The Urantia Book
PAPER 8
THE INFINITE SPIRIT
Presented on Urantia by a Divine Counselor of Uversa
commissioned by the Ancients of Days to portray the nature and
work of the Infinite Spirit.
8:0.1 BACK in eternity, when the Universal
Father's "first" infinite and absolute thought finds in the
Eternal Son such a perfect and adequate word for its divine
expression, there ensues the supreme desire of both the
Thought-God and the Word-God for a universal and infinite agent
of mutual expression and combined action.
8:0.2 In the dawn of eternity both the Father
and the Son become infinitely cognizant of their mutual
interdependence, their eternal and absolute oneness; and
therefore do they enter into an infinite and everlasting
covenant of divine partnership. This never-ending compact is
made for the execution of their united concepts throughout all
of the circle of eternity; and ever since this eternity event
the Father and the Son continue in this divine union.
8:0.3 We are now face to face with the
eternity origin of the Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of
Deity. The very instant that God the Father and God the Son
conjointly conceive an identical and infinite action -- the
execution of an absolute thought-plan -- that very moment, the
Infinite Spirit springs full-fledgedly into existence.
8:0.4 In thus reciting the order of the origin
of the Deities, I do so merely to enable you to think of their
relationship. In reality they are all three existent from
eternity; they are existential. They are without beginning or
ending of days; they are co-ordinate, supreme, ultimate,
absolute, and infinite. They are and always have been and ever
shall be. And they are three distinctly individualized but
eternally associated persons, God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Spirit.
1. THE GOD OF ACTION
8:1.1 In the eternity of the past, upon the
personalization of the Infinite Spirit the divine personality
cycle becomes perfect and complete. The God of Action is
existent, and the vast stage of space is set for the stupendous
drama of creation -- the universal adventure -- the divine
panorama of the eternal ages.
8:1.2 The first act of the Infinite Spirit is
the inspection and recognition of his divine parents, the
Father-Father and the Mother-Son. He, the Spirit, unqualifiedly
identifies both of them. He is fully cognizant of their separate
personalities and infinite attributes as well as of their
combined nature and united function. Next, voluntarily, with
transcendent willingness and inspiring spontaneity, the Third
Person of Deity, notwithstanding his equality with the First and
Second Persons, pledges eternal loyalty to God the Father and
acknowledges everlasting dependence upon God the Son.
8:1.3 Inherent in the nature of this
transaction and in mutual recognition of the personality
independence of each and the executive union of all three, the
cycle of eternity is established. The Paradise Trinity is
existent. The stage of universal space is set for the manifold
and never-ending panorama of the creative unfolding of the
purpose of the Universal Father through the personality of the
Eternal Son and by the execution of the God of Action, the
executive agency for the reality performances of the Father-Son
creator partnership.
8:1.4 The God of Action functions and the dead
vaults of space are astir. One billion perfect spheres flash
into existence. Prior to this hypothetical eternity moment the
space-energies inherent in Paradise are existent and potentially
operative, but they have no actuality of being; neither can
physical gravity be measured except by the reaction of material
realities to its incessant pull. There is no material universe
at this (assumed) eternally distant moment, but the very instant
that one billion worlds materialize, there is in evidence
gravity sufficient and adequate to hold them in the everlasting
grasp of Paradise.
8:1.5 There now flashes through the creation
of the Gods the second form of energy, and this outflowing
spirit is instantly grasped by the spiritual gravity of the
Eternal Son. Thus the twofold gravity-embraced universe is
touched with the energy of infinity and immersed in the spirit
of divinity. In this way is the soil of life prepared for the
consciousness of mind made manifest in the associated
intelligence circuits of the Infinite Spirit.
8:1.6 Upon these seeds of potential existence,
diffused throughout the central creation of the Gods, the Father
acts, and creature personality appears. Then does the presence
of the Paradise Deities fill all organized space and begin
effectively to draw all things and beings Paradiseward.
8:1.7 The Infinite Spirit eternalizes
concurrently with the birth of the Havona worlds, this central
universe being created by him and with him and in him in
obedience to the combined concepts and united wills of the
Father and the Son. The Third Person deitizes by this very act
of conjoint creation, and he thus forever becomes the Conjoint
Creator.
