqualified Absolute.
God, as the First Source and Center, is primal in relation to total reality - unqualifiedly. The First Source and Center is infinite as well as eternal and is therefore limited or conditioned only by volition.
God - the Universal Father - is the personality of the First Source and Center and as such maintains personal relations of infinite control over all coordinate and subordinate sources and centers. Such control is personal and infinite in potential, even though it may never actually function owing to the perfection of the function of such coordinate and subordinate sources and centers and personalities.
The First Source and Center is, therefore, primal in all domains: deified or undeified, personal or impersonal, actual or potential, finite or infinite. No thing or being, no relativity or finality, exists except in direct or indirect relation to, and dependence on, the primacy of the First Source and Center.
Note #9
The Metamorphosis of and Self Distribution of the I AM
Edited excerpt from Transcripts of a Lecture and Discussion of “THE FOREWORD” by William Sadler, Jr., Presented June 12, 1961
Paradise is the Fourth Source and Center. The Eternal Isle, is the source (generator) and controller of all things material.
The easiest way to think of the next three absolutes (the fifth, sixth, and seventh sources and centers) is as reservoirs out of which, the matter, the mind, and the spirit of the evolving present and the unexpressed future is coming. From the Unqualified Absolute comes the energy-matter of the evolving universes, from the Deity Absolute comes the spirit beings which are being created and will be created, while the Universal Absolute is the reservoir of mind.
How our local universe creators utilize these reservoirs is unknown. For example, when a local universe Mother-Spirit creates seraphim (a class of angels), they appear in unit formations of 100. That is a large number of seraphim, and they don’t come from nothing.
When a cloud appears in the sky, that cloud does not come from nothing. The cloud was present in the form of invisible water vapor before a change in temperature made it visible. The seraphim that are created were potential in the universe, before the Creative Spirit (the companion of the Creator Son) transformed them from a potential to an actual by her creative action.
Note #10
Diety and Creatures Both Create from Potentials
Appendices to a Study of The Master Universe, William S. Sadler. Jr., Appendix VIII, Transformative Techniques, § 1-F Footnote: Concerning Procreation, p. 107.
Creation is a transformative technique for bringing new things and new beings into existence. Procreation is a transmissive technique for reproducing one's own kind, for transmitting germ plasm from one generation to another. Stated another way - creation is a productive process; procreation is a reproductive process.
Dominance of Universal Father
This section of the Foreword makes an unqualified statement: “There are seven Absolutes of Infinity, but the First Source and Center is primal [primary] in relation to total reality.”
God, the Universal Father, is the personality of the First Source and Center. God is related to creation, to the universes, through, his six associated Absolutes, except in one particular. He is the direct Father of every personality in existence.
All personalities derive that quality of being from the Universal Father, and they are linked to the Father by His personality circuit. The other six Absolutes do not participate with the Father in this bestowal of personality, again with one exception. The Infinite Spirit (the Third Source and Center) has the Father’s “proxy.” (He is the Father’s “attorney-in-fact” - an agent authorized to act on behalf of another person), and He can act for the Father, but this is the delegation of creative power.
Mortal Comprehension
Speaking further about Reality, the authors of the Foreword point out that the maximum reality mortals can understand is a finite God.We need God to have a beginning. A beginningless God is simply beyond our comprehension.
Conceptually, mortals need a beginning, and though there never was a beginning, the authors provide one while warning us this is not reality.
To God, to deity, prior to any self distribution, the authors give the name, the I AM , but they say,” This is a philosophic concept, this is not a reality.”
Control Centers
The gravity forces of the material universes are convergent in the gravity center of nether (lower) Paradise. That is why the geographic location of the First Source and Center person is eternally fixed in absolute relation to the force-energy center of the nether or material plane of Paradise. But the absolute personality of Deity exists on the upper or spiritual plane of Paradise.
The mind forces are convergent in the Infinite Spirit; the differential and divergent cosmic mind in the Seven Master Spirits; the factualizing (precise) mind of the Supreme as a time-space experience in Majeston.
[The Supreme God created Majeston who is a true person, the personal and infallible center of the reflectivity phenomena in all seven super universes of time and space.]
The Conjoint Actor is able to coordinate all levels of universe actuality in such manner as to make possible the simultaneous recognition of the mental, the material, and the spiritual. This is the phenomenon of universe reflectivity.
Reflectivity is the unique and inexplicable power to see, hear, sense, and know all things as they transpire throughout a super universe, and to focalize [bring together], by reflectivity, all this information and knowledge at any desired point.
The action of reflectivity is shown in perfection on each of the headquarters worlds of the seven super universes. It is also operative throughout all sectors of the super universes and within the boundaries of the local universes. Reflectivity finally focalizes [converges] on Paradise.
Note #10
The temporal relation of man to the Supreme is the foundation for cosmic morality, the universal sensitivity to, and acceptance of, duty.
This is a morality which transcends the temporal sense of relative right and wrong. It is a morality directly predicated on the self-conscious creature’s appreciation of experiential obligation to experiential Deity. Mortal man and all other finite creatures are created out of the living potential of energy, mind, and spirit existent in the Supreme.
It is upon the Supreme that the fused Adjuster-mortal ascender draws for the creation of the immortal and divine character of a finaliter. (Finaliter is the designation given the fused mortal-father fragment upon completing the ascension to Paradise.) It is out of the very reality of the Supreme that the human's Thought Adjuster, with the consent of the human will, weaves the patterns of the eternal nature of an ascending son of God.
Clarification of Deity Control
The universe spirit forces are convergent in the Eternal Son.
The unlimited capacity for deity action resides in the Deity Absolute.
The unlimited capacity for infinity response exists in the Unqualified Absolute.
The two Absolutes - Qualified and Unqualified - are coordinated and unified in and by the Universal Absolute.
The potential personality of an evolutionary moral being or of any other moral being is centered in the personality of the Universal Father.
