The Urantia Book
PAPER 21
THE PARADISE CREATOR SONS
Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.
21:0.1 THE Creator Sons are the makers and
rulers of the local universes of time and space. These universe
creators and sovereigns are of dual origin, embodying the
characteristics of God the Father and God the Son. But each
Creator Son is different from every other; each is unique in
nature as well as in personality; each is the "only-begotten
Son" of the perfect deity ideal of his origin.
21:0.2 In the vast work of organizing,
evolving, and perfecting a local universe, these high Sons
always enjoy the sustaining approval of the Universal Father.
The relationship of the Creator Sons with their Paradise Father
is touching and superlative. No doubt the profound affection of
the Deity parents for their divine progeny is the wellspring of
that beautiful and well-nigh divine love which even mortal
parents bear their children.
21:0.3 These primary Paradise Sons are
personalized as Michaels. As they go forth from Paradise to
found their universes, they are known as Creator Michaels. When
settled in supreme authority, they are called Master Michaels.
Sometimes we refer to the sovereign of your universe of Nebadon
as Christ Michael. Always and forever do they reign after the
"order of Michael," that being the designation of the first Son
of their order and nature.
21:0.4 The original or first-born Michael has
never experienced incarnation as a material being, but seven
times he passed through the experience of spiritual creature
ascent on the seven circuits of Havona, advancing from the outer
spheres to the innermost circuit of the central creation. The
order of Michael knows the grand universe from one end to the
other; there is no essential experience of any of the children
of time and space in which the Michaels have not personally
participated; they are in fact partakers not only of the divine
nature but also of your nature, meaning all natures, from the
highest to the lowest.
21:0.5 The original Michael is the presiding
head of the primary Paradise Sons when they assemble for
conference at the center of all things. Not long since on Uversa
we recorded a universal broadcast of a conclave extraordinary on
the eternal Isle of one hundred fifty thousand Creator Sons
assembled in the parental presence and engaged in deliberations
having to do with the progress of the unification and
stabilization of the universe of universes. This was a selected
group of Sovereign Michaels, sevenfold bestowal Sons.
1. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF CREATOR SONS
21:1.1 When the fullness of absolute spiritual
ideation in the Eternal Son encounters the fullness of absolute
personality concept in the Universal Father, when such a
creative union is finally and fully attained, when such absolute
identity of spirit and such infinite oneness of personality
concept occur, then, right then and there, without the loss of
anything of personality or prerogative by either of the infinite
Deities, there flashes into full-fledged being a new and
original Creator Son, the only-begotten Son of the perfect ideal
and the powerful idea whose union produces this new creator
personality of power and perfection.
21:1.2 Each Creator Son is the only-begotten
and only-begettable offspring of the perfect union of the
original concepts of the two infinite and eternal and perfect
minds of the ever-existent Creators of the universe of
universes. There never can be another such Son because each
Creator Son is the unqualified, finished, and final expression
and embodiment of all of every phase of every feature of every
possibility of every divine reality that could, throughout all
eternity, ever be found in, expressed by, or evolved from, those
divine creative potentials which united to bring this Michael
Son into existence. Each Creator Son is the absolute of the
united deity concepts which constitute his divine origin.
21:1.3 The divine natures of these Creator
Sons are, in principle, derived equally from the attributes of
both Paradise parents. All partake of the fullness of the divine
nature of the Universal Father and of the creative prerogatives
of the Eternal Son, but as we observe the practical outworking
of the Michael functions in the universes, we discern apparent
differences. Some Creator Sons appear to be more like God the
Father; others more like God the Son. For example: The trend of
administration in the universe of Nebadon suggests that its
Creator and ruling Son is one whose nature and character more
resemble that of the Eternal Mother Son. It should be further
stated that some universes are presided over by Paradise
Michaels who appear equally to resemble God the Father and God
the Son. And these observations are in no sense implied
criticisms; they are simply a recording of fact.
