The Urantia Book Fellowship

The Universal Father as Participant in God the Sevenfold

by David Kantor

"The Universal Father is the God of all creation, the First Source and Center of all things and beings." [1:0.1] "Human things must be known in order to be loved, but divine things must be loved in order to be known." [102:1.1]



God the Sevenfold The Sevenfold Controllers
1. The Universal Father 1. The Source of Paradise (The Universal Father)
2. The Eternal Son 2. The Isle of Paradise
3. The Infinite Spirit 3. The God of Action (The Infinite Spirit)
4. The Supreme Being 4. The Almighty Supreme
5. The Seven Master Spirits 5. The Supreme Power Directors
6. The Ancients of Days 6. The Supreme Power Centers
7. The Creator Sons and Creative Spirits 7. The Master Physical Controllers


In the opening paragraphs of Paper 115 we are warned about the relativity of concept frames. As we study the concept of God (as contrasted with getting to know him personally through worship and service), we cannot allow ourselves to assume that we are going to learn some facts which we will then own as intellectual possessions.

An appropriate metaphor might be that of climbing a mountain. As we climb there will be times when we have to look closely at each step we take to be sure we don't fall. At times we get fatigued, perhaps even wonder if we've gotten lost. But there are also times when we come to a resting place; we make ourselves comfortable and stop to enjoy the view. The view is different here than it was farther down below, and it will get progressively grand and more encompassing as we climb farther up. Sooner or later we must abandon the present view so that we may continue our climb. From now on, this view that we found so stimulating during our rest, will be seen merely as a part of a much larger view.

Let's consider our study of God as such a journey. When we form concepts of God, they constitute the view from resting places in our growth. They stimulate us, they intrigue us, they reward us for the work we have thus far put into the effort, but they are not the complete view.

One of the ways in which we can approach a study of reality is to
use the categories of personal and impersonal.

[0:4.10] (7 - §8) "Deity expansion, personality expression, and universe evolution are forever conditioned by the Father's freewill act which forever separated the mind-spirit-personal meanings and values of actuality and potentiality centering in the Eternal Son from those things which center and inhere in the eternal Isle of Paradise."

[0:4.12](7 - § 10) "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 hardly Deity; neither are the material creations a part of Deity; they are a consequence."

The idea I wish to emphasize here is that impersonal realities are derivatives or repercussions of personal realities -- not the other way around. For example, consider the revelator's explanation, in time-space conceptual constructs, of the primal differentiation of reality:

[0:3.14] (6 - § 1) "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...

[0:3.15](6 - §2) "In this original transaction the theoretical 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 coexistent 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. Thenceforth 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."

[8:1.4](91 - § 1) "The God of Action functions and the dead vaults of space are astir. One billion perfect spheres flash into existence. Prior to this hypothetical eternity moment the space-energies inherent in Paradise are existent and potentially operative, but they have no actuality of being; neither can physical gravity be measured except by the reaction of material realities to its incessant pull. There is no material universe at this (assumed) eternally distant moment, but the very instant that one billion worlds materialize, there is in evidence gravity sufficient and adequate to hold them in the everlasting grasp of Paradise."

Appreciate the way in which Moses told this story -- "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light;' and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness."

Once again, note that there are both personal and impersonal aspects of Deity in God the Sevenfold. In our study of the Universal Father, we will be focusing on the personal aspects and the fact that personality is being propagated in the master universe on an unimaginable scale as a free­will act of the Universal Father. 

[0:5.4](8 - §4) "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..."

[10:1.1](108 - §4) "It would seem that the Father, back in eternity, inaugurated a policy of profound self-distribution. There is inherent in the selfless, loving, and lovable nature of the Universal Father something which causes him to reserve to himself the exercise of only those powers and that authority which he apparently finds it impossible to delegate or to bestow.