Mortal Perception of Reality
Reality, as comprehended by finite beings, is partial, relative, and shadowy. The maximum Deity reality fully comprehensible by evolutionary finite creatures is embraced within the Supreme Being.
Nevertheless, there are antecedent and eternal realities (super-finite realities) that are ancestral to this Supreme Deity of evolutionary time-space creatures. In attempting to portray the origin and nature of universal reality, we Urantia Book authors are forced to employ the technique of time-space reasoning to reach the level of the finite mind. Therefore, many of the simultaneous events of eternity must be presented as sequential transactions.
As a time-space creature would view the origin and differentiation of Reality, the eternal and infinite I AM achieved Deity liberation from the fetters of unqualified infinity through the exercise of inherent and eternal free will. This severance from unqualified (energy-matter) infinity produced the first absolute divinity-tension. The tension of infinity differential [differences] is resolved by the Universal Absolute, who is functionally equalizing the tension that is produced by the separation of Total Reality into the deified and the undeified (the Unqualifed Absolute).
Sequential Presentation of Reality
In the original transition of the theoretical I AM, the I AM achieved the realization of personality by becoming the Eternal Father of the Original Son simultaneously with becoming the Eternal Source of the Isle of Paradise.
Coexistent with the differentiation of the Son from the Father, and in the presence of Paradise, there appeared the person of the Infinite Spirit and the central universe of Havona.
With the appearance of co-existent personal Deity, (the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit), the Father escaped, as a personality, from otherwise inevitable diffusion throughout the potential of Total Deity.
Thereafter, it is only in Trinity association with his two Deity equals that the Father fills all Deity potential, while increasingly experiential Deity is being actualized on the divinity levels of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.
Concept of The Father Infinite
The Infinite is used to denote the fullness - the finality - implied by the primacy of the First Source and Center.
The theoretical I AM is a creature-philosophic extension of the “infinity of will,” but the Infinite is an actual value-level representing the eternity-intension [increase in degree] of the true infinity of the absolute and unfettered free will of the Universal Father. This concept is sometimes designated the Father-Infinite.
Much of the confusion of all orders of beings, high and low, in their efforts to discover the Father-Infinite, is inherent in their limitations of comprehension.
The absolute primacy of the Universal Father is not apparent on sub-infinite levels. Therefore, it is probable that only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit truly know the Father as an infinity. To all other personalities such a concept is an exercise of faith.
Universe Reality
Reality actualizes differently on diverse universe levels.
Reality originates in and by the infinite volition of the Universal Father and is realizable in three primal phases on many different levels of universe actualization:
1. Undeified reality ranges from the energy domains of the non-personal to the reality realms of the non-personalizable values of universal existence, even to the presence of the Unqualified Absolute.
2. Deified reality embraces all infinite Deity potentials ranging upward through all realms of personality from the lowest finite to the highest infinite, thus encompassing the domain of all that which is personalizable and more - even to the presence of the Deity Absolute.
3. Inter-associated reality. Universe reality is supposedly either deified or undeified, but to sub-deified beings there exists a vast domain of inter-associated reality, potential and actualizing, which is difficult of identification. Much of this coordinate reality is embraced within the realms of the Universal Absolute.
In summary, the primal concept of original reality is: The Father initiates and maintains Reality. The primal differentials [differences] of reality are the deified and the undeified - the Deity Absolute and the Unqualified Absolute. The primal relationship is the tension between them. This Father-initiated divinity-tension is perfectly resolved by, and eternalizes as, the Universal Absolute.
Reality Viewed from Time and Space
From the viewpoint of time and space, reality is further divisible as:
1. Actual and Potential - Realities existing in fullness of expression in contrast to those that carry undisclosed capacity for growth. The Eternal Son is an absolute spiritual actuality; mortal man is largely an unrealized spiritual potentiality.
2. Absolute and Sub-absolute - Absolute realities are eternity existences. Sub-absolute realities are projected on two levels:
a. Absonites - realities that are relative with respect to both time and eternity (midway between).
b. Finites - realities that are projected in space and are actualized in time (evolutionary).
3. Existential and Experiential - Paradise Deity is existential, but the emerging Supreme and Ultimate Gods are experiential.
4. Personal and Impersonal - Deity expansion, personality expression, and universe evolution are forever conditioned by the Father’s freewill act that forever separated the mind-spirit-personal meanings and values of actuality and potentiality centering in the Eternal Son (a person) from those things that center and inhere in the eternal Isle of Paradise (a non-person).
Paradise Reality
The term, “Paradise” comprehensively includes all of the personal and the non-personal focal [foremost] Absolutes of all phases of universe reality.
Paradise, properly qualified, may connote any and all forms of reality - Deity, divinity, personality, and energy (spiritual, mindal, or material). All share Paradise as the place of origin, function, and destiny, as regards values, meanings, and factual existence.
The Isle of Paradise - Paradise not otherwise qualified - is the Absolute of the material-gravity control of the First Source and Center. Paradise is motionless, being the only stationary thing in the universe of universes. The Isle of Paradise has a universe location but no position in space. This eternal Isle is the actual source of the physical universes - past, present, and future. The nuclear Isle of Light is a Deity derivative, but it is not Deity. Neither are the material creations a part of Deity; they are a consequence.
Paradise is not a creator; it is a unique controller of many universe activities, far more of a controller than a reactor. Throughout the material universes, Paradise influences the reactions and conduct of all beings having to do with force, energy, and power, but Paradise itself is unique, exclusive, and isolated in the universes. Paradise is neither a force nor a presence; it is simply Paradise.
Personality Realities
Personality is a level of deified reality and ranges from the mortal and midwayer level of the higher mind activation of worship and wisdom up through the morontial and spiritual to the attainment of finality of personality status. That is the evolutionary ascent of mortal (and kindred-creature) personality, but there are numerous other orders of universe personalities.
