The Urantia Book
PAPER 3
THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
Being the Divine Counselor assigned to the presentation of the
revelation of the Universal Father, I have continued with this
statement of the attributes of Deity.
3:0.1 GOD is everywhere present; the Universal
Father rules the circle of eternity. But he rules in the local
universes in the persons of his Paradise Creator Sons, even as
he bestows life through these Sons. "God has given us eternal
life, and this life is in his Sons." These Creator Sons of God
are the personal expression of himself in the sectors of time
and to the children of the whirling planets of the evolving
universes of space.
3:0.2 The highly personalized Sons of God are
clearly discernible by the lower orders of created
intelligences, and so do they compensate for the invisibility of
the infinite and therefore less discernible Father. The Paradise
Creator Sons of the Universal Father are a revelation of an
otherwise invisible being, invisible because of the absoluteness
and infinity inherent in the circle of eternity and in the
personalities of the Paradise Deities.
3:0.3 Creatorship is hardly an attribute of
God; it is rather the aggregate of his acting nature. And this
universal function of creatorship is eternally manifested as it
is conditioned and controlled by all the co-ordinated attributes
of the infinite and divine reality of the First Source and
Center. We sincerely doubt whether any one characteristic of the
divine nature can be regarded as being antecedent to the others,
but if such were the case, then the creatorship nature of Deity
would take precedence over all other natures, activities, and
attributes. And the creatorship of Deity culminates in the
universal truth of the Fatherhood of God.
1. GOD'S EVERYWHERENESS
3:1.1 The ability of the Universal Father to
be everywhere present, and at the same time, constitutes his
omnipresence. God alone can be in two places, in numberless
places, at the same time. God is simultaneously present "in
heaven above and on the earth beneath"; as the Psalmist
exclaimed: "Whither shall I go from your spirit? or whither
shall I flee from your presence?"
3:1.2 "`I am a God at hand as well as afar
off,' says the Lord. `Do not I fill heaven and earth?'" The
Universal Father is all the time present in all parts and in all
hearts of his far-flung creation. He is "the fullness of him who
fills all and in all," and "who works all in all," and further,
the concept of his personality is such that "the heaven
(universe) and heaven of heavens (universe of universes) cannot
contain him." It is literally true that God is all and in all.
But even that is not all of God. The Infinite can be
finally revealed only in infinity; the cause can never be fully
comprehended by an analysis of effects; the living God is
immeasurably greater than the sum total of creation that has
come into being as a result of the creative acts of his
unfettered free will. God is revealed throughout the cosmos, but
the cosmos can never contain or encompass the entirety of the
infinity of God.
3:1.3 The Father's presence unceasingly
patrols the master universe. "His going forth is from the end of
the heaven, and his circuit to the ends of it; and there is
nothing hidden from the light thereof."
3:1.4 The creature not only exists in God, but
God also lives in the creature. "We know we dwell in him because
he lives in us; he has given us his spirit. This gift from the
Paradise Father is man's inseparable companion." "He is the
ever-present and all-pervading God." "The spirit of the
everlasting Father is concealed in the mind of every mortal
child." "Man goes forth searching for a friend while that very
friend lives within his own heart." "The true God is not afar
off; he is a part of us; his spirit speaks from within us." "The
Father lives in the child. God is always with us. He is the
guiding spirit of eternal destiny."
3:1.5 Truly of the human race has it been
said, "You are of God" because "he who dwells in love dwells in
God, and God in him." Even in wrongdoing you torment the
indwelling gift of God, for the Thought Adjuster must needs go
through the consequences of evil thinking with the human mind of
its incarceration.
3:1.6 The omnipresence of God is in reality a
part of his infinite nature; space constitutes no barrier to
Deity. God is, in perfection and without limitation, discernibly
present only on Paradise and in the central universe. He is not
thus observably present in the creations encircling Havona, for
God has limited his direct and actual presence in recognition of
the sovereignty and the divine prerogatives of the co-ordinate
creators and rulers of the universes of time and space. Hence
must the concept of the divine presence allow for a wide range
of both mode and channel of manifestation embracing the presence
circuits of the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and the Isle
of Paradise. Nor is it always possible to distinguish between
the presence of the Universal Father and the actions of his
eternal co-ordinates and agencies, so perfectly do they fulfill
all the infinite requirements of his unchanging purpose. But not
so with the personality circuit and the Adjusters; here God acts
uniquely, directly, and exclusively.
3:1.7 The Universal Controller is potentially
present in the gravity circuits of the Isle of Paradise in all
parts of the universe at all times and in the same degree, in
accordance with the mass, in response to the physical demands
for this presence, and because of the inherent nature of all
creation which causes all things to adhere and consist in him.
Likewise is the First Source and Center potentially present in
the Unqualified Absolute, the repository of the uncreated
universes of the eternal future. God thus potentially pervades
the physical universes of the past, present, and future. He is
the primordial foundation of the coherence of the so-called
material creation. This nonspiritual Deity potential becomes
actual here and there throughout the level of physical
existences by the inexplicable intrusion of some one of his
exclusive agencies upon the stage of universe action.
3:1.8 The mind presence of God is correlated
with the absolute mind of the Conjoint Actor, the Infinite
Spirit, but in the finite creations it is better discerned in
the everywhere functioning of the cosmic mind of the Paradise
Master Spirits. Just as the First Source and Center is
potentially present in the mind circuits of the Conjoint Actor,
so is he potentially present in the tensions of the Universal
Absolute. But mind of the human order is a bestowal of the
Daughters of the Conjoint Actor, the Divine Ministers of the
evolving universes.
3:1.9 The everywhere-present spirit of the
Universal Father is co-ordinated with the function of the
universal spirit presence of the Eternal Son and the everlasting
divine potential of the Deity Absolute. But neither the
spiritual activity of the Eternal Son and his Paradise Sons nor
the mind bestowals of the Infinite Spirit seem to exclude the
direct action of the Thought Adjusters, the indwelling fragments
of God, in the hearts of his creature children.
3:1.10 Concerning God's presence in a planet,
system, constellation, or a universe, the degree of such
presence in any creational unit is a measure of the degree of
the evolving presence of the Supreme Being: It is determined by
the en masse recognition of God and loyalty to him on the part
of the vast universe organization, running down to the systems
and planets themselves. Therefore it is sometimes with the hope
of conserving and safeguarding these phases of God's precious
presence that, when some planets (or even systems) have plunged
far into spiritual darkness, they are in a certain sense
quarantined, or partially isolated from intercourse with the
larger units of creation. And all this, as it operates on
Urantia, is a spiritually defensive reaction of the majority of
the worlds to save themselves, as far as possible, from
suffering the isolating consequences of the alienating acts of a
headstrong, wicked, and rebellious minority.
3:1.11 While the Father parentally encircuits
all his sons -- all personalities -- his influence in them is
limited by the remoteness of their origin from the Second and
the Third Persons of Deity and augmented as their destiny
attainment nears such levels. The fact of God's presence
in creature minds is determined by whether or not they are
indwelt by Father fragments, such as the Mystery Monitors, but
his effective presence is determined by the degree of
co-operation accorded these indwelling Adjusters by the minds of
their sojourn.
3:1.12 The fluctuations of the Father's
presence are not due to the changeableness of God. The Father
does not retire in seclusion because he has been slighted; his
affections are not alienated because of the creature's
wrongdoing. Rather, having been endowed with the power of choice
(concerning Himself), his children, in the exercise of that
choice, directly determine the degree and limitations of the
Father's divine influence in their own hearts and souls. The
Father has freely bestowed himself upon us without limit and
without favor. He is no respecter of persons, planets, systems,
or universes. In the sectors of time he confers differential
honor only on the Paradise personalities of God the Sevenfold,
the co-ordinate creators of the finite universes.
2. GOD'S INFINITE POWER
3:2.1 All the universes know that "the Lord
God omnipotent reigns." The affairs of this world and other
worlds are divinely supervised. "He does according to his will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth."
It is eternally true, "there is no power but of God."