"The Universal Father all along has divested himself of every part of himself that was bestowable on any other Creator or creature. He has delegated to his divine Sons and their associated intelligences every power and all authority that could be delegated. He has actually transferred to his Sovereign Sons, in their respective universes, every prerogative of administrative authority that was transferable. In the affairs of a local universe, he has made each Sovereign Creator Son just as perfect, competent, and authoritative as is the Eternal Son in the original and central universe. He has given away, actually bestowed, with the dignity and sanctity of personality possession, all of himself and all of his attributes, everything he possibly could divest himself of, in every way, in every age, in every place, and to every person, and in every universe except that of his central indwelling.

"Divine personality is not self-centered; self-distribution and sharing of personality characterize divine freewill selfhood. Creatures crave association with other personal creatures; Creators are moved to share divinity with their universe children..."

[32:4.12] (364 - §2) "The Universal Father has poured out himself, as it were, to make all creation rich in personality possession and potential spiritual attainment. God has given us himself that we may be like him, and he has reserved for himself of power and glory only that which is necessary for the maintenance of those things for the love of which he has thus divested himself of all things else."

By bestowing and distributing personality, new associative potentials come into existence.

[0:5.1](8 - § 1) "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.

[0:5.2](8 - §2) Reality is subject to universal expansion, personality to infinite diversification, and both are capable of well-nigh unlimited Deity co-ordination and eternal stabilization. While the metamorphic range of nonpersonal reality is definitely limited, we know of no limitations to the progressive evolution of personality realities.

[0:5.3](8 - §3) On attained experiential levels all personality orders or values are associable and even cocreational. 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.

[0:5.4](8 - §4) All subinfinite orders and phases of personality are associative attainables and are potentially cocreational. The prepersonal, the personal, and the superpersonal are all linked together by mutual potential of co-ordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and cocreational 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.

[0:5.5](8 - §5) 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, 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 nonpersonal and extraspiritual, being the essence of the universal body, the source and center of physical matter, and the absolute master pattern of universal material reality,

Co-creational and Associative

Key terms here to consider are co-creational and associative

Below is the same material which we just read as it appears in the book by Bill Sadler, "A Simplification of the Foreword."

"There are many subdivisions of deified reality. Personality realities make up one of these subdivisions. As you would visualize personality reality, it would start out with the type of mind that has qualities of worship and wisdom. This is the human and the midwayer type of mind. It goes up through morontia and spiritual levels ofgrowth to where you reach finality of personality status. This is the way human beings and midwayers, and other kindred creatures grow. But there are many other types of personalities that do not grow in just this way.

"Reality can be expanded without limit. Personalities can be infinitely varied Both reality and personality can become related to Deity. Both can be eternally stabilized. There is a limit to the changes that can be made in nonpersonal reality. But we know of no limitations as to howfar a personality can advance and grow.

"When personalities really grow up and reach advanced levels of attained experience, it becomes more and more possible for them to associate together. Within limits, they may even be able to create something new, and someone new. Even God and man--divine nature and human nature -­can live together in the same personality. Christ Michael proves this for he is right now still the Son of Man as well as the Son of God.

"Below the level of infinity, any two personalities may develop the ability to associate. They may even develop the ability to create together. This goes even beyondpersonality as such. It also takes in prepersonal and superpersonal beings. The prepersonal, the personal, and the superpersonal are all linked together. There are three things that link them together: First of all, they can work together, sooner or later. Then, second, they can allprogress and grow. And lastly, third, they have capacity to be cocreational. But there is a sharp line between these three relationships and something that is impersonal.

"Something that is impersonal never gets to be personal as a matter of growth. Personality never appears spontaneously. Personality is always the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality is put in on top of energy; it is something that is added to a living energy system. Nonliving energy patterns may have identity, but they never have personality.