Definition. Midwayers are creatures who appear on most inhabited worlds, and always on life-experiment decimal worlds such as Urantia (Earth). They exist and function in the realm "midway" between human and angel.
Reality is subject to universal expansion, personality to infinite diversification. Both are capable of well-nigh unlimited Deity coordination and eternal stabilization. While the metamorphic range of non-personal reality is definitely limited, we know of no limitations to the progressive evolution of personality realities. (The adjective metamorphic pertains to the changes in form or metamorphosis of personality creatures.)
On attained experiential levels, all personality orders or values are capable of associative (working together) and even co-creational (non physical mating). Even God and man can coexist in a unified personality, as is so exquisitely demonstrated in the present status of Christ Michael - Son of Man and Son of God.
Personality Is a Gift
All sub-infinite orders and phases of personality are associative attainables and are potentially co-creational. The pre-personal, the personal, and the super-personal are all linked together by mutual potential of coordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and co-creational capacity.
But never does the impersonal directly transmute to the personal. Personality is never spontaneous; it is the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality is superimposed upon energy, and it is associated only with living energy systems. “Identity” can be associated with nonliving energy patterns.
The Universal Father is the secret of the reality of personality, the bestowal of personality, and the destiny of personality. The Eternal Son is the absolute personality, the secret of spiritual energy, morontia spirits, (midway between flesh and spirit), and perfected spirits. The Conjoint Actor is the spirit-mind personality, the source of intelligence, reason, and the universal mind. But the Isle of Paradise is non-personal and extra-spiritual, being the essence of the universal body, the source and center of physical matter, and the absolute master pattern of universal material reality.
Man's Body, Mind, Spirit, and Soul
The qualities of universal reality are manifest in Urantian (Earthly) human experience on the following levels:
1. Body. The material or physical organism of man. The living electrochemical mechanism of animal nature and origin.
2. Mind. The thinking, perceiving, and feeling mechanism of the human organism. The total conscious and unconscious experience. The intelligence associated with the emotional life reaching upward through worship and wisdom to the spirit level.
3. Spirit. The divine spirit that indwells the mind of man - the Thought Adjuster. This immortal spirit is pre-personal - not a personality, though destined to become a part of the personality of the surviving mortal creature.
4. Soul. The soul of man is an experiential acquirement. As a mortal creature chooses to “do the will of the Father in heaven,” so the indwelling spirit becomes the father of a new reality in human experience. The mortal and material mind is the mother of this same emerging reality. The substance of this new reality is neither material nor spiritual - it is morontial (midway between flesh and spirit). The emerging and immortal soul is destined to survive mortal death and begin the Paradise ascension.
Personality Unifies Integral Parts
The personality of mortal man is neither body, mind, spirit or soul. Personality is the one changeless reality in an otherwise ever-changing creature experience; and it unifies all other associated factors of individuality.
The personality is the unique bestowal which the Universal Father makes upon the living and associated energies of matter, mind, and spirit, and which survives with the survival of the morontial soul.
Morontia is a term designating a vast level intervening between the material and the spiritual. It may designate personal or impersonal realities, living or nonliving energies. The warp of morontia is spiritual; its woof is physical. (http://www.urantiabook.org/newbook/glossary.htm)
Energy and Pattern
Any and all things responding to the personality circuit of the Father, are called personal. Any and all things responding to the spirit circuit of the Son, are called spirit. Any and all things that respond to the mind circuit of the Conjoint Actor, are called mind, as mind is an attribute of the Infinite Spirit - mind in all its phases. Any and all things that respond to the material-gravity circuit centering in nether Paradise, are called matter (energy-matter in all its metamorphic states).
“Energy” is used as an all-inclusive term applied to spiritual, mindal, and material realms. “Force” is also broadly used. “Power” is ordinarily limited to the designation of the electronic level of material or linear-gravity-responsive matter in the grand universe. (Power is also employed to designate sovereignty.)
Mortal definitions of force, energy, and power can not be utilized because of the paucity of language.
Examining Physical Energy
“Physical energy” is a general term denoting all phases and forms of phenomenal motion, action, and potential.
In discussing physical-energy manifestations, The Urantia Book generally use the terms “cosmic force,” “emergent energy,” and “universe power.” These terms describing energy evolution are often employed as follows:
1. Cosmic force embraces all energies (space potency) deriving from the Unqualified Absolute, but which are as yet unresponsive to Paradise gravity.
2. Emergent energy embraces those energies that are responsive to Paradise gravity but are as yet unresponsive to local or linear gravity. This is the pre-electronic level of energy-matter.
3. Universe power includes all forms of energy which, while still responding to Paradise gravity, are directly responsive to linear gravity (in the universes). This is the electronic level of energy-matter and all subsequent evolutions.
Mind
Mind is a phenomenon that signifies the presence-activity of living spiritual ministry. This is true on all levels of intelligence.
In personality, mind always intervenes between spirit and matter. The universes are illuminated by three kinds of light: material light, intellectual insight, and spirit luminosity.
Spirit luminosity connotes the personality manifestation characteristic of spirit beings of diverse orders. This luminous emanation is in not related to either intellectual insight or to physical-light manifestations.
The Universal Father is the fountainhead of all luminosity. In becoming a Master Son, Michael, the Creator of our local universe, earned the quality of luminosity through the Spirit of Truth, which serves in his universe.
Note #11
Universal Regulation
The universe is not static. Stability is the product of balanced energies, cooperative minds, coordinated morontias, spirit over-control, and personality unification. Stability is proportional to divinity - oneness.
Morontias. Morontia mind functions differently in response to the 570 levels of morontia life, which disclose increasingly associative capacity with the cosmic mind on the higher levels of attainment. This is the evolutionary path of mortal creatures.