8:1.8 These are the grand and awful times of
the creative expansion of the Father and the Son by, and in, the
action of their conjoint associate and exclusive executive, the
Third Source and Center. There exists no record of these
stirring times. We have only the meager disclosures of the
Infinite Spirit to substantiate these mighty transactions, and
he merely verifies the fact that the central universe and all
that pertains thereto eternalized simultaneously with his
attainment of personality and conscious existence.
8:1.9 In brief, the Infinite Spirit testifies
that, since he is eternal, so also is the central universe
eternal. And this is the traditional starting point of the
history of the universe of universes. Absolutely nothing is
known, and no records are in existence, regarding any event or
transaction prior to this stupendous eruption of creative energy
and administrative wisdom that crystallized the vast universe
which exists, and so exquisitely functions, at the center of all
things. Beyond this event lie the unsearchable transactions of
eternity and the depths of infinity -- absolute mystery.
8:1.10 And we thus portray the sequential
origin of the Third Source and Center as an interpretative
condescension to the time-bound and space-conditioned mind of
mortal creatures. The mind of man must have a starting point for
the visualization of universe history, and I have been directed
to provide this technique of approach to the historic concept of
eternity. In the material mind, consistency demands a First
Cause; therefore do we postulate the Universal Father as the
First Source and the Absolute Center of all creation, at the
same time instructing all creature minds that the Son and the
Spirit are coeternal with the Father in all phases of universe
history and in all realms of creative activity. And we do this
without in any sense being disregardful of the reality and
eternity of the Isle of Paradise and of the Unqualified,
Universal, and Deity Absolutes.
8:1.11 It is enough of a reach of the material
mind of the children of time to conceive of the Father in
eternity. We know that any child can best relate himself to
reality by first mastering the relationships of the child-parent
situation and then by enlarging this concept to embrace the
family as a whole. Subsequently the growing mind of the child
will be able to adjust to the concept of family relations, to
relationships of the community, the race, and the world, and
then to those of the universe, the superuniverse, even the
universe of universes.
2. NATURE OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT
8:2.1 The Conjoint Creator is from eternity
and is wholly and without qualification one with the Universal
Father and the Eternal Son. The Infinite Spirit reflects in
perfection not only the nature of the Paradise Father but also
the nature of the Original Son.
8:2.2 The Third Source and Center is known by
numerous titles: the Universal Spirit, the Supreme Guide, the
Conjoint Creator, the Divine Executive, the Infinite Mind, the
Spirit of Spirits, the Paradise Mother Spirit, the Conjoint
Actor, the Final Co-ordinator, the Omnipresent Spirit, the
Absolute Intelligence, the Divine Action; and on Urantia he is
sometimes confused with the cosmic mind.
8:2.3 It is altogether proper to denominate
the Third Person of Deity the Infinite Spirit, for God is
spirit. But material creatures who tend towards the error of
viewing matter as basic reality and mind, together with spirit,
as postulates rooted in matter, would better comprehend the
Third Source and Center if he were called the Infinite Reality,
the Universal Organizer, or the Personality Co-ordinator.
8:2.4 The Infinite Spirit, as a universe
revelation of divinity, is unsearchable and utterly beyond human
comprehension. To sense the absoluteness of the Spirit, you need
only contemplate the infinity of the Universal Father and stand
in awe of the eternity of the Original Son.
8:2.5 There is mystery indeed in the person of
the Infinite Spirit but not so much as in the Father and the
Son. Of all aspects of the Father's nature, the Conjoint Creator
most strikingly discloses his infinity. Even if the master
universe eventually expands to infinity, the spirit presence,
energy control, and mind potential of the Conjoint Actor will be
found adequate to meet the demands of such a limitless creation.
8:2.6 Though in every way sharing the
perfection, the righteousness, and the love of the Universal
Father, the Infinite Spirit inclines towards the mercy
attributes of the Eternal Son, thus becoming the mercy minister
of the Paradise Deities to the grand universe. Ever and always
-- universally and eternally -- the Spirit is a mercy minister,
for, as the divine Sons reveal the love of God, so the divine
Spirit depicts the mercy of God.
