The Urantia Book
PAPER 27
MINISTRY OF THE PRIMARY SUPERNAPHIM
Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.
27:0.1 PRIMARY supernaphim are the supernal
servants of the Deities on the eternal Isle of Paradise. Never
have they been known to depart from the paths of light and
righteousness. The roll calls are complete; from eternity not
one of this magnificent host has been lost. These high
supernaphim are perfect beings, supreme in perfection, but they
are not absonite, neither are they absolute. Being of the
essence of perfection, these children of the Infinite Spirit
work interchangeably and at will in all phases of their manifold
duties. They do not function extensively outside Paradise,
though they do participate in the various millennial gatherings
and group reunions of the central universe. They also go forth
as special messengers of the Deities, and in large numbers they
ascend to become Technical Advisers.
27:0.2 Primary supernaphim are also placed in
command of the seraphic hosts ministering on worlds isolated
because of rebellion. When a Paradise Son is bestowed upon such
a world, completes his mission, ascends to the Universal Father,
is accepted, and returns as the accredited deliverer of this
isolated world, a primary supernaphim is always designated by
the chiefs of assignment to assume command of the ministering
spirits on duty in the newly reclaimed sphere. Supernaphim in
this special service are periodically rotated. On Urantia the
present "chief of seraphim" is the second of this order to be on
duty since the times of the bestowal of Christ Michael.
27:0.3 From eternity the primary supernaphim
have served on the Isle of Light and have gone forth on missions
of leadership to the worlds of space, but they have functioned
as now classified only since the arrival on Paradise of the
Havona pilgrims of time. These high angels now minister chiefly
in the following seven orders of service:
1. Conductors of Worship.
2. Masters of Philosophy.
3. Custodians of Knowledge.
4. Directors of Conduct.
5. Interpreters of Ethics.
6. Chiefs of Assignment.
7. Instigators of Rest.
27:0.4 Not until the ascending pilgrims
actually attain Paradise residence do they come under the direct
influence of these supernaphim, and then they pass through a
training experience under the direction of these angels in the
reverse order of their naming. That is, you enter upon your
Paradise career under the tutelage of the instigators of rest
and, after successive seasons with the intervening orders,
finish this training period with the conductors of worship.
Thereupon are you ready to begin the endless career of a
finaliter.
1. INSTIGATORS OF REST
27:1.1 The instigators of rest are the
inspectors of Paradise who go forth from the central Isle to the
inner circuit of Havona, there to collaborate with their
colleagues, the complements of rest of the secondary order of
supernaphim. The one essential to the enjoyment of Paradise is
rest, divine rest; and these instigators of rest are the final
instructors who make ready the pilgrims of time for their
introduction to eternity. They begin their work on the final
attainment circle of the central universe and continue it when
the pilgrim awakes from the last transition sleep, the slumber
which graduates a creature of space into the realm of the
eternal.
27:1.2 Rest is of a sevenfold nature: There is
the rest of sleep and of play in the lower life orders,
discovery in the higher beings, and worship in the highest type
of spirit personality. There is also the normal rest of energy
intake, the recharging of beings with physical or with spiritual
energy. And then there is the transit sleep, the unconscious
slumber when enseraphimed, when in passage from one sphere to
another. Entirely different from all of these is the deep sleep
of metamorphosis, the transition rest from one stage of being to
another, from one life to another, from one state of existence
to another, the sleep which ever attends transition from actual
universe status in contrast to evolution through various
stages of any one status.
27:1.3 But the last metamorphic sleep is
something more than those previous transition slumbers which
have marked the successive status attainments of the ascendant
career; thereby do the creatures of time and space traverse the
innermost margins of the temporal and the spatial to attain
residential status in the timeless and spaceless abodes of
Paradise. The instigators and the complements of rest are just
as essential to this transcending metamorphosis as are the
seraphim and associated beings to the mortal creature's survival
of death.
27:1.4 You enter the rest on the final Havona
circuit and are eternally resurrected on Paradise. And as you
there spiritually repersonalize, you will immediately recognize
the instigator of rest who welcomes you to the eternal shores as
the very primary supernaphim who produced the final sleep on the
innermost circuit of Havona; and you will recall the last grand
stretch of faith as you once again made ready to commend the
keeping of your identity into the hands of the Universal Father.