In contemplating universal phenomena, mortals must take into consideration the interrelation of physical, intellectual, and spiritual energies. Also, mortals must allow for unexpected phenomena complemental to their own unification by personality, and for the unpredictable phenomena resulting from the actions and reactions of experiential Deity and the Absolutes.
The universe is highly predictable only in the quantitative or gravity-measurement sense. Qualitatively, the universe is not highly predictable as regards new associations of forces, either physical, mindal, or spiritual.
When matter, mind, and spirit are unified by creature personality, the decisions of such freewill beings are unpredictable. Due to its quality of free will, the human personality is not merely a concomitant (accessory) of time-and-space events; the human personality can also act as the cosmic cause of such events.
Pattern
Pattern can be projected as material, spiritual, or mindal, or any combination of these energies. It can pervade (infuse) personalities, identities, entities, or nonliving matter. But pattern is pattern and remains pattern; only copies are multiplied.
Pattern (like a template) may configure energy, but it does not control it. Gravity is the sole control of energy-matter. Neither space nor pattern are gravity responsive. There is no relationship between space and pattern. Space is neither pattern nor potential pattern. Pattern is a configuration of reality which has already paid all gravity debt; the reality of any pattern consists of its energies, its mind, spirit, or material components.
In contrast to the aspect of the total, pattern discloses the individual aspect of energy and of personality. Personality or identity forms are patterns resultant from energy (physical, spiritual, or mindal) but are not inherent therein. That quality of energy or of personality by virtue of which pattern is caused to appear may be attributed to God - Deity - to Paradise force endowment, to the coexistence of personality and power.
Pattern is a master design from which copies are made. Eternal Paradise is the absolute of patterns; the Eternal Son is the pattern personality; the Universal Father is the direct ancestor-source of both. However, Paradise does not bestow pattern, and the Son cannot bestow personality.
Note #12
The Life Carriers
The creation of energy and the bestowal of life are the prerogatives of the Universal Father and his associate Creator personalities. The river of energy and life is a continuous outpouring from the Deities, the universal and united stream of Paradise force going forth to all space. This divine energy pervades all creation. The force organizers initiate those changes and institute those modifications of space-force which eventuate in energy; the power directors transmute energy into matter; and the material worlds are born.
The Life Carriers initiate those processes in dead matter which we call life, material life.
When the Life Carriers have designed the patterns of life, after they have organized the energy systems, there must occur an additional phenomenon. The “breath of life” must be imparted to these lifeless forms by the local universe Mother Spirit (the partner of the Creator Son) after her own appearance in the spark of life (aka, the primary eruption).
Note #13
The Spark of Life
Each Creator Son and Daughter are “born” as unique concepts of the Paradise Trinity deities.
In the creation of a universe, the Creator Son provides the pattern while the Universe Mother Spirit initiates the materialization of physical realities. The Son operates in the power designs; the Spirit transforms these energy creations into physical substances.
After the completion of the physical organization of a starry and planetary cluster by the Creator Son and the establishment of the energy circuits by the super universe power centers, the agencies of the Infinite Spirit, operating through, and under the direction of, his local universe “focalization” (the imminent creative daughter), the Creator Son proclaims that life is to be projected into his newly organized universe.
Upon the Paradise recognition of this declaration of intention, there occurs a reaction of approval in the Paradise Trinity, followed by the “disappearance” in the spiritual shining of the Deity of the Master Spirit in whose super universe this new creation is organizing. The Master Spirits of the other six super universes draw near the central home of the Paradise Deities, and when the Deity-embraced Master Spirit emerges to the recognition of his fellows, there occurs what is known as a “primary eruption.”
This is a tremendous spiritual flash or spark, a phenomenon clearly discernible as far away as the headquarters of the super universe concerned. Simultaneously, there immediately personalizes, in the very presence of the Creator Son, a new personal representation of the Infinite Spirit. This is the Creative Daugher who will become the Divine Minister. This individualized Creative Spirit companion of the Creator Son is his perfect personal counterpart, his creative associate, the local universe Mother Spirit.
Note #14
The Breath of Life
The breath of life conferred by the Creative Daughter is more than a metaphor. Life is the sum of the distinguishing phenomena of organisms, especially metabolism, growth, reproduction, and adaptation to environment.
Life does not originate spontaneously. Life is constructed according to plans formulated by the (unrevealed) Architects of Being and appears on the potentially inhabitable planets either by direct importation or as a result of the operations of the Life Carriers of the local universes. These carriers of life are entrusted with designing and carrying creature life to the planetary spheres. After planting this life on new worlds, the Life Carriers remain there for long periods to foster its development.
The Divine Minister cooperates with the Creator Son in the formulation of life and the creation of new orders of beings up to the time of the Son's seventh bestowal. Subsequently, after his elevation to the full sovereignty of his universe, She continues to collaborate with the Son and the Son’s bestowed Spirit of Truth in the further work of world ministry and planetary progression.
Note #15
Evolutionary Progression
On the inhabited worlds of their universe, the Creative Spirit Daughter begins the work of evolutionary progression starting with the lifeless material of the realm - first endowing vegetable life, then the animal organisms, then the first orders of human existence.
Each succeeding impartation contributes to the further unfolding of the evolutionary potential of planetary life from the initial and primitive stages to the appearance of will creatures. This labor of the Creative Spirit is largely effected through the seven adjutant-spirit mind circuits, the unifying and coordinating spirit-mind of the evolving planets, ever and unitedly leading the races of men towards higher ideas and spiritual ideals.
The seven adjutant mind-spirits are called by names that are the equivalents of: 1. intuition; 2. understanding; 3. courage; 4. knowledge; 5. counsel; 6. worship; and 7. wisdom.
Mortal man first experiences the ministry of the Creative Spirit in conjunction with mind when the purely animal mind of evolutionary creatures develops reception capacity for the adjutants of 6. worship and 7. wisdom. This ministry of the sixth and seventh adjutants indicates mind evolution crossing the threshold of spiritual ministry. Immediately, such minds of worship and wisdom function are included in the spiritual circuits of the Divine Minister, the “Holy Spirit.”