3:2.2 Within the bounds of that which is
consistent with the divine nature, it is literally true that
"with God all things are possible." The long-drawn-out
evolutionary processes of peoples, planets, and universes are
under the perfect control of the universe creators and
administrators and unfold in accordance with the eternal purpose
of the Universal Father, proceeding in harmony and order and in
keeping with the all-wise plan of God. There is only one
lawgiver. He upholds the worlds in space and swings the
universes around the endless circle of the eternal circuit.
3:2.3 Of all the divine attributes, his
omnipotence, especially as it prevails in the material universe,
is the best understood. Viewed as an unspiritual phenomenon, God
is energy. This declaration of physical fact is predicated on
the incomprehensible truth that the First Source and Center is
the primal cause of the universal physical phenomena of all
space. From this divine activity all physical energy and other
material manifestations are derived. Light, that is, light
without heat, is another of the nonspiritual manifestations of
the Deities. And there is still another form of nonspiritual
energy which is virtually unknown on Urantia; it is as yet
unrecognized.
3:2.4 God controls all power; he has made "a
way for the lightning"; he has ordained the circuits of all
energy. He has decreed the time and manner of the manifestation
of all forms of energy-matter. And all these things are held
forever in his everlasting grasp -- in the gravitational control
centering on nether Paradise. The light and energy of the
eternal God thus swing on forever around his majestic circuit,
the endless but orderly procession of the starry hosts composing
the universe of universes. All creation circles eternally around
the Paradise-Personality center of all things and beings.
3:2.5 The omnipotence of the Father pertains
to the everywhere dominance of the absolute level, whereon the
three energies, material, mindal, and spiritual, are
indistinguishable in close proximity to him -- the Source of all
things. Creature mind, being neither Paradise monota nor
Paradise spirit, is not directly responsive to the Universal
Father. God adjusts with the mind of imperfection -- with
Urantia mortals through the Thought Adjusters.
3:2.6 The Universal Father is not a transient
force, a shifting power, or a fluctuating energy. The power and
wisdom of the Father are wholly adequate to cope with any and
all universe exigencies. As the emergencies of human experience
arise, he has foreseen them all, and therefore he does not react
to the affairs of the universe in a detached way but rather in
accordance with the dictates of eternal wisdom and in consonance
with the mandates of infinite judgment. Regardless of
appearances, the power of God is not functioning in the universe
as a blind force.
3:2.7 Situations do arise in which it appears
that emergency rulings have been made, that natural laws have
been suspended, that misadaptations have been recognized, and
that an effort is being made to rectify the situation; but such
is not the case. Such concepts of God have their origin in the
limited range of your viewpoint, in the finiteness of your
comprehension, and in the circumscribed scope of your survey;
such misunderstanding of God is due to the profound ignorance
you enjoy regarding the existence of the higher laws of the
realm, the magnitude of the Father's character, the infinity of
his attributes, and the fact of his free-willness.
3:2.8 The planetary creatures of God's spirit
indwelling, scattered hither and yon throughout the universes of
space, are so nearly infinite in number and order, their
intellects are so diverse, their minds are so limited and
sometimes so gross, their vision is so curtailed and localized,
that it is almost impossible to formulate generalizations of law
adequately expressive of the Father's infinite attributes and at
the same time to any degree comprehensible to these created
intelligences. Therefore, to you the creature, many of the acts
of the all-powerful Creator seem to be arbitrary, detached, and
not infrequently heartless and cruel. But again I assure you
that this is not true. God's doings are all purposeful,
intelligent, wise, kind, and eternally considerate of the best
good, not always of an individual being, an individual race, an
individual planet, or even an individual universe; but they are
for the welfare and best good of all concerned, from the lowest
to the highest. In the epochs of time the welfare of the part
may sometimes appear to differ from the welfare of the whole; in
the circle of eternity such apparent differences are
nonexistent.
3:2.9 We are all a part of the family of God,
and we must therefore sometimes share in the family discipline.