27:1.5 The last rest of time has been enjoyed;
the last transition sleep has been experienced; now you awake to
life everlasting on the shores of the eternal abode. "And there
shall be no more sleep. The presence of God and his Son are
before you, and you are eternally his servants; you have seen
his face, and his name is your spirit. There shall be no night
there; and they need no light of the sun, for the Great Source
and Center gives them light; they shall live forever and ever.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things have passed away."
2. CHIEFS OF ASSIGNMENT
27:2.1 This is the group designated from time
to time by the chief supernaphim, "the original pattern angel,"
to preside over the organization of all three orders of these
angels -- primary, secondary, and tertiary. The supernaphim, as
a body, are wholly self-governing and self-regulatory except for
the functions of their mutual chief, the first angel of
Paradise, who ever presides over all these spirit personalities.
27:2.2 The angels of assignment have much to
do with glorified mortal residents of Paradise before they are
admitted to the Corps of the Finality. Study and instruction are
not the exclusive occupations of Paradise arrivals; service also
plays its essential part in the prefinaliter educational
experiences of Paradise. And I have observed that, when the
ascendant mortals have periods of leisure, they evince a
predilection to fraternize with the reserve corps of the
superaphic chiefs of assignment.
27:2.3 When you mortal ascenders attain
Paradise, your societal relationships involve a great deal more
than contact with a host of exalted and divine beings and with a
familiar multitude of glorified fellow mortals. You must also
fraternize with upwards of three thousand different orders of
Paradise Citizens, with the various groups of the
Transcendentalers, and with numerous other types of Paradise
inhabitants, permanent and transient, who have not been revealed
on Urantia. After sustained contact with these mighty intellects
of Paradise, it is very restful to visit with the angelic types
of mind; they remind the mortals of time of the seraphim with
whom they have had such long contact and such refreshing
association.
3. INTERPRETERS OF ETHICS
27:3.1 The higher you ascend in the scale of
life, the more attention must be paid to universe ethics.
Ethical awareness is simply the recognition by any individual of
the rights inherent in the existence of any and all other
individuals. But spiritual ethics far transcends the mortal and
even the morontia concept of personal and group relations.
27:3.2 Ethics has been duly taught and
adequately learned by the pilgrims of time in their long ascent
to the glories of Paradise. As this inward-ascending career has
unfolded from the nativity worlds of space, the ascenders have
continued to add group after group to their ever-widening circle
of universe associates. Every new group of colleagues met with
adds one more level of ethics to be recognized and complied with
until, by the time the mortals of ascent reach Paradise, they
really need someone to provide helpful and friendly counsel
regarding ethical interpretations. They do not need to be taught
ethics, but they do need to have what they have so laboriously
learned properly interpreted to them as they are brought
face to face with the extraordinary task of contacting with so
much that is new.
27:3.3 The interpreters of ethics are of
inestimable assistance to the Paradise arrivals in helping them
to adjust to numerous groups of majestic beings during that
eventful period extending from the attainment of residential
status to formal induction into the Corps of Mortal Finaliters.
Many of the numerous types of Paradise Citizens the ascendant
pilgrims have already met on the seven circuits of Havona. The
glorified mortals have also enjoyed intimate contact with the
creature-trinitized sons of the conjoint corps on the inner
Havona circuit, where these beings are receiving much of their
education. And on the other circuits the ascending pilgrims have
met numerous unrevealed residents of the Paradise-Havona system
who are there pursuing group training in preparation for the
unrevealed assignments of the future.
27:3.4 All these celestial companionships are
invariably mutual. As ascending mortals you not only derive
benefit from these successive universe companions and such
numerous orders of increasingly divine associates, but you also
impart to each of these fraternal beings something from your own
personality and experience which forever makes every one of them
different and better for having been associated with an
ascending mortal from the evolutionary worlds of time and space.
4. DIRECTORS OF CONDUCT
27:4.1 Having already been fully instructed in
the ethics of Paradise relationships -- neither meaningless
formalities nor the dictations of artificial castes but rather
the inherent proprieties -- the ascendant mortals find it
helpful to receive the counsel of the superaphic directors of
conduct, who instruct the new members of Paradise society in the
usages of the perfect conduct of the high beings who sojourn on
the central Isle of Light and Life.