When mind is thus endowed with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it possesses the capacity for (consciously or unconsciously) choosing the spiritual presence of the Universal Father - the Thought Adjuster.
But it is not until a successful seventh bestowal Son has liberated the Spirit of Truth for planetary ministry to all mortals that all normal minds are automatically prepared for the reception of the Thought Adjusters.
Note #16
The Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit
The Spirit of Truth works as one with the presence of the spirit of the Divine Minister. This dual spirit liaison hovers over the worlds, seeking to teach truth and to spiritually enlighten the minds of men, to inspire the souls of the creatures of the ascending races, and to lead the peoples dwelling on the evolutionary planets ever towards their Paradise goal of divine destiny.
Though the Spirit of Truth is poured out upon all flesh, this spirit of the Son is almost wholly limited in function and power by man’s personal reception of that which constitutes the sum and substance of the mission of the bestowal Son [Jesus on Earth]. The Holy Spirit is partly independent of human attitude and partially conditioned by the decisions and cooperation of the will of man. Nevertheless, the ministry of the Holy Spirit becomes increasingly effective in the sanctification and spiritualization of the inner life of those mortals who the more fully obey the divine leadings.
Individuals do not personally possess a segregated portion or entity of the spirit of the Creator Father-Son or the Creative Mother Spirit. These ministries do not contact with, nor indwell, the thinking centers of the individual’s mind as do the Thought Adjusters. Thought Adjusters are definite individualizations of the pre-personal reality of the Universal Father, actually indwelling the mortal mind as a part of that mind, always working in perfect harmony with the combined spirits of the Creator Son and Creative Spirit.
The presences of the Holy Spirit of the Universe Daughter of the Infinite Spirit, of the Spirit of Truth of the Universe Son of the Eternal Son, and of the Adjuster-spirit of the Paradise Father in or with an evolutionary mortal, denotes symmetry of spiritual endowment and ministry and qualifies such a mortal consciously to realize the faith-fact of son-ship with God.
Binary Deity
The Deity mechanism of the master universe is twofold as concerns eternity relationships. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are eternal - they are existential beings - while God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute are actualizing Deity personalities of the post-Havona epochs in the time-space and the time-space-transcended spheres of master universe evolutionary expansion.
These actualizing Deity personalities are future eternals from the time when, and as, they power-personalize in the growing universes by the technique of the experiential actualization of the associative-creative potentials of the eternal Paradise Deities.
Deity is, therefore, dual in presence:
1. Existential - beings of eternal existence, past, present, and future.
2. Experiential - beings actualizing in the post-Havona present but of unending existence throughout all future eternity.
The Father, Son, and Spirit are existential - existential in actuality (though all potentials are supposedly experiential). The Supreme and the Ultimate are wholly experiential. The Deity Absolute is experiential in actualization but existential in potentiality. The essence of Deity is eternal, but only the three original persons of Deity are unqualifiedly eternal. All other Deity personalities have an origin, but they are eternal in destiny.
Metamorphosis of Duality
Having achieved existential Deity expression of himself in the Son and the Spirit, the Father is now achieving experiential expression on previously impersonal and unrevealed deity levels as God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute; but these experiential Deities are not now fully existent; they are in process of actualization.
God the Supreme in Havona is the personal spirit reflection of the triune Paradise Deity. This associative Deity relationship is now creatively expanding outward in God the Sevenfold and is synthesizing in the experiential power of the Almighty Supreme in the grand universe.
Paradise Deity, existential as three persons, is thus experientially evolving in two phases of Supremacy, while these dual phases are power-personality unifying as one Lord, the Supreme Being.
Note #17
From One To Three To Seven
The Universal Father achieves freewill liberation from the bonds of infinity and the fetters of eternity by the technique of trinitization, threefold Deity personalization. The Supreme Being is even now evolving as a sub-eternal personality unification of the seven-fold manifestation of Deity in the time-space segments of the grand universe.
The Supreme Being is not a direct creator (except that he fathered Majeston – the God of Reflectivity), but he is coordinating the synthesis of all creature-Creator universe activities.
When finally actualized, the Supreme Being will constitute the eternal fusion of the finite and the infinite - the everlasting and indissoluble union of experiential power and spirit personality.
All time-space finite reality, under the directive urge of the evolving Supreme Being, is engaged in an ever-ascending mobilization and perfecting unification (power-personality synthesis) of all phases and values of finite reality, in association with varied phases of Paradise reality, for the sole purpose of subsequently embarking upon the attempt to reach absonite (transcending time) levels of super creature attainment.
Note #18
Mortal Mastery of the Seven Psychic Circles
It is difficult to define the seven levels of human progression, because these levels are personal; they are variable for each individual and are apparently determined by the growth capacity of each human being.
The conquest of these levels of cosmic evolution is reflected in three ways:
1. Adjuster attunement. The spiritizing mind nears the Adjuster presence proportional to circle attainment.
2. Soul evolution. The emergence of the morontia soul indicates the extent and depth of circle mastery.
3. Personality reality. The degree of self-hood reality is directly determined by circle conquest. Persons become more real as they ascend from the seventh to the first level of mortal existence.
The seven circles embrace mortal experience extending from the highest purely animal level to the lowest actual contactual morontia (midway between flesh and spirit) level of self-consciousness as a personality experience.
The mastery of the first (highest) cosmic circle signals the attainment of pre-morontia mortal maturity and marks the termination of the Creative Mother Spirit's conjoint ministry of the adjutant mind spirits as an exclusive influence of mind action in the human personality. Beyond the first circle, mind becomes increasingly akin to the intelligence of the morontia stage of evolution, the conjoined ministry of the cosmic mind and the super adjutant endowment of the Creative Mother Spirit of the local universe.