Many of the acts of God which so disturb and confuse us are the
result of the decisions and final rulings of all-wisdom,
empowering the Conjoint Actor to execute the choosing of the
infallible will of the infinite mind, to enforce the decisions
of the personality of perfection, whose survey, vision, and
solicitude embrace the highest and eternal welfare of all his
vast and far-flung creation.
3:2.10 Thus it is that your detached,
sectional, finite, gross, and highly materialistic viewpoint and
the limitations inherent in the nature of your being constitute
such a handicap that you are unable to see, comprehend, or know
the wisdom and kindness of many of the divine acts which to you
seem fraught with such crushing cruelty, and which seem to be
characterized by such utter indifference to the comfort and
welfare, to the planetary happiness and personal prosperity, of
your fellow creatures. It is because of the limits of human
vision, it is because of your circumscribed understanding and
finite comprehension, that you misunderstand the motives, and
pervert the purposes, of God. But many things occur on the
evolutionary worlds which are not the personal doings of the
Universal Father.
3:2.11 The divine omnipotence is perfectly co-ordinated
with the other attributes of the personality of God. The power
of God is, ordinarily, only limited in its universe spiritual
manifestation by three conditions or situations:
1. By the nature of God, especially
by his infinite love, by truth, beauty, and goodness.
2. By the will of God, by his mercy
ministry and fatherly relationship with the personalities of the
universe.
3. By the law of God, by the
righteousness and justice of the eternal Paradise Trinity.
3:2.12 God is unlimited in power, divine in
nature, final in will, infinite in attributes, eternal in
wisdom, and absolute in reality. But all these characteristics
of the Universal Father are unified in Deity and universally
expressed in the Paradise Trinity and in the divine Sons of the
Trinity. Otherwise, outside of Paradise and the central universe
of Havona, everything pertaining to God is limited by the
evolutionary presence of the Supreme, conditioned by the
eventuating presence of the Ultimate, and co-ordinated by the
three existential Absolutes -- Deity, Universal, and
Unqualified. And God's presence is thus limited because such is
the will of God.
3. GOD'S UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE
3:3.1 "God knows all things." The divine mind
is conscious of, and conversant with, the thought of all
creation. His knowledge of events is universal and perfect. The
divine entities going out from him are a part of him; he who
"balances the clouds" is also "perfect in knowledge." "The eyes
of the Lord are in every place." Said your great teacher of the
insignificant sparrow, "One of them shall not fall to the ground
without my Father's knowledge," and also, "The very hairs of
your head are numbered." "He tells the number of the stars; he
calls them all by their names."
3:3.2 The Universal Father is the only
personality in all the universe who does actually know the
number of the stars and planets of space. All the worlds of
every universe are constantly within the consciousness of God.
He also says: "I have surely seen the affliction of my people, I
have heard their cry, and I know their sorrows." For "the Lord
looks from heaven; he beholds all the sons of men; from the
place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of the
earth." Every creature child may truly say: "He knows the way I
take, and when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
"God knows our downsittings and our uprisings; he understands
our thoughts afar off and is acquainted with all our ways." "All
things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have
to do." And it should be a real comfort to every human being to
understand that "he knows your frame; he remembers that you are
dust." Jesus, speaking of the living God, said, "Your Father
knows what you have need of even before you ask him."
3:3.3 God is possessed of unlimited power to
know all things; his consciousness is universal. His personal
circuit encompasses all personalities, and his knowledge of even
the lowly creatures is supplemented indirectly through the
descending series of divine Sons and directly through the
indwelling Thought Adjusters. And furthermore, the Infinite
Spirit is all the time everywhere present.
3:3.4 We are not wholly certain as to whether
or not God chooses to foreknow events of sin. But even if God
should foreknow the freewill acts of his children, such
foreknowledge does not in the least abrogate their freedom. One
thing is certain: God is never subjected to surprise.
3:3.5 Omnipotence does not imply the power to
do the nondoable, the ungodlike act. Neither does omniscience
imply the knowing of the unknowable. But such statements can
hardly be made comprehensible to the finite mind. The creature
can hardly understand the range and limitations of the will of
the Creator.