8:2.7 It is not possible that the Spirit could
have more of goodness than the Father since all goodness takes
origin in the Father, but in the acts of the Spirit we can the
better comprehend such goodness. The Father's faithfulness and
the Son's constancy are made very real to the spirit beings and
the material creatures of the spheres by the loving ministry and
ceaseless service of the personalities of the Infinite Spirit.
8:2.8 The Conjoint Creator inherits all the
Father's beauty of thought and character of truth. And these
sublime traits of divinity are co-ordinated in the near-supreme
levels of the cosmic mind in subordination to the infinite and
eternal wisdom of the unconditioned and limitless mind of the
Third Source and Center.
3. RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER AND
THE SON
8:3.1 As the Eternal Son is the word
expression of the "first" absolute and infinite thought of the
Universal Father, so the Conjoint Actor is the perfect execution
of the "first" completed creative concept or plan for combined
action by the Father-Son personality partnership of absolute
thought-word union. The Third Source and Center eternalizes
concurrently with the central or fiat creation, and only this
central creation is eternal in existence among universes.
8:3.2 Since the personalization of the Third
Source, the First Source no more personally participates in
universe creation. The Universal Father delegates everything
possible to his Eternal Son; likewise does the Eternal Son
bestow all possible authority and power upon the Conjoint
Creator.
8:3.3 The Eternal Son and the Conjoint Creator
have, as partners and through their co-ordinate personalities,
planned and fashioned every post-Havona universe which has been
brought into existence. The Spirit sustains the same personal
relation to the Son in all subsequent creation that the Son
sustains to the Father in the first and central creation.
8:3.4 A Creator Son of the Eternal Son and a
Creative Spirit of the Infinite Spirit created you and your
universe; and while the Father in faithfulness upholds that
which they have organized, it devolves upon this Universe Son
and this Universe Spirit to foster and sustain their work as
well as to minister to the creatures of their own making.
8:3.5 The Infinite Spirit is the effective
agent of the all-loving Father and the all-merciful Son for the
execution of their conjoint project of drawing to themselves all
truth-loving souls on all the worlds of time and space. The very
instant the Eternal Son accepted his Father's plan of perfection
attainment for the creatures of the universes, the moment the
ascension project became a Father-Son plan, that instant the
Infinite Spirit became the conjoint administrator of the Father
and the Son for the execution of their united and eternal
purpose. And in so doing the Infinite Spirit pledged all his
resources of divine presence and of spirit personalities to the
Father and the Son; he has dedicated all to the stupendous plan
of exalting surviving will creatures to the divine heights of
Paradise perfection.
8:3.6 The Infinite Spirit is a complete,
exclusive, and universal revelation of the Universal Father and
his Eternal Son. All knowledge of the Father-Son partnership
must be had through the Infinite Spirit, the conjoint
representative of the divine thought-word union.
8:3.7 The Eternal Son is the only avenue of
approach to the Universal Father, and the Infinite Spirit is the
only means of attaining the Eternal Son. Only by the patient
ministry of the Spirit are the ascendant beings of time able to
discover the Son.
8:3.8 At the center of all things the Infinite
Spirit is the first of the Paradise Deities to be attained by
the ascending pilgrims. The Third Person enshrouds the Second
and the First Persons and therefore must always be first
recognized by all who are candidates for presentation to the Son
and his Father.
8:3.9 And in many other ways does the Spirit
equally represent and similarly serve the Father and the Son.
4. THE SPIRIT OF DIVINE MINISTRY
8:4.1 Paralleling the physical universe
wherein Paradise gravity holds all things together is the
spiritual universe wherein the word of the Son interprets the
thought of God and, when "made flesh," demonstrates the loving
mercy of the combined nature of the associated Creators. But in
and through all this material and spiritual creation there is a
vast stage whereon the Infinite Spirit and his spirit offspring
show forth the combined mercy, patience, and everlasting
affection of the divine parents towards the intelligent children
of their co-operative devising and making. Everlasting ministry
to mind is the essence of the Spirit's divine character. And all
the spirit offspring of the Conjoint Actor partake of this
desire to minister, this divine urge to service.