The great struggle of this universe age is between the potential and the actual - the seeking for actualization by all that is as yet unexpressed. The volitional creation has the choice of accepting or of rejecting the role of personality participation in the adventure of eternity.
Note #18
Mortal man cannot destroy the supreme values of human existence, but he can very definitely prevent the evolution of these values in his own personal experience.
To the extent that the human self thus refuses to take part in the Paradise ascent, to that extent the Supreme is delayed in achieving divinity expression in the grand universe.
In the brotherhood of Jesus there is no place for sectarian rivalry, group bitterness, nor assertions of moral superiority and spiritual infallibility.
The moral values of the universe become intellectual possessions by the exercise of the three basic judgments, or choices, of the mortal mind:
Self-judgment - moral choice.
Social-judgment - ethical choice.
God-judgment - religious choice.
Note #19
The Kingdoms
The mineral kingdom is the densest point of concretion [solidification] for physical forms.
The vegetable kingdom is unique in the economy of our solar system, as it is vital to all lives.
Though the mineral kingdom has a consciousness of its own, sensation is more recognizable in the vegetable kingdom.
The distinction between the consciousnesses of the mineral kingdom and that of the animal kingdom is so vast that their respective consciousnesses are barely related.
The vegetable kingdom is the bridge between the mineral kingdom and the animal kingdom.
Man/God
Man is a god to the lower kingdoms, but due to his immaturity, man's beneficial oversight (as opposed to exploitation) of his lesser brothers is very poor.
Eating, digesting and excreting liberates entities to higher planes within kingdoms.
Such lives will themselves later be raised, and developed to the human stage.
Man in his lower nature is an aggregate of lesser lives, dependent upon him for their group nature, for their type of activity, and collective response.
Note #21
The Structural Planes of Creation
The creation of Time and Space reflects the dramatic process of trinitization in the repetitive structure of descending planes of existence assembled as ladders consisting of an upper three planes, a lower three planes, and a separating plane that seeks the equilibrium (harmony) of the upper and lower triads.
On Earth, The three higher sub planes are home to the more evolved forces (lives).
In actuality, there is no such thing as matter. There is only force In varying degrees.
There is only mind energy of differing quality - only lives emanating from different sources.
There is only consciousness producing intelligent effect through the medium of space.
Significance of God the Sevenfold
To atone for finity (i.e., subject to the limitations or conditions, as of space, time, circumstances, or the laws of nature) of status and to compensate for creature limitations of concept, the Universal Father has established the evolutionary creature’s seven fold approach to Deity through ascension approval of:
1. The Paradise Creator Sons.
2. The Ancients of Days.
3. The Seven Master Spirits.
4. The Supreme Being.
5. God the Spirit.
6. God the Son.
7. God the Father.
The experiential discovery-career of the realization of God begins with the recognition of the divinity of the Creator Son of the local universe and ascends through the super universe Ancients of Days and by way of the person of one of the Seven Master Spirits to the attainment of the discovery and recognition of the divine personality of the Universal Father on Paradise.
Creation's Rulers
The grand universe is the threefold Deity domain of the Trinity of Supremacy*, God the Seven-fold, and the Supreme Being.
God the Supreme is potential in the Paradise Trinity, from whom he derives his personality and spirit attributes; but he is now actualizing in the Creator Sons, Ancients of Days, and the Master Spirits, from whom he derives his power as Almighty** to the super universes of time and space.
This power manifestation of the immediate God of evolutionary creatures in time-space evolves concomitantly with them. The Almighty Supreme, evolving on the value-level of non-personal activities, and the spirit person of God the Supreme are one reality - the Supreme Being.
The Creator Sons in the Deity association of God the Seven-fold provide the mechanism whereby the mortal becomes immortal and the finite attains the embrace of the infinite.
The Supreme Being provides the technique for the power-personality mobilization, the divine synthesis, of all these manifold transactions, enabling the finite to attain the absonite and, through other possible future actualizations, to attempt the attainment of the Ultimate.
The Creator Sons and their associated Divine Ministers are participants in this supreme mobilization, but the Ancients of Days and the Seven Master Spirits are probably eternally fixed as permanent administrators in the grand universe.
The function of God the Seven-fold dates from the organization of the seven super universes, and it will probably expand in connection with the future evolution of the creations of outer space. The organization of these future universes of the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quartan space levels of progressive evolution will undoubtedly witness the inauguration of the transcendent and absonite approach to Deity.
* There are seven orders of Supreme Trinity Personalities. Throughout the grand universe the Supreme Trinity Personalities represent the administrative policies of the Paradise Trinity. They represent the justice and are the executive judgment of the Paradise Trinity. They form an interrelated line of administrative perfection extending from the Paradise spheres of the Father to the headquarters worlds of the local universes and to the capitals of their component constellations.
** The time-space mind, the cosmic mind, functions differently in the seven super universes, but it is coordinated by some unknown associative technique in the Supreme Being. The Almighty over-control of the grand universe is not exclusively physical and spiritual. In the seven super universes it is primarily material and spiritual, but there are also present phenomena of the Supreme which are both intellectual and spiritual.
God the Ultimate
Just as the Supreme Being progressively evolves from the antecedent divinity endowment of the encompassed grand universe potential of energy and personality, so does God the Ultimate eventuate from the potentials of divinity residing in the transcended time-space domains of the master universe.
[The Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated - they simply are. Absoniters “occur” - conceptually “conceived in thought” by deity.]
The actualization of Ultimate Deity [in the “future”] signals absonite unification of the first experiential Trinity and signifies unifying Deity expansion on the second level [upward and inward beyond time and space] of creative self-realization.
This constitutes the personality-power equivalent of the universe experiential-Deity actualization of Paradise absonite realities on the eventuating levels of transcended time-space values. The completion of such an experiential unfoldment is designed to afford ultimate service-destiny for all time-space creatures who have attained absonite levels through the completed realization of the Supreme Being and by the ministry of God the Sevenfold.