"What personality is, is a secret of the Universal Father. He gives it, and knows what the destiny ofpersonality is. The Eternal Son is the absolute personality. The Eternal Son knows the secrets of spirit energy and all about how morontia spirits become perfected spirits. The Conjoint Actor is the spirit-mindpersonality. He is the source of intelligence, reason, and the universal mind. But the Isle of Paradise is neither personal nor spiritual. The Isle of Paradise is the essence of the universal body. It is the where all physical matter cane ftom. It is also the master pattern that was copied in the building of the material creations.

"The personality of a human being is neither body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the soul.

"Personality does not change; everything else in a creature's experience does change. Personality unifies everything that goes to make up a creature. Personality is something unique; it is something which the Father gives; he gives it to the living associated energies of matter, mind, and spirit. Personality survives with the survival of the morontial soul." (From "A Simplification of the Foreword" by Bill Sadler) 

A review of the Trinity concept might help us appreciate something about the associative qualities of personality: 

[104:2.3] (1145 - §4) "Through the recognition of the Trinity concept the mind of man can hope to grasp something of the interrelationship of love and law in the time-space creations. Through spiritual faith man gains insight into the love of God but soon discovers that this spiritual faith has no influence on the ordained laws of the material universe. Irrespective of the firmness of man's belief in God as his Paradise Father, expanding cosmic horizons demand that he also give recognition to the reality of Paradise Deity as universal law, that he recognize the Trinity sovereignty extending outward from Paradise and overshadowing even the evolving local universes of the Creator Sons and Creative Daughters of the three eternal persons whose deity union is the fact and reality and eternal indivisibility of the Paradise Trinity.

[104:2.4](1145 - §5) "And this selfsame Paradise Trinity is a real entity--not a personality but nonetheless a true and absolute reality; not a personality but nonetheless compatible with coexistent personalities--the personalities of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Trinity is a supersummative Deity reality eventuating out of the conjoining of the three Paradise Deities. The qualities, characteristics, and functions of the Trinity are not the simple sum of the attributes of the three Paradise Deities; Trinity functions are something unique, original, and not wholly predictable from an analysis of the attributes of Father, Son, and Spirit.

[104:2.6] (1146 - §2) "The conceptual grasp of the Trinity association of Father, Son, and Spirit prepares the human mind for the further presentation of certain other threefold relationships. Theological reason may be fully satisfied by the concept of the Paradise Trinity, but philosophical and cosmological reason demand the recognition of the other triune associations of the First Source and Center, those triunities in which the Infinite functions in various non-Father capacities of universal manifestation--the relationships of the God of force, energy, power, causation, reaction, potentiality, actuality, gravity, tension, pattern, principle, and unity."


A review of some key associative complexes -- the "seven triunities" -- in which the Universal Father participates will help us understand something of the co-creational aspects of personality.  See [Paper 104, Section 4](Page 1147) The Seven Triunities

[104:4.1] (1147 - § 11) In attempting the description of seven triunities, attention is directed to the fact that the Universal Father is the primal member of each. He is, was, and ever will be: the First Universal Father-Source, Absolute Center, Primal Cause, Universal Controller, Limitless Energizer, Original Unity, Unqualified Upholder, First Person of Deity, Primal Cosmic Pattern, and Essence of Infinity. The Universal Father is the personal cause of the Absolutes; he is the absolute of Absolutes.

(These Triunity relationships of Deity are described in section 4 of Paper 104)

  • The First Triunity:
    • 1. The Universal Father.
    • 2. The Eternal Son.
    • 3. The Infinite Spirit.
  • The Second Triunity:
    • 1. The Father-Son.
    • 2. The Paradise Isle.
    • 3. The Conjoint Actor.
  • The Third Triunity:
    • 1. The Universal Father.
    • 2. The Son-Spirit.
    • 3. The Deity Absolute.
  • The Fourth Triunity:
    • 1. The Father-Spirit.
    • 2. The Paradise Isle.
    • 3. The Unqualified Absolute.
  • The Fifth Triunity:
    • 1. The Universal Father.
    • 2. The Universal Absolute.
    • 3. The Unqualified Absolute.
  • The Sixth Triunity:
    • 1. The Universal Father.
    • 2. The Deity Absolute.
    • 3. The Universal Absolute.
  • The Seventh Triunity:
    • 1. The Universal Father.
    • 2. The Conjoint Actor.
    • 3. The Universal Absolute.

[104:4.24] (1150 - §12) "These approximations are sufficient to elucidate the concept of the triunities ... While we do not deem it wise to attempt any further elaboration, we may state that there are fifteen triune associations of the First Source and Center, eight of which are unrevealed in these papers. These unrevealed associations are concerned with realities, actualities, and potentialities which are beyond the experiential level of supremacy.

[104:4.26] (1150 - §14) "Although these associations cannot augment the infinity of the Father-I AM, they do appear to make possible the subinfinite and subabsolute manifestations of his reality, The seven triunities multiply versatility, eternalize new depths, deitize new values, disclose new potentialities, reveal new meanings; and all these diversified manifestations in time and space and in the eternal cosmos are existent in the hypothetical stasis of the original infinity of the I AM."


Review the qualities of God by considering the titles of related paper sections:

  • Paper 2, The Nature of God
    • Section 1: The Infinity of God
    • Section 2: The Father's Eternal Perfection
    • Section 3: Justice and Righteousness
    • Section 4: The Divine Mercy
    • Section 5: The Love of God
    • Section 6: The Goodness of God
    • Section 7: Divine Truth and Beauty
  • Paper 3, The Attributes of God
    • Section 1: God's Everywhereness
    • Section 2: God's Infinite Power
    • Section 3: God's Universal Knowledge
    • Section 4: God's Limitlessness
    • Section 5: The Father's Supreme Rule
    • Section 6: The Father's Primacy
  • Paper 4, God's Relation to the Universe
    • Section 3: God's Unchanging Character

The God of Personality

  • Paper 5, Section 6: The God of Personality
    • [5:6.1] (70 - §2) "The Universal Father is the God of personalities. The domain of universe personality, from the lowest mortal and material creature of personality status to the highest persons of creator dignity and divine status, has its center and circumference in the Universal Father. God the Father is the bestower and the conservator of every personality. And the Paradise Father is likewise the destiny of all those finite personalities who wholeheartedly choose to do the divine will, those who love God and long to be like him.
    • [5:6.2] (70 - §3) "Personality is one of the unsolved mysteries of the universes. We are able to form adequate concepts of the factors entering into the make-up of various orders and levels of personality, but we do not fully comprehend the real nature of the personality itself We clearly perceive the numerous factors which, when put together, constitute the vehicle for human personality, but we do not fully comprehend the nature and significance of such a finite personality.
    • [5:6.3] (70 - §4) "Personality is potential in all creatures who possess a mind endowment ranging from the minimum of self-consciousness to the maximum of God-consciousness. But mind endowment alone is not personality, neither is spirit nor physical energy. Personality is that quality and value in cosmic reality which is exclusively bestowed by God the Father upon these living systems of the associated and co-ordinated energies of matter, mind, and spirit. Neither is personality a progressive achievement. Personality may be material or spiritual, but there either is personality or there is no personality. The other-than-personal never attains the level of the personal except by the direct act of the Paradise Father.
    • [5:6.4] (70 - §5) "The bestowal of personality is the exclusive function of the Universal Father, the personalization of the living energy systems which he endows with the attributes of relative creative consciousness and the freewill control thereof There is no personality apart from God the Father, and no personality exists except for God the Father. The fundamental attributes of human selfhood, as well as the absolute Adjuster nucleus of the human personality, are the bestowals of the Universal Father, acting in his exclusively personal domain of cosmic ministry."
    • [5:6.9] (71 - §4) "The bestowal of creature personality confers relative liberation from slavish response to antecedent causation, and the personalities of all such moral beings, evolutionary or otherwise, are centered in the personality of the Universal Father. They are ever drawn towards his Paradise presence by that kinship of being which constitutes the vast and universal family circle and fraternal circuit of the eternal God. There is a kinship of divine spontaneity in all personality.
    • [5:6.10] (71 - §5) "The personality circuit of the universe of universes is centered in the person of the Universal Father, and the Paradise Father is personally conscious of, and in personal touch with, all personalities of all levels of self-conscious existence. And this personality consciousness of all creation exists independently of the mission of the Thought Adjusters.
    • [5:6.11] (71 - §6) "As all gravity is circuited in the Isle of Paradise, as all mind is circuited in the Conjoint Actor and all spirit in the Eternal Son, so is all personality circuited in the personal presence of the Universal Father, and this circuit unerringly transmits the worship of all personalities to the Original and Eternal Personality."
  • Paper 1, Section 7: Spiritual Value of the Personality Concept"
    • [1:7.1] (31 - §1) "When Jesus talked about "the living God," he referred to a personal Deity--the Father in heaven. The concept of the personality of Deity facilitates fellowship; it favors intelligent worship; it promotes refreshing trustfulness. Interactions can be had between nonpersonal things, but not fellowship. The fellowship relation of father and son, as between God and man, cannot be enjoyed unless both are persons. Only personalities can commune with each other, albeit this personal communion may be greatly facilitated by the presence of just such an impersonal entity as the Thought Adjuster.
    • [1:7.2] (31 - §2) "Man does not achieve union with God as a drop of water might find unity with the ocean. Man attains divine union by progressive reciprocal spiritual communion, by personality intercourse with the personal God, by increasingly attaining the divine nature through wholehearted and intelligent conformity to the divine will. Such a sublime relationship can exist only between personalities.
    • [1:7.3] (31 - §3) "The concept of truth might possibly be entertained apart from personality, the concept of beauty may exist without personality, but the concept of divine goodness is understandable only in relation to personality. Only a person can love and be loved. Even beauty and truth would be divorced from survival hope if they were not attributes of a personal God, a loving Father.
    • [1:7.5] (31 - §5) "Ultimate universe reality cannot be grasped by mathematics, logic, or philosophy, only by personal experience in progressive conformity to the divine will of a personal God. Neither science, philosophy, nor theology can validate the personality of God. Only the personal experience of the faith to sons of the heavenly Father can effect the actual spiritual realization of the personality of God."
    • [1:7.8] (32 - §0) "But you should not become discouraged; not all of these things are wholly clear to even the high personalities belonging to my group of Paradise beings. Ever bear in mind that these profound truths pertaining to Deity will increasingly clarify as your minds become progressively spiritualized during the successive epochs of the long mortal ascent to Paradise."

In closing:

    • [5:1.10] (64 - §1) The Father is not in spiritual hiding, but so many of his creatures have hidden themselves away in the mists of their own willful decisions and for the time being have separated themselves from the communion of his spirit and the spirit of his Son by the choosing of their own perverse ways and by the indulgence of the self-assertiveness of their intolerant minds and unspiritual natures.
    • [5:1.11] (64 - §2) Mortal man may draw near God and may repeatedly forsake the divine will so long as the power of choice remains, Man's final doom is not sealed until he has lost the power to choose the Father's will. There is never a closure of the Father's heart to the need and the petition of his children. Only do his offspring close their hearts forever to the Father's drawing power when they finally and forever lose the desire to do his divine will--to know him and to be like him. Likewise is man's eternal destiny assured when Adjuster fusion proclaims to the universe that such an ascender has made the final and irrevocable choice to live the Father's will.
    • [5:1.12] (64 -§3) The great God makes direct contact with mortal man and gives a part of his infinite and eternal and incomprehensible self to live and dwell within him. God has embarked upon the eternal adventure with man. If you yield to the leadings of the spiritual forces in you and around you, you cannot fail to attain the high destiny established by a loving God as the universe goal of his ascendant creatures from the evolutionary worlds of space.

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