21:1.4 I do not know the exact number of
Creator Sons in existence, but I have good reasons for believing
that there are more than seven hundred thousand. Now, we know
that there are exactly seven hundred thousand Unions of Days and
no more are being created. We also observe that the ordained
plans of the present universe age seem to indicate that one
Union of Days is to be stationed in each local universe as the
counseling ambassador of the Trinity. We note further that the
constantly increasing number of Creator Sons already exceeds the
stationary number of the Unions of Days. But concerning the
destiny of the Michaels beyond seven hundred thousand, we have
never been informed.
2. THE CREATORS OF LOCAL UNIVERSES
21:2.1 The Paradise Sons of the primary order
are the designers, creators, builders, and administrators of
their respective domains, the local universes of time and space,
the basic creative units of the seven evolutionary
superuniverses. A Creator Son is permitted to choose the space
site of his future cosmic activity, but before he may begin even
the physical organization of his universe, he must spend a long
period of observation devoted to the study of the efforts of his
older brothers in various creations located in the superuniverse
of his projected action. And prior to all this, the Michael Son
will have completed his long and unique experience of Paradise
observation and Havona training.
21:2.2 When a Creator Son departs from
Paradise to embark upon the adventure of universe making, to
become the head -- virtually the God -- of the local universe of
his own organization, then, for the first time, he finds himself
in intimate contact with, and in many respects dependent upon,
the Third Source and Center. The Infinite Spirit, though abiding
with the Father and the Son at the center of all things, is
destined to function as the actual and effective helper of each
Creator Son. Therefore is each Creator Son accompanied by a
Creative Daughter of the Infinite Spirit, that being who is
destined to become the Divine Minister, the Mother Spirit of the
new local universe.
21:2.3 The departure of a Michael Son on this
occasion forever liberates his creator prerogatives from the
Paradise Sources and Centers, subject only to certain
limitations inherent in the pre-existence of these Sources and
Centers and to certain other antecedent powers and presences.
Among these limitations to the otherwise all-powerful creator
prerogatives of a local universe Father are the following:
21:2.4 1. Energy-matter is dominated by
the Infinite Spirit. Before any new forms of things, great or
small, may be created, before any new transformations of
energy-matter may be attempted, a Creator Son must secure the
consent and working co-operation of the Infinite Spirit.
21:2.5 2. Creature designs and types
are controlled by the Eternal Son. Before a Creator Son may
engage in the creation of any new type of being, any new design
of creature, he must secure the consent of the Eternal and
Original Mother Son.
21:2.6 3. Personality is designed and
bestowed by the Universal Father.
21:2.7 The types and patterns of mind
are determined by the precreature factors of being. After these
have been associated to constitute a creature (personal or
otherwise), mind is the endowment of the Third Source and
Center, the universal source of mind ministry to all beings
below the level of Paradise Creators.
21:2.8 The control of spirit designs
and types depends on the level of their manifestation. In the
last analysis, spiritual design is controlled by the Trinity or
by the pre-Trinity spirit endowments of the Trinity
personalities -- Father, Son, and Spirit.
21:2.9 When such a perfect and divine Son has
taken possession of the space site of his chosen universe; when
the initial problems of universe materialization and of gross
equilibrium have been resolved; when he has formed an effective
and co-operative working union with the complemental Daughter of
the Infinite Spirit -- then do this Universe Son and this
Universe Spirit initiate that liaison which is designed to give
origin to the innumerable hosts of their local universe
children. In connection with this event the Creative Spirit
focalization of the Paradise Infinite Spirit becomes changed in
nature, taking on the personal qualities of the Mother Spirit of
a local universe.
21:2.10 Notwithstanding that all Creator Sons
are divinely like their Paradise parents, none exactly resembles
another; each is unique, diverse, exclusive, and original in
nature as well as in personality. And since they are the
architects and makers of the life plans of their respective
realms, this very diversity insures that their domains will also
be diverse in every form and phase of Michael-derived living
existence which may be created or subsequently evolved therein.
Hence the orders of creatures native to the local universes are
quite varied. No two are administered or inhabited by
dual-origin native beings who are in all respects identical.