4. GOD'S LIMITLESSNESS
3:4.1 The successive bestowal of himself upon
the universes as they are brought into being in no wise lessens
the potential of power or the store of wisdom as they continue
to reside and repose in the central personality of Deity. In
potential of force, wisdom, and love, the Father has never
lessened aught of his possession nor become divested of any
attribute of his glorious personality as the result of the
unstinted bestowal of himself upon the Paradise Sons, upon his
subordinate creations, and upon the manifold creatures thereof.
3:4.2 The creation of every new universe calls
for a new adjustment of gravity; but even if creation should
continue indefinitely, eternally, even to infinity, so that
eventually the material creation would exist without
limitations, still the power of control and co-ordination
reposing in the Isle of Paradise would be found equal to, and
adequate for, the mastery, control, and co-ordination of such an
infinite universe. And subsequent to this bestowal of limitless
force and power upon a boundless universe, the Infinite would
still be surcharged with the same degree of force and energy;
the Unqualified Absolute would still be undiminished; God would
still possess the same infinite potential, just as if force,
energy, and power had never been poured forth for the endowment
of universe upon universe.
3:4.3 And so with wisdom: The fact that mind
is so freely distributed to the thinking of the realms in no
wise impoverishes the central source of divine wisdom. As the
universes multiply, and beings of the realms increase in number
to the limits of comprehension, if mind continues without end to
be bestowed upon these beings of high and low estate, still will
God's central personality continue to embrace the same eternal,
infinite, and all-wise mind.
3:4.4 The fact that he sends forth spirit
messengers from himself to indwell the men and women of your
world and other worlds in no wise lessens his ability to
function as a divine and all-powerful spirit personality; and
there is absolutely no limit to the extent or number of such
spirit Monitors which he can and may send out. This giving of
himself to his creatures creates a boundless, almost
inconceivable future possibility of progressive and successive
existences for these divinely endowed mortals. And this prodigal
distribution of himself as these ministering spirit entities in
no manner diminishes the wisdom and perfection of truth and
knowledge which repose in the person of the all-wise,
all-knowing, and all-powerful Father.
3:4.5 To the mortals of time there is a
future, but God inhabits eternity. Even though I hail from near
the very abiding place of Deity, I cannot presume to speak with
perfection of understanding concerning the infinity of many of
the divine attributes. Infinity of mind alone can fully
comprehend infinity of existence and eternity of action.
3:4.6 Mortal man cannot possibly know the
infinitude of the heavenly Father. Finite mind cannot think
through such an absolute truth or fact. But this same finite
human being can actually feel -- literally experience --
the full and undiminished impact of such an infinite Father's
LOVE. Such a love can be truly experienced, albeit while quality
of experience is unlimited, quantity of such an experience is
strictly limited by the human capacity for spiritual receptivity
and by the associated capacity to love the Father in return.
3:4.7 Finite appreciation of infinite
qualities far transcends the logically limited capacities of the
creature because of the fact that mortal man is made in the
image of God -- there lives within him a fragment of infinity.
Therefore man's nearest and dearest approach to God is by and
through love, for God is love. And all of such a unique
relationship is an actual experience in cosmic sociology, the
Creator-creature relationship -- the Father-child affection.
5. THE FATHER'S SUPREME RULE
3:5.1 In his contact with the post-Havona
creations, the Universal Father does not exercise his infinite
power and final authority by direct transmittal but rather
through his Sons and their subordinate personalities. And God
does all this of his own free will. Any and all powers
delegated, if occasion should arise, if it should become the
choice of the divine mind, could be exercised direct; but, as a
rule, such action only takes place as a result of the failure of
the delegated personality to fulfill the divine trust. At such
times and in the face of such default and within the limits of
the reservation of divine power and potential, the Father does
act independently and in accordance with the mandates of his own
choice; and that choice is always one of unfailing perfection
and infinite wisdom.
3:5.2 The Father rules through his Sons; on
down through the universe organization there is an unbroken
chain of rulers ending with the Planetary Princes, who direct
the destinies of the evolutionary spheres of the Father's vast
domains. It is no mere poetic expression that exclaims: "The
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." "He removes kings
and sets up kings." "The Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of
men."