27:4.2 Harmony is the keynote of the central
universe, and detectable order prevails on Paradise. Proper
conduct is essential to progress by way of knowledge, through
philosophy, to the spiritual heights of spontaneous worship.
There is a divine technique in the approach to Divinity; and the
acquirement of this technique must await the pilgrims' arrival
on Paradise. The spirit of it has been imparted on the circles
of Havona, but the final touches of the training of the pilgrims
of time can be applied only after they actually attain the Isle
of Light.
27:4.3 All Paradise conduct is wholly
spontaneous, in every sense natural and free. But there still is
a proper and perfect way of doing things on the eternal Isle,
and the directors of conduct are ever by the side of the
"strangers within the gates" to instruct them and so guide their
steps as to put them at perfect ease and at the same time to
enable the pilgrims to avoid that confusion and uncertainty
which would otherwise be inevitable. Only by such an arrangement
could endless confusion be avoided; and confusion never appears
on Paradise.
27:4.4 These directors of conduct really serve
as glorified teachers and guides. They are chiefly concerned
with instructing the new mortal residents regarding the almost
endless array of new situations and unfamiliar usages.
Notwithstanding all the long preparation therefor and the long
journey thereto, Paradise is still inexpressibly strange and
unexpectedly new to those who finally attain residential status.
5. THE CUSTODIANS OF KNOWLEDGE
27:5.1 The superaphic custodians of knowledge
are the higher "living epistles" known and read by all who dwell
on Paradise. They are the divine records of truth, the living
books of real knowledge. You have heard about records in the
"book of life." The custodians of knowledge are just such living
books, records of perfection imprinted upon the eternal tablets
of divine life and supreme surety. They are in reality living,
automatic libraries. The facts of the universes are inherent in
these primary supernaphim, actually recorded in these angels;
and it is also inherently impossible for an untruth to gain
lodgment in the minds of these perfect and replete repositories
of the truth of eternity and the intelligence of time.
27:5.2 These custodians conduct informal
courses of instruction for the residents of the eternal Isle,
but their chief function is that of reference and verification.
Any sojourner on Paradise may at will have by his side the
living repository of the particular fact or truth he may wish to
know. At the northern extremity of the Isle there are available
the living finders of knowledge, who will designate the director
of the group holding the information sought, and forthwith will
appear the brilliant beings who are the very thing you
wish to know. No longer must you seek enlightenment from
engrossed pages; you now commune with living intelligence face
to face. Supreme knowledge you thus obtain from the living
beings who are its final custodians.
27:5.3 When you locate that supernaphim who is
exactly what you desire to verify, you will find available all the known facts of all universes, for these custodians
of knowledge are the final and living summaries of the vast
network of the recording angels, ranging from the seraphim and
seconaphim of the local and superuniverses to the chief
recorders of the tertiary supernaphim in Havona. And this living
accumulation of knowledge is distinct from the formal records of
Paradise, the cumulative summary of universal history.
27:5.4 The wisdom of truth takes origin in the
divinity of the central universe, but knowledge, experiential
knowledge, largely has its beginnings in the domains of time and
space -- therefore the necessity for the maintenance of the
far-flung superuniverse organizations of the recording seraphim
and supernaphim sponsored by the Celestial Recorders.
27:5.5 These primary supernaphim who are
inherently in possession of universe knowledge are also
responsible for its organization and classification. In
constituting themselves the living reference library of the
universe of universes, they have classified knowledge into seven
grand orders, each having about one million subdivisions. The
facility with which the residents of Paradise can consult this
vast store of knowledge is solely due to the voluntary and wise
efforts of the custodians of knowledge. The custodians are also
the exalted teachers of the central universe, freely giving out
their living treasures to all beings on any of the Havona
circuits, and they are extensively, though indirectly, utilized
by the courts of the Ancients of Days. But this living library,
which is available to the central and superuniverses, is not
accessible to the local creations. Only by indirection and
reflectively are the benefits of Paradise knowledge secured in
the local universes.
6. MASTERS OF PHILOSOPHY
27:6.1 Next to the supreme satisfaction of
worship is the exhilaration of philosophy. Never do you climb so
high or advance so far that there do not remain a thousand
mysteries which demand the employment of philosophy in an
attempted solution.