8:4.2 God is love, the Son is mercy, the
Spirit is ministry -- the ministry of divine love and endless
mercy to all intelligent creation. The Spirit is the
personification of the Father's love and the Son's mercy; in him
are they eternally united for universal service. The Spirit is
love applied to the creature creation, the combined love
of the Father and the Son.
8:4.3 On Urantia the Infinite Spirit is known
as an omnipresent influence, a universal presence, but in Havona
you shall know him as a personal presence of actual ministry.
Here the ministry of the Paradise Spirit is the exemplary and
inspiring pattern for each of his co-ordinate Spirits and
subordinate personalities ministering to the created beings on
the worlds of time and space. In this divine universe the
Infinite Spirit fully participated in the seven transcendental
appearances of the Eternal Son; likewise did he participate with
the original Michael Son in the seven bestowals upon the
circuits of Havona, thereby becoming the sympathetic and
understanding spirit minister to every pilgrim of time
traversing these perfect circles on high.
8:4.4 When a Creator Son of God accepts the
creatorship charge of responsibility for a projected local
universe, the personalities of the Infinite Spirit pledge
themselves as the tireless ministers of this Michael Son when he
goes forth on his mission of creative adventure. Especially in
the persons of the Creative Daughters, the local universe Mother
Spirits, do we find the Infinite Spirit devoted to the task of
fostering the ascension of the material creatures to higher and
higher levels of spiritual attainment. And all this work of
creature ministry is done in perfect harmony with the purposes,
and in close association with the personalities, of the Creator
Sons of these local universes.
8:4.5 As the Sons of God are engaged in the
gigantic task of revealing the Father's personality of love to a
universe, so is the Infinite Spirit dedicated to the unending
ministry of revealing the combined love of the Father and the
Son to the individual minds of all the children of each
universe. In these local creations the Spirit does not come down
to the material races in the likeness of mortal flesh as do
certain of the Sons of God, but the Infinite Spirit and his
co-ordinate Spirits do downstep themselves, do joyfully undergo
an amazing series of divinity attenuations, until they appear as
angels to stand by your side and guide you through the lowly
paths of earthly existence.
8:4.6 By this very diminishing series the
Infinite Spirit does actually, and as a person, draw very near
to every being of the animal-origin spheres. And all this the
Spirit does without in the least invalidating his existence as
the Third Person of Deity at the center of all things.
8:4.7 The Conjoint Creator is truly and
forever the great ministering personality, the universal mercy
minister. To comprehend the ministry of the Spirit, ponder the
truth that he is the combined portrayal of the Father's unending
love and of the Son's eternal mercy. The Spirit's ministry is
not, however, restricted solely to the representation of the
Eternal Son and the Universal Father. The Infinite Spirit also
possesses the power to minister to the creatures of the realm in
his own name and right; the Third Person is of divine dignity
and also bestows the universal ministry of mercy in his own
behalf.
8:4.8 As man learns more of the loving and
tireless ministry of the lower orders of the creature family of
this Infinite Spirit, he will all the more admire and adore the
transcendent nature and matchless character of this combined
Action of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. Indeed is
this Spirit "the eyes of the Lord which are ever over the
righteous" and "the divine ears which are ever open to their
prayers."
5. THE PRESENCE OF GOD
8:5.1 The outstanding attribute of the
Infinite Spirit is omnipresence. Throughout all the universe of
universes there is everywhere present this all-pervading spirit,
which is so akin to the presence of a universal and divine mind.
Both the Second Person and the Third Person of Deity are
represented on all worlds by their ever-present spirits.
8:5.2 The Father is infinite and is
therefore limited only by volition. In the bestowal of Adjusters
and in the encircuitment of personality, the Father acts alone,
but in the contact of spirit forces with intelligent beings, he
utilizes the spirits and personalities of the Eternal Son and
the Infinite Spirit. He is at will spiritually present equally
with the Son or with the Conjoint Actor; he is present with
the Son and in the Spirit. The Father is most certainly
everywhere present, and we discern his presence by and through
any and all of these diverse but associated forces, influences,
and presences.