Within any superuniverse, one half of their inherent attributes
are quite alike, being derived from the uniform Creative
Spirits; the other half vary, being derived from the diversified
Creator Sons. But such diversity does not characterize those
creatures of sole origin in the Creative Spirit nor those
imported beings who are native to the central or superuniverses.
21:2.11 When a Michael Son is absent from his
universe, its government is directed by the first-born native
being, the Bright and Morning Star, the local universe chief
executive. The advice and counsel of the Union of Days is
invaluable at such times. During these absences a Creator Son is
able to invest the associated Mother Spirit with the overcontrol
of his spiritual presence on the inhabited worlds and in the
hearts of his mortal children. And the Mother Spirit of a local
universe remains always at its headquarters, extending her
fostering care and spiritual ministry to the uttermost parts of
such an evolutionary domain.
21:2.12 The personal presence of a Creator Son
in his local universe is not necessary to the smooth running of
an established material creation. Such Sons may journey to
Paradise, and still their universes swing on through space. They
may lay down their lines of power to incarnate as the children
of time; still their realms whirl on about their respective
centers. No material organization is independent of the
absolute-gravity grasp of Paradise or of the cosmic overcontrol
inherent in the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute.
3. LOCAL UNIVERSE SOVEREIGNTY
21:3.1 A Creator Son is given the range of a
universe by the consent of the Paradise Trinity and with the
confirmation of the supervising Master Spirit of the
superuniverse concerned. Such action constitutes title of
physical possession, a cosmic leasehold. But the elevation of a
Michael Son from this initial and self-limited stage of
rulership to the experiential supremacy of self-earned
sovereignty comes as a result of his own personal experiences in
the work of universe creation and incarnated bestowal. Until the
achievement of bestowal-earned sovereignty, he rules as
vicegerent of the Universal Father.
21:3.2 A Creator Son could assert full
sovereignty over his personal creation at any time, but he
wisely chooses not to. If, prior to passing through the creature
bestowals, he assumed an unearned supreme sovereignty, the
Paradise personalities resident in his local universe would
withdraw. But this has never happened throughout all the
creations of time and space.
21:3.3 The fact of creatorship implies the
fullness of sovereignty, but the Michaels choose to
experientially earn it, thereby retaining the full
co-operation of all Paradise personalities attached to the local
universe administration. We know of no Michael who ever did
otherwise; but they all could, they are truly freewill Sons.
21:3.4 The sovereignty of a Creator Son in a
local universe passes through six, perhaps seven, stages of
experiential manifestation. These appear in the following order:
21:3.5 1. Initial vicegerent sovereignty --
the solitary provisional authority exercised by a Creator Son
before the acquirement of personal qualities by the associated
Creative Spirit.
21:3.6 2. Conjoint vicegerent sovereignty --
the joint rule of the Paradise pair subsequent to the
personality achievement of the Universe Mother Spirit.
21:3.7 3. Augmenting vicegerent sovereignty --
the advancing authority of a Creator Son during the period of
his seven creature bestowals.
21:3.8 4. Supreme sovereignty -- the settled
authority following the completion of the seventh bestowal. In
Nebadon, supreme sovereignty dates from the completion of
Michael's bestowal on Urantia. It has existed just slightly over
nineteen hundred years of your planetary time.
21:3.9 5. Augmenting supreme sovereignty --
the advanced relationship growing out of the settling of a
majority of the creature domains in light and life. This stage
pertains to the unachieved future of your local universe.
21:3.10 6. Trinitarian sovereignty --
exercised subsequent to the settling of the entire local
universe in light and life.
21:3.11 7. Unrevealed sovereignty -- the
unknown relationships of a future universe age.
21:3.12 In accepting the initial vicegerent
sovereignty of a projected local universe, a Creator Michael
takes an oath to the Trinity not to assume supreme sovereignty
until the seven creature bestowals have been completed and
certified by the superuniverse rulers. But if a Michael Son
could not, at will, assert such unearned sovereignty, there
would be no meaning in taking an oath not to do so.
