The Second Source and Center

As love is comprehended on a sex planet, the love of God is more comparable to the love of a father while the love of the Eternal Son is more like the affection of a mother. Crude, indeed, are such illustrations, but I [a Divine Counselor] employ them in the hope of conveying to the human mind the thought that there is a difference, not in divine content but in quality and technique of expression, between the love of the Father and the love of the Son. [UB 6:3:5 (76:0)]

As the second person of the Trinity and the Second Source and Center of all spirit reality, the Eternal Son of the Paradise Father is the eternal personality. He is the eternal pattern for all other personalities, he "is the perfect and final expression of the 'first' personal and absolute concept of the Universal Father." [UB 6:0:1 (73:1)] 

The Eternal Son is the original and only-begotten Son of God. He is God the Son, the Second Person of Deity and the associate creator of all things. As the Father is the First Great Source and Center, so the Eternal Son is the Second Great Source and Center. [UB 6:1:1 (73:5)]

Being personal, God reveals himself to his self-willed creation as the divine Father of all personality; the absolute truth of this revelation of God as Father rests in the absolute person of the Eternal Son. This primal relationship of Father and Son provides the necessary foundation for finite creatures such as ourselves to co-exist and to equally partake of the Fatherhood of God. The truth that the I AM is Father to the Eternal Son brings into being the personality relationships of all actualized beings.

"The Son is naturally endowed with the life of the Father. Having been endowed with the living spirit of the Father, you are therefore sons of God. You survive your life in the material world of the flesh because you are identified with the Father's living spirit, the gift of eternal life." [UB 146:3:5 (1642:1)]

The Son is uncreated, eternal, equally God: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." [John. 1:1] At the same time, the Father-I AM is one with the Eternal Son because the divine nature that each possesses is eternal. The Son shares with the Father his divine character of Deity, for they are forever and inseparably one personal unity of universe presence; and it is by virtue of this mutual omnipresence that all creation rests upon the everywhere active presence of the divine spirit of the Eternal Son. The spirit of the Father is eternally resident in the spirit of his Son, but the Son alone perfectly personalizes the Father's love and mercy. To the universes of creation, the Son is the living revelation of his loving Father:

As God is love, so the Son is mercy. The Son cannot love more than the Father, but he can show mercy to creatures in one additional way, for he is not only a creator like the Father, but he is also the Eternal Son of that same Father thereby sharing in the sonship experience of all other sons of the Universal Father. [UB 5:3:1 (75:6)]

With this revelation of the Eternal Son, The Urantia Book employs for the first time a divine derivation of a feminine-gendered basis of Deity function. The divine concept of the Eternal Son as being the Original Mother Son is represented within The Urantia Book as a clear break from the patriarchy of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Here we have presented a reality of personal Deity that is definitely flavored by maternal divinity and colored by the warmth of loving mercy.

Concerning identity, nature, and other attributes of personality, the Eternal Son is the full equal, the perfect complement, and the eternal counterpart of the Universal Father. In the same sense that God is the Universal Father, the Son is the Universal Mother. And all of us, high and low, constitute their universal family. [UB 6:8:1 (79:4)]

The Universal Father forever separates by his eternal act of free will all those mind-spirit-personal realities comprising meanings and values that are actually centered in the Eternal Son from "those things which center and inhere in the eternal Isle of Paradise."[UB 0:IV:10 (7:8)]

Spirit Gravity

Spirit, through mind, masters energy-matter. As conditioned by personality, spirit transcends mind and matter, the experiential variables of progressive spirit attainment. Spirit dominates matter by the mediation of personal mind. Spirit is the highest personal reality and is the motivating influence of all personality-energy systems.

As the Second Source and Center of all spirit reality, the Eternal Son exercises absolute spiritual control throughout the universe of universes. Spiritual gravity encompasses all bestowals of spirit, and the Son ever draws these spirit realities unto himself. All actualized spirit energy is held in the absolute grasp of his spirit gravity. As the spirit potentials inherent in the infinite spirit reservoirs of the Deity Absolute become actualized, they enter into the spirit-gravity circuit of the Son. The Eternal Son is spiritually omnipresent throughout creation; his spirit envelops all creature personalities of spirit potential. As human beings grow in the development of their spiritual souls, they are drawn relentlessly into the Son's all-powerful gravity circuit. As mortal ascenders enhance their spiritual natures, they become increasingly responsive to the incessant Paradiseward pull of this spirit gravity. This spirit pull Godward is intense and inescapable.

Spirit gravity operates instantaneously independent of time and space. No matter where or when spirit reality comes into being, it is held immediately in the spirit-gravity grasp of the Son. The strength of the Son's drawing power of this emergent spirit reality is directly in accordance with the quality of its actual spiritual value. This spirit-gravity pull operates between not only the Second Source and Center and the actualized spirit reality, it also manifests itself in the interactions of spiritual beings. Mortal beings of spirit character are drawn to each other as kindred spirits.

The Eternal Son is spiritually present to all beings of spirit responsiveness. This spirit gravity presence provides a reliable channel for direct spirit communion and guidance. All human prayers that originate from the innermost level of mortal consciousness find their direct channel in the Son's spirit gravity. The sincerity of such prayers possess spirit value, and this earnestness assures that these petitions will be seized by the spirit gravity circuit. Such prayers, once they have found their way into the Son's spiritual circuit, will end up where they need to in order to be acted upon.

Paradise Sons

The Universal Father controls and regulates his creation through the downstepping administration of his descending Sons. This unbroken chain of authority extends downward from Paradise throughout all the levels of his superuniverse domains, starting with the Paradise Sons and ending with the Planetary Princes who carry the responsibility for directing the destinies of the evolutionary worlds. Even though the Paradise Sons are scattered throughout the grand universe, they always maintain a direct and exclusive channel of communication with the Original Mother Son.

All Sons of God who take origin in the persons of the Paradise Deities are in direct and constant communication with the Eternal Mother Son. [UB 7:6:7 (88:5)]

Three classifications of Paradise Sons take origin in various creative liaisons of the three Persons of Deity - the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Second Person of Deity, the Eternal Son, is involved in giving origin to all three of these Paradise Son offspring.

        Combining the love of the Universal Father and the mercy of the Eternal Son

        As the Fathers of the local universe creations, they portray the infinite character of the Universal Father

        Revelatory of the Will of God (fatherly relationship with universe personalities)

a.      Creative Power

b.      Loving Ministry

c.      Understanding Sovereignty

        Combining the mercy of the Eternal Son and the ministry of the Infinite Spirit

        As the bestowal Sons of mercy, they reveal the infinite compassion of the Eternal Son

        Revelatory of the Law of God

a.      Judgement

b.      Service

c.      Bestowal

        Combining the love (Father), mercy (Son), ministry (Spirit) of the three Paradise Deities

        As the true teachers of ascending personalities, they disclose the teacher personality of the Infinite Spirit

        Revelatory of the Nature of God (his infinite love)

a.      Living Truth

b.      Divine Goodness

c.      True Spiritual Beauty

The Paradise Sons are the divine presentation of the acting natures of the three persons of Deity to the domains of time and space. The Creator, Magisterial, and Teacher Sons are the gifts of the eternal Deities to the children of men and to all other universe creatures of ascension potential. These Sons of God are the divine ministers who are unceasingly devoted to the work of helping the creatures of time attain the high spiritual goal of eternity. [UB 20:10:2 (232:5)]

In order to prepare for the common indwelling of normal minded mortal beings by the personal presence of the Paradise Father (as manifested through his fragmented Thought Adjusters), a Paradise Son must first bestow himself onto a chosen world of mortal habitation. There are several orders of Paradise Sons who can incarnate themselves in the flesh of mortal habiliment - Avonal, Magisterial, and Michael (Creator) Sons, for example. These Paradise Sons of God are personalities who are of direct and divine creation. They are a descending order of sonship "dedicated to the descending ministry of service on the worlds and systems of time and space, there to facilitate the progress in the Paradise climb of the lowly creatures of evolutionary origin--the ascending sons of God." [UB 20:1:1 (223:6)]

A Creator Son is a Paradise Son of the order of Michael. He is uniquely endowed with "world making" creative prerogatives that extend outward to the creation of self-contained and localized universes. In the sevenfold "bestowal" career of a Creator Son, he bestows himself "in the flesh" onto a world of his own creation only once. In fulfilling his special "in the flesh" bestowal as a Creator Son of Paradise origin to a world of mortal habitation, he is seeking experientially earned sovereignty over his very own local universe creation. Bestowal mission completed, he ascends to the "right hand of God" for acceptance by his Paradise Father. Upon the investment by the Father of local universe sovereignty over the Creator Son's own creation, the returning Sovereign Son pours out his own personal Spirit of Truth. This Spirit of Truth perfectly reveals the Creator Son to all men.