3:5.3 In the affairs of men's hearts the
Universal Father may not always have his way; but in the conduct
and destiny of a planet the divine plan prevails; the eternal
purpose of wisdom and love triumphs.
3:5.4 Said Jesus: "My Father, who gave them to
me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand." As you glimpse the manifold workings and view
the staggering immensity of God's well-nigh limitless creation,
you may falter in your concept of his primacy, but you should
not fail to accept him as securely and everlastingly enthroned
at the Paradise center of all things and as the beneficent
Father of all intelligent beings. There is but "one God and
Father of all, who is above all and in all," "and he is before
all things, and in him all things consist."
3:5.5 The uncertainties of life and the
vicissitudes of existence do not in any manner contradict the
concept of the universal sovereignty of God. All evolutionary
creature life is beset by certain inevitabilities.
Consider the following:
3:5.6 1. Is courage -- strength of
character -- desirable? Then must man be reared in an
environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and
reacting to disappointments.
3:5.7 2. Is altruism -- service of
one's fellows -- desirable? Then must life experience provide
for encountering situations of social inequality.
3:5.8 3. Is hope -- the grandeur of
trust -- desirable? Then human existence must constantly be
confronted with insecurities and recurrent uncertainties.
3:5.9 4. Is faith -- the supreme
assertion of human thought -- desirable? Then must the mind of
man find itself in that troublesome predicament where it ever
knows less than it can believe.
3:5.10 5. Is the love of truth and the
willingness to go wherever it leads, desirable? Then must man
grow up in a world where error is present and falsehood always
possible.
3:5.11 6. Is idealism -- the
approaching concept of the divine -- desirable? Then must man
struggle in an environment of relative goodness and beauty,
surroundings stimulative of the irrepressible reach for better
things.
3:5.12 7. Is loyalty -- devotion to
highest duty -- desirable? Then must man carry on amid the
possibilities of betrayal and desertion. The valor of devotion
to duty consists in the implied danger of default.
3:5.13 8. Is unselfishness -- the
spirit of self-forgetfulness -- desirable? Then must mortal man
live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an inescapable
self for recognition and honor. Man could not dynamically choose
the divine life if there were no self-life to forsake. Man could
never lay saving hold on righteousness if there were no
potential evil to exalt and differentiate the good by contrast.
3:5.14 9. Is pleasure -- the
satisfaction of happiness -- desirable? Then must man live in a
world where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of
suffering are ever-present experiential possibilities.
3:5.15 Throughout the universe, every unit is
regarded as a part of the whole. Survival of the part is
dependent on co-operation with the plan and purpose of the
whole, the wholehearted desire and perfect willingness to do the
Father's divine will. The only evolutionary world without error
(the possibility of unwise judgment) would be a world without
free intelligence. In the Havona universe there are a
billion perfect worlds with their perfect inhabitants, but
evolving man must be fallible if he is to be free. Free and
inexperienced intelligence cannot possibly at first be uniformly
wise. The possibility of mistaken judgment (evil) becomes sin
only when the human will consciously endorses and knowingly
embraces a deliberate immoral judgment.
3:5.16 The full appreciation of truth, beauty,
and goodness is inherent in the perfection of the divine
universe. The inhabitants of the Havona worlds do not require
the potential of relative value levels as a choice stimulus;
such perfect beings are able to identify and choose the good in
the absence of all contrastive and thought-compelling moral
situations. But all such perfect beings are, in moral nature and
spiritual status, what they are by virtue of the fact of
existence. They have experientially earned advancement only
within their inherent status. Mortal man earns even his status
as an ascension candidate by his own faith and hope. Everything
divine which the human mind grasps and the human soul acquires
is an experiential attainment; it is a reality of
personal experience and is therefore a unique possession in
contrast to the inherent goodness and righteousness of the
inerrant personalities of Havona.