God the Ultimate is designative [expressive] of personal Deity functioning on the divinity levels of the absonite and on the universe spheres of super time and transcended space. The Ultimate is a super supreme eventuation of Deity. The Supreme is the Trinity unification comprehended by finite beings; the Ultimate is the unification of the Paradise Trinity comprehended by absonite beings.
Ladder to the Absolute Level
The Universal Father, through the mechanism of evolutionary Deity, is actually engaged in the stupendous and amazing act of personality focalization and power mobilization [up-stepping], on their respective universe meaning-levels, of the divine reality values of the finite, the absonite, and even of the absolute.
The first three and past-eternal Deities of Paradise - the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit - are, in the eternal future, to be personality-complemented by the experiential actualization of associate evolutionary Deities - God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and possibly God the Absolute.
God the Supreme and God the Ultimate, now evolving in the experiential universes, are not existential - not past eternals, only future eternals, time-space-conditioned and transcendental-conditioned eternals.
They are Deities of supreme, ultimate, and possibly supreme-ultimate endowments, but they have experienced historic universe origins. They will never have an end, but they do have personality beginnings. They are indeed actualizations of eternal and infinite Deity potentials, but they themselves are neither unqualifiedly eternal nor infinite.
God the Absolute
There are many features of the eternal reality of the Deity Absolute that cannot be fully explained to the time-space finite mind, but the actualization of God the Absolute would be in consequence of the unification of the second experiential Trinity, the Absolute Trinity. This would constitute the experiential realization of absolute divinity, the unification of absolute meanings on absolute levels; but we are not certain regarding the encompassment of all absolute values since we have at no time been informed that the Qualified Absolute is the equivalent of the Infinite.
Super ultimate destinies are involved in absolute meanings and infinite spirituality, and without both of these [still to be achieved] realities we cannot establish absolute values.
God the Absolute is the realization-attainment goal of all super absonite beings, but the power and personality potential of the Deity Absolute transcends our concept, and we hesitate to discuss those realities that are so far removed from experiential actualization.
The Three Absolutes
When the combined thought of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, functioning in the God of Action, constituted the creation of the divine and central universe, the Father followed the expression of his thought into the word of his Son and the act of their Conjoint Executive by differentiating his Havona presence from the potentials of infinity.
These undisclosed infinity potentials remain space concealed in the Unqualified Absolute and divinely enshrouded in the Deity Absolute, while these two become one in the functioning of the Universal Absolute, the unrevealed infinity-unity of the Paradise Father.
Both potency of cosmic force and potency of spirit force are in process of progressive revelation-realization as the enrichment of all reality is effected by experiential growth and through the correlation of the experiential with the existential by the Universal Absolute.
By virtue of the equipoising [balancing] presence of the Universal Absolute, the First Source and Center [the Universal Father] realizes extension of experiential power, enjoys identification with his evolutionary creatures, and achieves expansion of experiential Deity on the levels of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.
1. The Deity Absolute
The Deity Absolute seems to be the all-powerful activator, while the Unqualified Absolute appears to be the all-efficient mechanizer of the supremely unified and ultimately coordinated universe of universes, even universes upon universes, made, making, and yet to be made.
The Deity Absolute cannot, or at least does not, react to any universe situation in a sub absolute manner. Every response of this Absolute to any given situation appears to be made in terms of the welfare of the whole creation of things and beings, not only in its present state of existence, but also in view of the infinite possibilities of all future eternity.
The Deity Absolute is that potential which was segregated from total, infinite reality by the freewill choice of the Universal Father, and within which all divinity activities - existential and experiential - take place. This is the Qualified Absolute in contradistinction to the Unqualified Absolute; but the Universal Absolute is super additive to both in the encompassment of all absolute potential.
2. The Unqualified Absolute
The Unqualified Absolute is non-personal, extra-divine, and undeified. The Unqualified Absolute is therefore devoid of personality, divinity, and all creator prerogatives. Neither fact nor truth, experience nor revelation, philosophy nor absonity are able to penetrate the nature and character of this Absolute without universe qualification.
Let it be made clear that the Unqualified Absolute is a positive reality pervading the grand universe and, apparently, extending with equal space presence on out into the force activities and pre-material evolutions of the staggering stretches of the space regions beyond the seven super universes.
The Unqualified Absolute is not a mere negativism of philosophic concept predicated on the assumptions of metaphysical sophistries concerning the universality, dominance, and primacy of the unconditioned and the unqualified. The Unqualified Absolute is a positive universe over-control in infinity; this over control is space-force unlimited but is definitely conditioned by the presence of life, mind, spirit, and personality, and is further conditioned by the will-reactions and purposeful mandates of the Paradise Trinity.
We are convinced that the Unqualified Absolute is not an undifferentiated and all-pervading influence comparable either to the pantheistic concepts of metaphysics or to the sometime ether hypothesis of science. The Unqualified Absolute is force unlimited and Deity conditioned, but we do not fully perceive the relation of this Absolute to the spirit realities of the universes.
3. The Universal Absolute
The Universal Absolute, we logically deduce, was inevitable in the Universal Father’s absolute freewill act of differentiating [separating] universe realities into deified and undeified - personalizable and non-personalizable [things] - values.
The Universal Absolute is the Deity phenomenon indicative of the resolution of the tension created by the freewill act of thus differentiating universe reality, and functions as the associative coordinator of these sum totals of existential potentialities.
The tension-presence of the Universal Absolute signifies the adjustment of differential between deity reality and undeified reality inherent in the separation of the dynamics of freewill divinity from the statics of unqualified infinity.
Always remember: Potential infinity is absolute and inseparable from eternity. Actual infinity in time can never be anything but partial and must therefore be non-absolute; neither can infinity of actual personality be absolute except in unqualified Deity. And it is the differential of infinity potential in the Unqualified Absolute and the Deity Absolute that eternalizes the Universal Absolute, thereby making it cosmically possible to have material universes in space and spiritually possible to have finite personalities in time.