21:3.13 Even in the prebestowal ages a Creator
Son rules his domain well-nigh supremely when there is no
dissent in any of its parts. Limited rulership would hardly be
manifest if sovereignty were never challenged. The sovereignty
exercised by a prebestowal Creator Son in a universe without
rebellion is no greater than in a universe with rebellion; but
in the first instance sovereignty limitations are not apparent;
in the second, they are.
21:3.14 If ever the authority or
administration of a Creator Son is challenged, attacked, or
jeopardized, he is eternally pledged to uphold, protect, defend,
and if necessary retrieve his personal creation. Such Sons can
be troubled or harassed only by the creatures of their own
making or by higher beings of their own choosing. It might be
inferred that "higher beings," those of origin on levels above a
local universe, would be unlikely to trouble a Creator Son, and
this is true. But they could if they chose to. Virtue is
volitional with personality; righteousness is not automatic in
freewill creatures.
21:3.15 Before the completion of the bestowal
career a Creator Son rules with certain self-imposed limitations
of sovereignty, but subsequent to his finished bestowal service
he rules by virtue of his actual experience in the form and
likeness of his manifold creatures. When a Creator has seven
times sojourned among his creatures, when the bestowal career is
finished, then is he supremely settled in universe authority; he
has become a Master Son, a sovereign and supreme ruler.
21:3.16 The technique of obtaining supreme
sovereignty over a local universe involves the following seven
experiential steps:
21:3.17 1. Experientially to penetrate seven
creature levels of being through the technique of incarnated
bestowal in the very likeness of the creatures on the level
concerned.
21:3.18 2. To make an experiential
consecration to each phase of the sevenfold will of Paradise
Deity as it is personified in the Seven Master Spirits.
21:3.19 3. To traverse each of the seven
experiences on the creature levels simultaneously with the
execution of one of the seven consecrations to the will of
Paradise Deity.
21:3.20 4. On each creature level,
experientially to portray the acme of creature life to Paradise
Deity and to all universe intelligences.
21:3.21 5. On each creature level,
experientially to reveal one phase of the sevenfold will of
Deity to the bestowal level and to all the universe.
21:3.22 6. Experientially to unify the
sevenfold creature experience with the sevenfold experience of
consecration to the revelation of the nature and will of Deity.
21:3.23 7. To achieve new and higher
relationship with the Supreme Being. The repercussion of the
totality of this Creator-creature experience augments the
superuniverse reality of God the Supreme and the time-space
sovereignty of the Almighty Supreme and factualizes the supreme
local universe sovereignty of a Paradise Michael.
21:3.24 In settling the question of
sovereignty in a local universe, the Creator Son is not only
demonstrating his own fitness to rule but is also revealing the
nature and portraying the sevenfold attitude of the Paradise
Deities. The finite understanding and creature appreciation of
the Father's primacy is concerned in the adventure of a Creator
Son when he condescends to take upon himself the form and
experiences of his creatures. These primary Paradise Sons are
the real revealers of the Father's loving nature and beneficent
authority, the same Father who, in association with the Son and
the Spirit, is the universal head of all power, personality, and
government throughout all the universal realms.
4. THE MICHAEL BESTOWALS
21:4.1
There are seven groups of bestowal Creator Sons, and they are so
classified in accordance with the number of times they have
bestowed themselves upon the creatures of their realms. They
range from the initial experience up through five additional
spheres of progressive bestowal until they attain the seventh
and final episode of creature-Creator experience.
21:4.2 Avonal bestowals are always in the
likeness of mortal flesh, but the seven bestowals of a Creator
Son involve his appearing on seven creature levels of being and
pertain to the revelation of the seven primary expressions of
the will and nature of Deity. Without exception, all Creator
Sons pass through this seven times giving of themselves to their
created children before they assume settled and supreme
jurisdiction over the universes of their own creation.
