Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 40
THE ASCENDING SONS OF GOD
1. As in many of the major groups of universe beings, seven general classes of the Ascending Sons of God have been revealed:
1. Father‑fused Mortals.
2. Son‑fused Mortals.
3. Spirit‑fused Mortals.
4. Evolutionary Seraphim.
5. Ascending Material Sons.
6. Translated Midwayers.
7. Personalized Adjusters.
2. To climb to the supernal heights of finaliter sonship with God is a masterly achievement for an angel, an accomplishment far transcending your attainment of eternal survival through the plan of the Eternal Son and the ever‑present help of the indwelling Adjuster; but the guardian seraphim, and occasionally others, do actually effect such ascensions.
3. Liberated Adams and Eves are accredited as ascending Sons of God and may immediately begin the long journey to Havona and Paradise, starting at the exact point of their then present status and spiritual attainment.
4. Soon after an evolutionary planet has attained the intermediate epochs of light and life (if not before), both groups of midway creatures are released from planetary duty... The primary group are destined to various finaliter corps, but the secondary or Adamic midwayers are all routed for enrollment in the Mortal Corps of Finality.
5. Sometimes, after repeated services ...or following some unusual experience, such as functioning as the indwelling Adjuster of an incarnated bestowal Son, these efficient Adjusters are personalized by the Universal Father. Personalized Adjusters are beings of a unique and unfathomable order...those Personalized Adjusters are classified as ascending Sons of God, the highest of all such orders of sonship.
6. Spirit identification constitutes the secret of personal survival and determines the destiny of spiritual ascension.
7. Series one—mortals of the transient or experiential Adjuster sojourn. This series designation is temporary for any evolving planet, being used during the early stages of all inhabited worlds except those of the second series ...All God‑seeking souls of this type achieve eternal life through the spiritual embrace of the Mother Spirit of the local universe, thus becoming ascending mortals of the local universe regime.
8. Series two ‑ mortals of the non‑Adjuster‑fusion types. These are specialized types of human beings ...a wholly different and markedly modified order of will creatures ...The mortals of this second series are often indwelt by virgin Adjusters...the guardians of destiny minister on such spheres just as on Urantia and similarly function at the time of mortal survival, at which time the surviving soul becomes Spirit fused.
9. When you encounter these modified mortal types on the mansion worlds, you will find no difficulty in communicating with them. There they speak the same system language but by a modified. technique.
10. As to just why this type of creature is never able to fuse with the Adjusters of the Universal Father, I am unable to say...Often have we asked: Is this an intended or an unintended part of the ascension plan? but we have not found the answer.
11. Series three—mortals of Adjuster‑fusion potential ...They embrace mortals of the one-brained, two‑brained, and three‑brained types of Adjuster‑fusion potential. Urantians are of the intermediate or two‑brained type ...From the system headquarters on, the progression of these three types is the same, and their eventual Paradise destiny is identical.
12. Urantia mortals are entitled to regard themselves as being the sons of God because:
1. You are sons of spiritual promise, faith sons...
2. A Creator Son of God became one of you...
3. You are sons because the spirit of a Son has been poured out upon you...
4. Of his divine free‑wiliness, the Universal Father has given you your creature personalities.
5. There dwells within you a fragment of the Universal Father.
13. The sending of Adjusters, their indwelling, is indeed. one of the unfathomable mysteries of God the Father ...When you. and your Adjusters are finally and forever fused ...then in fact have you become the ascending sons of God.
14. The Father has bestowed himself upon you., placed his own spirit within you; therefore does he demand ultimate perfection of you...this supernal adventure should be the supreme study of mortal man.
15. To the Adjuster‑fused mortal the career of universal service is wide open. What dignity of destiny and glory of attainment await every one of you! Do you fully appreciate what has been done for you? Do you comprehend the grandeur of the heights of eternal achievement which are spread out before you? even you who now trudge on the lowly path of life through your so‑called "vale of tears"?
16. When it becomes apparent that some synchronizing difficulty is inhibiting Father fusion, the survival referees of the Creator Son are convened. And when this court of inquiry... finally determines that the ascending mortal is not guilty of any discoverable cause for failure to attain fusion ...Thereupon does the indwelling Adjuster return forthwith to Divinington for confirmation by the Personalized Monitors, and upon this leave‑taking the morontia mortal is immediately fused with an individualized gift of the spirit of the Creator Son.
17. With Spirit‑fused mortals there exists no such mechanism whereby human memory may persist ...When a Spirit‑fused mortal is told about the events of the unremembered past experience, there is an immediate response of experiential recognition within the soul (identity) of such a survivor which instantly invests the narrated event with the emotional tinge of reality and with the intellectual quality of fact.
18. While we understand such techniques of memory reconstruction fairly well, we do not grasp the technique of personality recognition. Personalities of one‑time association mutually respond quite independently of the operation of memory, albeit, memory itself and the techniques of its reconstruction are necessary to invest such mutual personality response with the fullness of recognition.
19. Spirit‑fused mortals are, generally speaking, confined to a local universe; Son‑fused survivors are restricted to a superuniverse; Adjuster‑fused. mortals are destined to penetrate the universe of universes. The spirits of mortal fusion always ascend to the level of origin; such spirit entities unfailingly return to the sphere of primal source.
20. Son and Spirit fusion do, superficially, resemble compensations of unexplained failures in some detail of the Paradise‑attainment plan; but all such conclusions stand in error; we are taught that all those happenings unfold in obedience to the established laws of the Supreme Universe Rulers ...That mortal destinies do thus vary in no wise proves that one is necessarily greater or lesser than another, merely that they differ ...There is no favoritism, nothing arbitrary, in the selective operation of the divine plan of mortal survival.
21. The Father loves each of his sons, and that affection is not less than true, holy, divine, unlimited, eternal, and unique—a love bestowed upon this son and upon that son, individually, personally, and exclusively. And such a love utterly eclipses all other facts. Sonship is the supreme relationship of the creature to the Creator.
Discussion Questions
1. Why would seraphic angel attainment of finaliter status far transcend the difficulties of mortal achievement of finaliter status?
2. How do we explain the justification of lesser ascension potentials of primitive mortals?
3. Are members of non-Christian religions or no religious affiliation handicapped in making survival decisions?
4. How do you think son-fused mortals adjust to their Adjuster-fusion failure?
5. What do you think about the way Spirit-fused mortals regain the memory of their life on earth?
6. Why are the permanent citizens of the local and superuniverse provided by Spirit and Son fused mortals instead of by direct creation?
7. Will the Urantia Synopsis of Papers set the stage for all people on our world to be regarded as “faith sons and daughters?”
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship