The Urantia Book
FOREWORD
[0:0.1] IN THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia -- that being the
name of your world -- there exists great confusion respecting the
meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity. Human beings are
still 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 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 those papers which the
Orvonton corps of truth revealers have been authorized to translate
into the English language of Urantia.
[0:0.2] 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.
[0:0.3] 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.
[0:0.4] 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. 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 an Orvonton commission sent to Urantia for this purpose.
[0:0.5] Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited
planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon. 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.
[0:0.6] 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.
I. DEITY AND DIVINITY
[0:1.1] The universe of universes presents phenomena of deity
activities on diverse levels of cosmic realities, mind meanings, and
spirit values, but all of these ministrations -- personal or otherwise
-- are divinely co-ordinated.
[0:1.2] DEITY is personalizable as God, is prepersonal and
superpersonal in ways not altogether comprehensible by man. Deity is
characterized by the quality of unity -- actual or potential -- on all
supermaterial levels of reality; and this unifying quality is best
comprehended by creatures as divinity.
[0:1.3] Deity functions on personal, prepersonal, and
superpersonal levels. Total Deity is functional on the following seven
levels:
[0:1.4] 1. Static -- self-contained and self-existent Deity.
[0:1.5] 2. Potential -- self-willed and self-purposive Deity.
[0:1.6] 3. Associative -- self-personalized and divinely fraternal Deity.
[0:1.7] 4. Creative -- self-distributive and divinely revealed Deity.
[0:1.8] 5. Evolutional -- self-expansive and creature-identified Deity.
[0:1.9] 6. Supreme -- self-experiential and
creature-Creator-unifying Deity. Deity functioning on the first
creature-identificational level as time-space overcontrollers of the
grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of Deity.
[0:1.10] 7. Ultimate -- self-projected and
time-space-transcending Deity. Deity omnipotent, omniscient, and
omnipresent. Deity functioning on the second level of unifying divinity
expression as effective overcontrollers and absonite upholders of the
master universe. As compared with the ministry of the Deities to the
grand universe, this absonite function in the master universe is
tantamount to universal overcontrol and supersustenance, sometimes
called the Ultimacy of Deity.
[0:1.11] The finite level of reality is characterized by
creature life and time-space limitations. Finite realities may not have
endings, but they always have beginnings -- they are created. The Deity
level of Supremacy may be conceived as a function in relation to finite
existences.
[0:1.12] 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.
[0:1.13] 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 absolute. 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.
[0:1.14] Deity may be existential, as in the Eternal Son;
experiential, as in the Supreme Being; associative, as in God the
Sevenfold; undivided, as in the Paradise Trinity.
[0:1.15] Deity is the source of all that which is divine. Deity
is characteristically and invariably divine, but all that which is
divine is not necessarily Deity, though it will be co-ordinated with
Deity and will tend towards some phase of unity with Deity --
spiritual, mindal, or personal.
[0:1.16] DIVINITY is the characteristic, unifying, and co-ordinating quality of Deity.
[0:1.17] Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty,
and goodness; correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry;
disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.
[0:1.18] 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.
[0:1.19] 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 other manifestations.
6. Absolute perfection in no phase, relative in some, imperfect in others.
7. Absolute perfection in no attribute, imperfection in all.
II. GOD
[0:2.1] Evolving mortal creatures experience an irresistible
urge to symbolize their finite concepts of God. Man's consciousness of
moral duty and his spiritual idealism represent a value level -- an
experiential reality -- which is difficult of symbolization.
[0:2.2] Cosmic consciousness implies the recognition of a First
Cause, the one and only uncaused reality. God, the Universal Father,
functions on three Deity-personality levels of subinfinite value and
relative divinity expression:
1. Prepersonal -- 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. Superpersonal -- as in the eventuated existences of certain absonite and associated beings.
[0:2.3] GOD is a word symbol designating all personalizations of
Deity. The term 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
co-ordinate and subordinate personalizations of Deity; for example: the
Paradise Creator Sons -- the local universe fathers.
[0:2.4] The term God, as we make use of it, may be understood:
[0:2.5] By designation -- as God the Father.
[0:2.6] 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.
[0:2.7] The term God always denotes personality. Deity may, or may not, refer to divinity personalities.
[0:2.8] The word GOD is used, in these papers, with the following meanings:
[0:2.9] 1. God the Father -- Creator, Controller, and Upholder. The Universal Father, the First Person of Deity.
[0:2.10] 2. God the Son -- Co-ordinate Creator, Spirit
Controller, and Spiritual Administrator. The Eternal Son, the Second
Person of Deity.
[0:2.11] 3. God the Spirit -- Conjoint Actor, Universal
Integrator, and Mind Bestower. The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of
Deity.
[0:2.12] 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.
[0:2.13] 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.
[0:2.14] 6. God the Ultimate -- the eventuating God of supertime
and transcended space. The second experiential level of unifying Deity
manifestation. God the Ultimate implies the attained realization of the
synthesized absonite-superpersonal, time-space-transcended, and
eventuated-experiential values, co-ordinated on final creative levels
of Deity reality.
[0:2.15] 7. God the Absolute -- the experientializing God of
transcended superpersonal values and divinity meanings, now existential
as the Deity Absolute. This is the third level of unifying Deity
expression and expansion. On this supercreative 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.
III. THE FIRST SOURCE AND CENTER
[0:3.1] Total, infinite reality is existential in seven phases and as seven co-ordinate 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.
[0:3.2] 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.
[0:3.3] God -- the Universal Father -- is the personality of the
First Source and Center and as such maintains personal relations of
infinite control over all co-ordinate 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 co-ordinate and subordinate sources and centers and
personalities.
[0:3.4] 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.
[0:3.5] The First Source and Center is related to the universe as:
[0:3.6] 1. The gravity forces of the material universes are
convergent in the gravity center of nether Paradise. That is just why
the geographic location of his 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.
[0:3.7] 2. The mind forces are convergent in the Infinite
Spirit; the differential and divergent cosmic mind in the Seven Master
Spirits; the factualizing mind of the Supreme as a time-space
experience in Majeston.
[0:3.8] 3. The universe spirit forces are convergent in the Eternal Son.
[0:3.9] 4. The unlimited capacity for deity action resides in the Deity Absolute.
[0:3.10] 5. The unlimited capacity for infinity response exists in the Unqualified Absolute.
[0:3.11] 6. The two Absolutes -- Qualified and Unqualified --
are co-ordinated and unified in and by the Universal Absolute.
[0:3.12] 7. The potential personality of an evolutionary moral
being or of any other moral being is centered in the personality of the
Universal Father.
[0:3.13] 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, superfinite
realities, which are ancestral to this Supreme Deity of evolutionary
time-space creatures. In attempting to portray the origin and nature of
universal reality, we are forced to employ the technique of time-space
reasoning in order to reach the level of the finite mind. Therefore
must many of the simultaneous events of eternity be presented as
sequential transactions.
[0:3.14] 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, and this divorcement from
unqualified infinity produced the first absolute divinity-tension. This
tension of infinity differential is resolved by the Universal Absolute,
which functions to unify and co-ordinate the dynamic infinity of Total
Deity and the static infinity of the Unqualified Absolute.
[0:3.15] 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.
[0:3.16] The concept of the I AM is a philosophic concession
which we make to the time-bound, space-fettered, finite mind of man, to
the impossibility of creature comprehension of eternity existences --
nonbeginning, nonending realities and relationships. To the time-space
creature, all things must have a beginning save only the ONE UNCAUSED
-- the primeval cause of causes. Therefore do we conceptualize this
philosophic value-level as the I AM, at the same time instructing all
creatures that the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit are coeternal
with the I AM; in other words, that there never was a time when the I
AM was not the Father of the Son and, with him, of the Spirit.
[0:3.17] 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 of the true infinity of the absolute and unfettered
free will of the Universal Father. This concept is sometimes designated
the Father-Infinite.
