The Urantia Book
FOREWORD
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.
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 potential 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.