3:5.17 The creatures of Havona are naturally
brave, but they are not courageous in the human sense. They are
innately kind and considerate, but hardly altruistic in the
human way. They are expectant of a pleasant future, but not
hopeful in the exquisite manner of the trusting mortal of the
uncertain evolutionary spheres. They have faith in the stability
of the universe, but they are utter strangers to that saving
faith whereby mortal man climbs from the status of an animal up
to the portals of Paradise. They love the truth, but they know
nothing of its soul-saving qualities. They are idealists, but
they were born that way; they are wholly ignorant of the ecstasy
of becoming such by exhilarating choice. They are loyal, but
they have never experienced the thrill of wholehearted and
intelligent devotion to duty in the face of temptation to
default. They are unselfish, but they never gained such levels
of experience by the magnificent conquest of a belligerent self.
They enjoy pleasure, but they do not comprehend the sweetness of
the pleasure escape from the pain potential.
6. THE FATHER'S PRIMACY
3:6.1 With divine selflessness, consummate
generosity, the Universal Father relinquishes authority and
delegates power, but he is still primal; his hand is on the
mighty lever of the circumstances of the universal realms; he
has reserved all final decisions and unerringly wields the
all-powerful veto scepter of his eternal purpose with
unchallengeable authority over the welfare and destiny of the
outstretched, whirling, and ever-circling creation.
3:6.2 The sovereignty of God is unlimited; it
is the fundamental fact of all creation. The universe was not
inevitable. The universe is not an accident, neither is it
self-existent. The universe is a work of creation and is
therefore wholly subject to the will of the Creator. The will of
God is divine truth, living love; therefore are the perfecting
creations of the evolutionary universes characterized by
goodness -- nearness to divinity; by potential evil --
remoteness from divinity.
3:6.3 All religious philosophy, sooner or
later, arrives at the concept of unified universe rule, of one
God. Universe causes cannot be lower than universe effects. The
source of the streams of universe life and of the cosmic mind
must be above the levels of their manifestation. The human mind
cannot be consistently explained in terms of the lower orders of
existence. Man's mind can be truly comprehended only by
recognizing the reality of higher orders of thought and
purposive will. Man as a moral being is inexplicable unless the
reality of the Universal Father is acknowledged.
3:6.4 The mechanistic philosopher professes to
reject the idea of a universal and sovereign will, the very
sovereign will whose activity in the elaboration of universe
laws he so deeply reverences. What unintended homage the
mechanist pays the law-Creator when he conceives such laws to be
self-acting and self-explanatory!
3:6.5 It is a great blunder to humanize God,
except in the concept of the indwelling Thought Adjuster, but
even that is not so stupid as completely to mechanize the
idea of the First Great Source and Center.
3:6.6 Does the Paradise Father suffer? I do
not know. The Creator Sons most certainly can and sometimes do,
even as do mortals. The Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit
suffer in a modified sense. I think the Universal Father does,
but I cannot understand how; perhaps through the
personality circuit or through the individuality of the Thought
Adjusters and other bestowals of his eternal nature. He has said
of the mortal races, "In all your afflictions I am afflicted."
He unquestionably experiences a fatherly and sympathetic
understanding; he may truly suffer, but I do not comprehend the
nature thereof.
3:6.7 The infinite and eternal Ruler of the
universe of universes is power, form, energy, process, pattern,
principle, presence, and idealized reality. But he is more; he
is personal; he exercises a sovereign will, experiences
self-consciousness of divinity, executes the mandates of a
creative mind, pursues the satisfaction of the realization of an
eternal purpose, and manifests a Father's love and affection for
his universe children. And all these more personal traits of the
Father can be better understood by observing them as they were
revealed in the bestowal life of Michael, your Creator Son,
while he was incarnated on Urantia.
3:6.8 God the Father loves men; God the Son
serves men; God the Spirit inspires the children of the universe
to the ever-ascending adventure of finding God the Father by the
ways ordained by God the Sons through the ministry of the grace
of God the Spirit.
3:6.9
Being the Divine Counselor assigned to the presentation of the
revelation of the Universal Father, I have continued with this
statement of the attributes of Deity.