[0:3.18] 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 subinfinite levels; therefore is it
probable that only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit truly know
the Father as an infinity; to all other personalities such a concept
represents the exercise of faith.
IV. UNIVERSE REALITY
[0:4.1] Reality differentially actualizes 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:
[0:4.2] 1. Undeified reality ranges from the energy domains of
the nonpersonal to the reality realms of the nonpersonalizable values
of universal existence, even to the presence of the Unqualified
Absolute.
[0:4.3] 2. Deified reality embraces all of 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.
[0:4.4] 3. Interassociated reality. Universe reality is
supposedly either deified or undeified, but to subdeified beings there
exists a vast domain of interassociated reality, potential and
actualizing, which is difficult of identification. Much of this
co-ordinate reality is embraced within the realms of the Universal
Absolute.
[0:4.5] This is the primal concept of original reality: The
Father initiates and maintains Reality. The primal differentials 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.
[0:4.6] From the viewpoint of time and space, reality is further divisible as:
[0:4.7] 1. Actual and Potential. Realities existing in fullness
of expression in contrast to those which carry undisclosed capacity for
growth. The Eternal Son is an absolute spiritual actuality; mortal man
is very largely an unrealized spiritual potentiality.
[0:4.8] 2. Absolute and Subabsolute. Absolute realities are
eternity existences. Subabsolute realities are projected on two levels:
Absonites -- realities which are relative with respect to both time and
eternity. Finites -- realities which are projected in space and are
actualized in time.
[0:4.9] 3. Existential and Experiential. Paradise Deity is
existential, but the emerging Supreme and Ultimate are experiential.
[0:4.10] 4. Personal and Impersonal. 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.
[0:4.11] PARADISE is a term inclusive of the personal and the
nonpersonal focal 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.
[0:4.12] 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 hardly
Deity; neither are the material creations a part of Deity; they are a
consequence.
[0:4.13] 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 represents nothing and nothing represents Paradise. It is
neither a force nor a presence; it is just Paradise.
V. PERSONALITY REALITIES
[0:5.1] 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] 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] 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] 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] 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.
[0:5.6] These qualities of universal reality are manifest in
Urantian human experience on the following
levels:
[0:5.7] 1. Body. The material or physical organism of man. The
living electrochemical mechanism of animal nature and origin.
[0:5.8] 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.
[0:5.9] 3. Spirit. The divine spirit that indwells the mind of
man -- the Thought Adjuster. This immortal spirit is prepersonal -- not
a personality, though destined to become a part of the personality of
the surviving mortal creature.
[0:5.10] 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. This is the emerging
and immortal soul which is destined to survive mortal death and begin
the Paradise ascension.
[0:5.11] Personality. The personality of mortal man is neither
body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the 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.
[0:5.12] 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.
VI. ENERGY AND PATTERN
[0:6.1] Any and all things responding to the personality circuit
of the Father, we call personal. Any and all things responding to the
spirit circuit of the Son, we call spirit. Any and all that responds to
the mind circuit of the Conjoint Actor, we call mind, mind as an
attribute of the Infinite Spirit -- mind in all its phases. Any and all
that responds to the material-gravity circuit centering in nether
Paradise, we call matter -- energy-matter in all its metamorphic states.
[0:6.2] ENERGY we use as an all-inclusive term applied to
spiritual, mindal, and material realms. Force is also thus 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. We cannot
follow your generally accepted definitions of force, energy, and power.
There is such paucity of language that we must assign multiple meanings
to these terms.
[0:6.3] Physical energy is a term denoting all phases and forms of phenomenal motion, action, and potential.
[0:6.4] In discussing physical-energy manifestations, we
generally use the terms cosmic force, emergent energy, and universe
power. These are often employed as follows:
[0:6.5] 1. Cosmic force embraces all energies deriving from the
Unqualified Absolute but which are as yet unresponsive to Paradise
gravity.