8:5.3 In your sacred writings the term
Spirit of God seems to be used interchangeably to designate
both the Infinite Spirit on Paradise and the Creative Spirit of
your local universe. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual circuit of
this Creative Daughter of the Paradise Infinite Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is a circuit indigenous to each local universe and is
confined to the spiritual realm of that creation; but the
Infinite Spirit is omnipresent.
8:5.4 There are many spiritual influences, and
they are all as one. Even the work of the Thought
Adjusters, though independent of all other influences,
unvaryingly coincides with the spirit ministry of the combined
influences of the Infinite Spirit and a local universe Mother
Spirit. As these spiritual presences operate in the lives of
Urantians, they cannot be segregated. In your minds and upon
your souls they function as one spirit, notwithstanding their
diverse origins. And as this united spiritual ministration is
experienced, it becomes to you the influence of the Supreme,
"who is ever able to keep you from failing and to present you
blameless before your Father on high."
8:5.5 Ever remember that the Infinite Spirit
is the Conjoint Actor; both the Father and the Son are
functioning in and through him; he is present not only as
himself but also as the Father and as the Son and as the
Father-Son. In recognition of this and for many additional
reasons the spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit is often
referred to as "the spirit of God."
8:5.6 It would also be consistent to refer to
the liaison of all spiritual ministry as the spirit of God, for
such a liaison is truly the union of the spirits of God the
Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and God the Sevenfold --
even the spirit of God the Supreme.
6. PERSONALITY OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT
8:6.1 Do not allow the widespread bestowal and
the far-flung distribution of the Third Source and Center to
obscure or otherwise detract from the fact of his personality.
The Infinite Spirit is a universe presence, an eternal action, a
cosmic power, a holy influence, and a universal mind; he is all
of these and infinitely more, but he is also a true and divine
personality.
8:6.2 The Infinite Spirit is a complete and
perfect personality, the divine equal and co-ordinate of the
Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Conjoint Creator is
just as real and visible to the higher intelligences of the
universes as are the Father and the Son; indeed more so, for it
is the Spirit whom all ascenders must attain before they may
approach the Father through the Son.
8:6.3 The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of
Deity, is possessed of all the attributes which you associate
with personality. The Spirit is endowed with absolute mind: "The
Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." The
Spirit is endowed not only with mind but also with will. In the
bestowal of his gifts it is recorded: "But all these works that
one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally and
as he wills."
8:6.4 "The love of the Spirit" is real, as
also are his sorrows; therefore "Grieve not the Spirit of God."
Whether we observe the Infinite Spirit as Paradise Deity or as a
local universe Creative Spirit, we find that the Conjoint
Creator is not only the Third Source and Center but also a
divine person. This divine personality also reacts to the
universe as a person. The Spirit speaks to you, "He who has an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit says." "The Spirit himself
makes intercession for you." The Spirit exerts a direct and
personal influence upon created beings, "For as many as are led
by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
8:6.5 Even though we behold the phenomenon of
the ministry of the Infinite Spirit to the remote worlds of the
universe of universes, even though we envisage this same
co-ordinating Deity acting in and through the untold legions of
the manifold beings who take origin in the Third Source and
Center, even though we recognize the omnipresence of the Spirit,
nonetheless, we still affirm that this same Third Source and
Center is a person, the Conjoint Creator of all things and all
beings and all universes.
8:6.6 In the administration of universes the
Father, Son, and Spirit are perfectly and eternally
interassociated. Though each is engaged in a personal ministry
to all creation, all three are divinely and absolutely
interlocked in a service of creation and control which forever
makes them one.
8:6.7 In the person of the Infinite Spirit the
Father and the Son are mutually present, always and in
unqualified perfection, for the Spirit is like the Father and
like the Son, and also like the Father and the Son as they two
are forever one.
8:6.8
Presented on Urantia by a Divine Counselor of Uversa
commissioned by the Ancients of Days to portray the nature and
work of the Infinite Spirit.