The finite can coexist in the cosmos along with the Infinite only because the associative presence of the Universal Absolute so perfectly equalizes the tensions between time and eternity, finity and infinity, reality potential and reality actuality, Paradise and space, man and God. Associatively, the Universal Absolute constitutes the identification of the zone of progressing evolutional reality existent in the time-space, and in the transcended time-space, universes of sub-infinite Deity manifestation.
The Universal Absolute is the potential of the static-dynamic [Unqualified and Qualified] Deity functionally realizable on time-eternity levels as finite-absolute values and as possible of experiential-existential approach. This incomprehensible aspect of Deity may be static, potential, and associative but is not experientially creative or evolutional as concerns the intelligent personalities now functioning in the master universe.
The Three Absolutes Are One
The two Absolutes - qualified and unqualified - while so apparently divergent in function as they may be observed by mind creatures, are perfectly and divinely unified in and by the Universal Absolute. In the last analysis and in the final comprehension all three are one Absolute. On sub-infinite levels they are functionally differentiated, but in infinity they are ONE.
We never use the term the Absolute as a negation of aught [anything] or as a denial of anything. Neither do we regard the Universal Absolute as self-determinative, a sort of pantheistic and impersonal Deity. The Absolute, in all that pertains to universe personality, is strictly Trinity limited and Deity dominated.
When it is not possible fully to distinguish the Deity Absolute from the Unqualified Absolute, their supposedly combined function or coordinated presence is designated the action of the Universal Absolute.
The Trinities
The original and eternal Paradise Trinity is existential and was inevitable. This never-beginning Trinity was inherent in the fact of the differentiation of the personal and the non-personal by the Father’s unfettered will and factualized when his personal will coordinated these dual realities by mind.
The post-Havona Trinities are experiential - are inherent in the creation of two sub-absolute and evolutional levels of power-personality manifestation in the master universe [God the Ultimate and God the Absolute].
The Paradise Trinity - the eternal Deity union of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit - is existential in actuality, but all potentials are experiential [a work in progress]. Therefore this Trinity constitutes the only Deity reality embracing infinity, and therefore does there occur the universe phenomena of the actualization of God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute.
The First and Second Experiential Trinities
The first and second experiential Trinities, the post-Havona Trinities, cannot be infinite because they embrace derived Deities - Deities evolved by the experiential actualization of realities created or eventuated by the existential Paradise Trinity. Infinity of divinity is being ever enriched, if not enlarged, by finity and absonity of creature and Creator experience.
Trinities are truths of relationship and facts of coordinate Deity manifestation. Trinity functions encompass Deity realities, and Deity realities always seek realization and manifestation in personalization.
God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and even God the Absolute are therefore divine inevitabilities. These three experiential Deities were potential in the existential Trinity, the Paradise Trinity, but their universe emergence as personalities of power is dependent in part on their own experiential functioning in the universes of power and personality and in part on the experiential achievements of the post-Havona Creators and Trinities.
The Composition of the Post-Havona Trinities
The two post-Havona Trinities, the Ultimate and the Absolute experiential Trinities, are not now fully manifest; they are in process of universe realization. These Deity associations may be described as follows:
1. The Ultimate Trinity, now evolving, will eventually consist of the Supreme Being, the Supreme Creator Personalities, and the absonite Architects of the Master Universe, those unique universe planners who are neither creators nor creatures. God the Ultimate will eventually and inevitably powerize and personalize as the Deity consequence of the unification of this experiential Ultimate Trinity in the expanding arena of the well-nigh limitless master universe.
2. The Absolute Trinity - the second experiential Trinity - now in process of actualization, will consist of God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and the unrevealed Consummator of Universe Destiny. This Trinity functions on both personal and super personal levels, even to the borders of the non-personal, [the Unqualified absolute?] and its unification in universality would experientialize Absolute Deity.
The Ultimate Trinity is experientially unifying in completion, but we truly doubt the possibility of such full unification of the Absolute Trinity. Our concept, however, of the eternal Paradise Trinity is an ever-present reminder that Deity trinitization may accomplish what is otherwise non-attainable; hence do we postulate the sometime appearance of the Supreme-Ultimate and the possible trinitization-factualization of God the Absolute.
Wouldn't Miss This For The World
The philosophers of the universes postulate a Trinity of Trinities, an existential-experiential Trinity Infinite, but the philosophers are not able to envisage its personalization.
Possibly it would equivalate [be equivalent] to the person of the Universal Father on the conceptual level of the I AM.
But irrespective of all this, the original Paradise Trinity is potentially infinite since the Universal Father is actually infinite.
Note (# 22)
The Eternal Cycle of Deity
Appendix XXIII – The Trinity of Trinities, William S. Sadler, Jr., page 329, edited.
In the far, far distant epochs of the post-ultimate age the emergence of the Trinity of Trinities will begin the final reunification of all actual (and actualizing) deity - existential and experiential. In relation to deity, this multiple-trinity appears to be the total of totals. As we contemplate the past-eternity origin of the Paradise Trinity, then ponder the eventual appearance of this threefold trinity in the utter remoteness of the almost-eternal future, the feeling of the cyclical nature of deity personalization and trinity formation is likely to grow upon us as mortals too are deity.
The Urantia Book comments on this:
Human beings can best conceive of all that is Real, of Total Reality, by picturing ". . . an almost limitless ellipse which is produced by one absolute cause . . ." which, after great diversification converges in reunification, . . . ever seeking some absolute and infinite potential of destiny." (1152.1) 105:0.1
The cycle of deity starts in past eternity. It passes through many stages and many ages and is finally lost to concept beyond the distant horizon of future eternity. It all seems to start with the Infinite.
And our concluding and crowning concept of the final quest is the search for the Infinite.