21:4.3 Though these seven bestowals vary in
the different sectors and universes, they always embrace the
mortal-bestowal adventure. In the final bestowal a Creator Son
appears as a member of one of the higher mortal races on some
inhabited world, usually as a member of that racial group which
contains the largest hereditary legacy of the Adamic stock which
has previously been imported to upstep the physical status of
the animal-origin peoples. Only once in his sevenfold career as
a bestowal Son is a Paradise Michael born of woman as you have
the record of the babe of Bethlehem. Only once does he live and
die as a member of the lowest order of evolutionary will
creatures.
21:4.4 After each of his bestowals a Creator
Son proceeds to the "right hand of the Father," there to gain
the Father's acceptance of the bestowal and to receive
instruction preparatory to the next episode of universe service.
Following the seventh and final bestowal a Creator Son receives
from the Universal Father supreme authority and jurisdiction
over his universe.
21:4.5 It is of record that the divine Son of
last appearance on your planet was a Paradise Creator Son who
had completed six phases of his bestowal career; consequently,
when he gave up the conscious grasp of the incarnated life on
Urantia, he could, and did, truly say, "It is finished" -- it
was literally finished. His death on Urantia completed his
bestowal career; it was the last step in fulfilling the sacred
oath of a Paradise Creator Son. And when this experience has
been acquired, such Sons are supreme universe sovereigns; no
longer do they rule as vicegerents of the Father but in their
own right and name as "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." With
certain stated exceptions these sevenfold bestowal Sons are
unqualifiedly supreme in the universes of their abode.
Concerning his local universe, "all power in heaven and on
earth" was relegated to this triumphant and enthroned Master
Son.
21:4.6 Creator Sons, subsequent to the
completion of their bestowal careers, are reckoned as a separate
order, sevenfold Master Sons. In person the Master Sons are
identical with the Creator Sons, but they have undergone such a
unique bestowal experience that they are commonly regarded as a
different order. When a Creator deigns to effect a bestowal, a
real and permanent change is destined to take place. True, the
bestowal Son is still and none the less a Creator, but he has
added to his nature the experience of a creature, which forever
removes him from the divine level of a Creator Son and elevates
him to the experiential plane of a Master Son, one who has fully
earned the right to rule a universe and administer its worlds.
Such beings embody all that can be secured from divine parentage
and embrace everything to be derived from perfected-creature
experience. Why should man bemoan his lowly origin and enforced
evolutionary career when the very Gods must pass through an
equivalent experience before they are accounted experientially
worthy and competent finally and fully to rule over their
universe domains!
5. RELATION OF MASTER SONS TO THE UNIVERSE
21:5.1 The power of a Master Michael is
unlimited because derived from experienced association with the
Paradise Trinity, is unquestioned because derived from actual
experience as the very creatures subject to such authority. The
nature of the sovereignty of a sevenfold Creator Son is supreme
because it:
1. Embraces the sevenfold viewpoint
of Paradise Deity.
2. Embodies a sevenfold attitude of
time-space creatures.
3. Perfectly synthesizes Paradise
attitude and creature viewpoint.
21:5.2 This experiential sovereignty is thus
all-inclusive of the divinity of God the Sevenfold culminating
in the Supreme Being. And the personal sovereignty of a
sevenfold Son is like the future sovereignty of the
sometime-to-be-completed Supreme Being, embracing as it does the
fullest possible content of the power and authority of the
Paradise Trinity manifestable within the time-space limits
concerned.
21:5.3 With the achievement of supreme local
universe sovereignty, there passes from a Michael Son the power
and opportunity to create entirely new types of creature beings
during the present universe age. But a Master Son's loss of
power to originate entirely new orders of beings in no way
interferes with the work of life elaboration already established
and in process of unfoldment; this vast program of universe
evolution goes on without interruption or curtailment. The
acquirement of supreme sovereignty by a Master Son implies the
responsibility of personal devotion to the fostering and the
administering of that which has already been designed and
created, and of that which will subsequently be produced by
those who have been thus designed and created. In time there may
develop an almost endless evolution of diverse beings, but no
entirely new pattern or type of intelligent creature will
henceforth take direct origin from a Master Son. This is the
first step, the beginning, of a settled administration in any
local universe.