[0:6.6] 2. Emergent energy embraces those energies which are
responsive to Paradise gravity but are as yet unresponsive to local or
linear gravity. This is the pre-electronic level of energy-matter.
[0:6.7] 3. Universe power includes all forms of energy which,
while still responding to Paradise gravity, are directly responsive to
linear gravity. This is the electronic level of energy-matter and all
subsequent evolutions thereof.
[0:6.8] Mind is a phenomenon connoting the presence-activity of
living ministry in addition to varied energy systems; and this is true
on all levels of intelligence. In personality, mind ever intervenes
between spirit and matter; therefore is the universe illuminated by
three kinds of light: material light, intellectual insight, and spirit
luminosity.
[0:6.9] Light -- spirit luminosity -- is a word symbol, a figure
of speech, which connotes the personality manifestation characteristic
of spirit beings of diverse orders. This luminous emanation is in no
respect related either to intellectual insight or to physical-light
manifestations.
[0:6.10] PATTERN can be projected as material, spiritual, or
mindal, or any combination of these energies. It can pervade
personalities, identities, entities, or nonliving matter. But pattern
is pattern and remains pattern; only copies are multiplied.
[0:6.11] Pattern may configure energy, but it does not control
it. Gravity is the sole control of energy-matter. Neither space nor
pattern are gravity responsive, but 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.
[0:6.12] 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.
[0:6.13] 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. But Paradise does not bestow pattern, and the Son cannot
bestow personality.
VII. THE SUPREME BEING
[0:7.1] 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 -- 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.
[0:7.2] 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.
[0:7.3] 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.
[0:7.4] Having achieved existential Deity expression of himself
in the Son and the Spirit, the Father is now achieving experiential
expression on hitherto 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.
[0:7.5] 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.
[0:7.6] 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 subeternal personality unification of the
sevenfold manifestation of Deity in the time-space segments of the
grand universe.
[0:7.7] The Supreme Being is not a direct creator, except that
he is the father of Majeston, but he is a synthetic co-ordinator of all
creature-Creator universe activities. The Supreme Being, now
actualizing in the evolutionary universes, is the Deity correlator and
synthesizer of time-space divinity, of triune Paradise Deity in
experiential association with the Supreme Creators of time and space.
When finally actualized, this evolutionary Deity will constitute the
eternal fusion of the finite and the infinite -- the everlasting and
indissoluble union of experiential power and spirit personality.
[0:7.8] 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, to the end and for the purpose of
subsequently embarking upon the attempt to reach absonite levels of
supercreature attainment.
VIII. GOD THE SEVENFOLD
[0:8.1] To atone for finity of status and to compensate for
creature limitations of concept, the Universal Father has established
the evolutionary creature's sevenfold approach to Deity:
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.
[0:8.2] This sevenfold Deity personalization in time and space
and to the seven superuniverses enables mortal man to attain the
presence of God, who is spirit. This sevenfold Deity, to finite
time-space creatures sometime power-personalizing in the Supreme Being,
is the functional Deity of the mortal evolutionary creatures of the
Paradise-ascension career. Such an 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 superuniverse
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.
[0:8.3] The grand universe is the threefold Deity domain of the
Trinity of Supremacy, God the Sevenfold, 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 superuniverses of time and space.
This power manifestation of the immediate God of evolutionary creatures
actually time-space evolves concomitantly with them. The Almighty
Supreme, evolving on the value-level of nonpersonal activities, and the
spirit person of God the Supreme are one reality -- the Supreme Being.
[0:8.4] The Creator Sons in the Deity association of God the
Sevenfold 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, thus 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.
[0:8.5] The function of God the Sevenfold dates from the
organization of the seven superuniverses, 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.
IX. GOD THE ULTIMATE
[0:9.1] 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 actualization of Ultimate Deity
signalizes absonite unification of the first experiential Trinity and
signifies unifying Deity expansion on the second level 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.
[0:9.2] God the Ultimate is designative of personal Deity
functioning on the divinity levels of the absonite and on the universe
spheres of supertime and transcended space. The Ultimate is a
supersupreme 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.