A Creator Paradise Son of the order of Michael takes origin through a joint action of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. He personalizes from "the perfect union of the perfect concepts of the two infinite and eternal and perfect minds" of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. [UB 21:1:2 (235:1)]

Every time the Universal Father and the Eternal Son jointly project a new, original, identical, unique, and absolute personal thought, that very instant this creative idea is perfectly and finally personalized in the being and personality of a new and original Creator Son. [UB 7:6:3 (88:1)]

Indwelling by the Father's spirit presence in the mind of man becomes automatic for all normal minds on an inhabited world once a Creator Son of the Paradise order has finished his final bestowal mission to such a world. In liaison with the Universal Father, this bestowal Son liberates his Spirit of Truth. The joint ministries of both the Holy Spirit from the local universe Creative Mother Spirit (the Universe Daughter of the Infinite Spirit) and the Spirit of Truth from the local universe Creator Son work in close collaboration with each other. Together, they coordinate their spirit influences for the spiritual enlightenment of men's minds, for the inspiration of their souls, and for directing the progression of all sincere truth-seekers in their faithful search for the Universal Father. A Creator Son's Spirit of Truth is functionally centered in his co-creative consort, the local universe Mother Spirit. In liaison with the Creator Son, the Creative Mother Spirit acts conjointly as both the universe focus and center of the Creator Son's Spirit of Truth and as the complementary center for her own personal influence, the Holy Spirit.

Other orders of bestowal Sons, such as Avonal Sons of Paradise, may sometime have the opportunity to bestow themselves "upon some mortal race on some evolutionary world." [UB 20:2:7 (225:6)] They can seek the finalizing fulfillment of their bestowal missions by establishing the epochal planetary status (e.g., the "adjudication of the realm"), by releasing the ministry of the Spirit of Truth, and by thus effecting "the universal coming of the Thought Adjusters". [UB 49:5:26 (567:5)] In similar fashion to a Creator Son, the termination of an Avonal Son's planetary bestowal initiates his ascension "on the third day" to the Universal Father for the acceptance of his bestowal mission. With the Father's "blessing" in hand, he then returns to the Creator Son (a Michael Son of Paradise with creator prerogatives) of the local universe creation in which his bestowal world belongs. Together, the Avonal and Creator Sons conjointly pour out the Spirit of Truth "in the name of the Father" to pervade the minds of will-creatures who have made their first bona fide spiritual choice. In the pre-sovereignty ages of a local universe (i.e., before a Creator Michael Son has earned his sovereignty over his local universe creation by bestowing himself onto an inhabited world of his own creation), this is the joint spirit of both Sons, implemented by the local universe Creative Mother Spirit.

This "jointly poured" Spirit of Truth differs somewhat from the Spirit of Truth that characterizes the local universe ages following a Creator Son's final bestowal.Among other things, a Creator Son administers his own personally unique spirit of the Universal Father and the Creator Son - his own personally recognizable Spirit of Truth.  His "Truth Spirit" functionally represents the "universe presence" of the Creator Son to his creation, forever making present his personal being as the "personification of truth in the local universe". [UB 34:4:5 (377:9)]

The bestowal of the Spirit of Truth invests the human mind with unerring responsiveness to truth, a spiritual recognition of "the living spirit relationship of all things and all beings as they are co-ordinated in the eternal ascent Godward." [UB 56:10:13 (647:4)] As mortal man sets out upon his ascendancy career in search for the Universal Father, this Spirit of Truth works by endowing the individual with the "power of the certain and joyous performance of the gracious, acceptable, and perfect will of God." [UB 143:2:4 (1609:5)]

Having started out on the way of life everlasting, having accepted the assignment and received your orders to advance, do not fear the dangers of human forgetfulness and mortal inconstancy, do not be troubled with doubts of failure or by perplexing confusion, do not falter and question your status and standing, for in every dark hour, at every crossroad in the forward struggle, the Spirit of Truth will always speak, saying, "This is the way." [UB 34:7:8 (383:2)]

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