21:5.4 The elevation of a sevenfold bestowal
Son to the unquestioned sovereignty of his universe means the
beginning of the end of agelong uncertainty and relative
confusion. Subsequent to this event, that which cannot be
sometime spiritualized will eventually be disorganized; that
which cannot be sometime co-ordinated with cosmic reality will
eventually be destroyed. When the provisions of endless mercy
and nameless patience have been exhausted in an effort to win
the loyalty and devotion of the will creatures of the realms,
justice and righteousness will prevail. That which mercy cannot
rehabilitate justice will eventually annihilate.
21:5.5 The Master Michaels are supreme in
their own local universes when once they have been installed as
sovereign rulers. The few limitations upon their rule are those
inherent in the cosmic pre-existence of certain forces and
personalities. Otherwise these Master Sons are supreme in
authority, responsibility, and administrative power in their
respective universes; they are as Creators and Gods, supreme in
virtually all things. There is no penetration beyond their
wisdom regarding the functioning of a given universe.
21:5.6 After his elevation to settled
sovereignty in a local universe a Paradise Michael is in full
control of all other Sons of God functioning in his domain, and
he may freely rule in accordance with his concept of the needs
of his realms. A Master Son may at will vary the order of the
spiritual adjudication and evolutionary adjustment of the
inhabited planets. And such Sons do make and carry out the plans
of their own choosing in all matters of special planetary needs,
in particular regarding the worlds of their creature sojourn and
still more concerning the realm of terminal bestowal, the planet
of incarnation in the likeness of mortal flesh.
21:5.7 The Master Sons seem to be in perfect
communication with their bestowal worlds, not only the worlds of
their personal sojourn but all worlds whereon a Magisterial Son
has bestowed himself. This contact is maintained by their own
spiritual presence, the Spirit of Truth, which they are able to
"pour out upon all flesh." These Master Sons also maintain an
unbroken connection with the Eternal Mother Son at the center of
all things. They possess a sympathetic reach which extends from
the Universal Father on high to the lowly races of planetary
life in the realms of time.
6. DESTINY OF THE MASTER MICHAELS
21:6.1 No one may with finality of authority
presume to discuss either the natures or the destinies of the
sevenfold Master Sovereigns of the local universes;
nevertheless, we all speculate much regarding these matters. We
are taught, and we believe, that each Paradise Michael is the
absolute of the dual deity concepts of his origin; thus he
embodies actual phases of the infinity of the Universal Father
and the Eternal Son. The Michaels must be partial in relation to
total infinity, but they are probably absolute in relation to
that part of infinity concerned in their origin. But as we
observe their work in the present universe age, we detect no
action that is more than finite; any conjectured superfinite
capacities must be self-contained and as yet unrevealed.
21:6.2 The completion of the creature-bestowal
careers and the elevation to supreme universe sovereignty must
signify the completed liberation of a Michael's finite-action
capacities accompanied by the appearance of capacity for
more-than-finite service. For in this connection we note that
such Master Sons are then restricted in the production of new
types of creature beings, a restriction undoubtedly made
necessary by the liberation of their superfinite potentialities.
21:6.3 It is highly probable that these
undisclosed creator powers will remain self-contained throughout
the present universe age. But sometime in the far-distant
future, in the now mobilizing universes of outer space, we
believe that the liaison between a sevenfold Master Son and a
seventh-stage Creative Spirit may attain to absonite levels of
service attended by the appearance of new things, meanings, and
values on transcendental levels of ultimate universe
significance.
21:6.4 Just as the Deity of the Supreme is
actualizing by virtue of experiential service, so are the
Creator Sons achieving the personal realization of the
Paradise-divinity potentials bound up in their unfathomable
natures. When on Urantia, Christ Michael once said, "I am the
way, the truth, and the life." And we believe that in eternity
the Michaels are literally destined to be "the way, the truth,
and the life," ever blazing the path for all universe
personalities as it leads from supreme divinity through ultimate
absonity to eternal deity finality.
21:6.5
Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.