[0:9.3] The Universal Father, through the mechanism of
evolutionary Deity, is actually engaged in the stupendous and amazing
act of personality focalization and power mobilization, on their
respective universe meaning-levels, of the divine reality values of the
finite, the absonite, and even of the absolute.
[0:9.4] 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.
[0:9.5] 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.
X. GOD THE ABSOLUTE
[0:10.1] There are many features of the eternal reality of the
Deity Absolute which 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. Superultimate destinies are involved in
absolute meanings and infinite spirituality, and without both of these
unachieved realities we cannot establish absolute values.
[0:10.2] God the Absolute is the realization-attainment goal of
all superabsonite beings, but the power and personality potential of
the Deity Absolute transcends our concept, and we hesitate to discuss
those realities which are so far removed from experiential
actualization.
XI. THE THREE ABSOLUTES
[0:11.1] 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. And 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.
[0:11.2] 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 presence of the
Universal Absolute, the First Source and Center 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.
[0:11.3] When it is not possible fully to distinguish the Deity
Absolute from the Unqualified Absolute, their supposedly combined
function or co-ordinated presence is designated the action of the
Universal Absolute.
[0:11.4] 1. 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
co-ordinated universe of universes, even universes upon universes,
made, making, and yet to be made.
[0:11.5] The Deity Absolute cannot, or at least does not, react
to any universe situation in a subabsolute 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.
[0:11.6] 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 superadditive to both in the encompassment of all
absolute potential.
[0:11.7] 2. The Unqualified Absolute is nonpersonal,
extradivine, 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.
[0:11.8] 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 prematerial evolutions of the staggering stretches of the space
regions beyond the seven superuniverses. 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 overcontrol in infinity;
this overcontrol 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.
[0:11.9] 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.
[0:11.10] 3. The Universal Absolute, we logically deduce, was
inevitable in the Universal Father's absolute freewill act of
differentiating universe realities into deified and undeified --
personalizable and nonpersonalizable -- 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 co-ordinator of these sum totals of
existential potentialities.
[0:11.11] 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.
[0:11.12] Always remember: Potential infinity is absolute and
inseparable from eternity. Actual infinity in time can never be
anything but partial and must therefore be nonabsolute; 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.
[0:11.13] 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 subinfinite Deity manifestation.
[0:11.14] The Universal Absolute is the potential of the
static-dynamic 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.
[0:11.15] The Absolute. 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 subinfinite levels they
are functionally differentiated, but in infinity they are ONE.
[0:11.16] We never use the term the Absolute as a negation of
aught 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.
XII. THE TRINITIES
[0:12.1] 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
nonpersonal by the Father's unfettered will and factualized when his
personal will co-ordinated these dual realities by mind. The
post-Havona Trinities are experiential -- are inherent in the creation
of two subabsolute and evolutional levels of power-personality
manifestation in the master universe.
[0:12.2] 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.
Therefore does this Trinity constitute the only Deity reality embracing
infinity, and therefore do there occur the universe phenomena of the
actualization of God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the
Absolute.
[0:12.3] 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.
[0:12.4] Trinities are truths of relationship and facts of
co-ordinate 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.
[0:12.5] 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:
[0:12.6] 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.
[0:12.7] 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 superpersonal
levels, even to the borders of the nonpersonal, and its unification in
universality would experientialize Absolute Deity.
[0:12.8] 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 nonattainable; hence do we postulate the
sometime appearance of the Supreme-Ultimate and the possible
trinitization-factualization of God the Absolute.
[0:12.9] The philosophers of the universes postulate a Trinity
of Trinities, an existential-experiential Trinity Infinite, but they
are not able to envisage its personalization; possibly it would
equivalate 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 actually is
infinite.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
[0:12.10] 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.
[0:12.11] Successive planetary revelations of divine truth
invariably embrace the highest existing concepts of spiritual values as
a part of the new and enhanced co-ordination 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.
[0:12.12] 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.
[0:12.13] [Indited by 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.]