27:6.2 The master philosophers of Paradise
delight to lead the minds of its inhabitants, both native and
ascendant, in the exhilarating pursuit of attempting to solve
universe problems. These superaphic masters of philosophy are
the "wise men of heaven," the beings of wisdom who make use of
the truth of knowledge and the facts of experience in their
efforts to master the unknown. With them knowledge attains to
truth and experience ascends to wisdom. On Paradise the
ascendant personalities of space experience the heights of
being: They have knowledge; they know the truth; they may
philosophize -- think the truth; they may even seek to encompass
the concepts of the Ultimate and attempt to grasp the techniques
of the Absolutes.
27:6.3 At the southern extremity of the vast
Paradise domain the masters of philosophy conduct elaborate
courses in the seventy functional divisions of wisdom. Here they
discourse upon the plans and purposes of Infinity and seek to
co-ordinate the experiences, and to compose the knowledge, of
all who have access to their wisdom. They have developed a
highly specialized attitude toward various universe problems,
but their final conclusions are always in uniform agreement.
27:6.4 These Paradise philosophers teach by
every possible method of instruction, including the higher graph
technique of Havona and certain Paradise methods of
communicating information. All of these higher techniques of
imparting knowledge and conveying ideas are utterly beyond the
comprehension capacity of even the most highly developed human
mind. One hour's instruction on Paradise would be the equivalent
of ten thousand years of the word-memory methods of Urantia. You
cannot grasp such communication techniques, and there is simply
nothing in mortal experience with which they may be compared,
nothing to which they can be likened.
27:6.5 The masters of philosophy take supreme
pleasure in imparting their interpretation of the universe of
universes to those beings who have ascended from the worlds of
space. And while philosophy can never be as settled in its
conclusions as the facts of knowledge and the truths of
experience, yet, when you have listened to these primary
supernaphim discourse upon the unsolved problems of eternity and
the performances of the Absolutes, you will feel a certain and
lasting satisfaction concerning these unmastered questions.
27:6.6 These intellectual pursuits of Paradise
are not broadcast; the philosophy of perfection is available
only to those who are personally present. The encircling
creations know of these teachings only from those who have
passed through this experience, and who have subsequently
carried this wisdom out to the universes of space.
7. CONDUCTORS OF WORSHIP
27:7.1 Worship is the highest privilege and
the first duty of all created intelligences. Worship is the
conscious and joyous act of recognizing and acknowledging the
truth and fact of the intimate and personal relationships of the
Creators with their creatures. The quality of worship is
determined by the depth of creature perception; and as the
knowledge of the infinite character of the Gods progresses, the
act of worship becomes increasingly all-encompassing until it
eventually attains the glory of the highest experiential delight
and the most exquisite pleasure known to created beings.
27:7.2 While the Isle of Paradise contains
certain places of worship, it is more nearly one vast sanctuary
of divine service. Worship is the first and dominant passion of
all who climb to its blissful shores -- the spontaneous
ebullition of the beings who have learned enough of God to
attain his presence. Circle by circle, during the inward journey
through Havona, worship is a growing passion until on Paradise
it becomes necessary to direct and otherwise control its
expression.
27:7.3 The periodic, spontaneous, group, and
other special outbursts of supreme adoration and spiritual
praise enjoyed on Paradise are conducted under the leadership of
a special corps of primary supernaphim. Under the direction of
these conductors of worship, such homage achieves the creature
goal of supreme pleasure and attains the heights of the
perfection of sublime self-expression and personal enjoyment.
All primary supernaphim crave to be conductors of worship; and
all ascendant beings would enjoy forever remaining in the
attitude of worship did not the chiefs of assignment
periodically disperse these assemblages. But no ascendant being
is ever required to enter upon the assignments of eternal
service until he has attained full satisfaction in worship.
27:7.4 It is the task of the conductors of
worship so to teach the ascendant creatures how to worship that
they may be enabled to gain this satisfaction of self-expression
and at the same time be able to give attention to the essential
activities of the Paradise regime. Without improvement in the
technique of worship it would require hundreds of years for the
average mortal who reaches Paradise to give full and
satisfactory expression to his emotions of intelligent
appreciation and ascendant gratitude. The conductors of worship
open up new and hitherto unknown avenues of expression so that
these wonderful children of the womb of space and the travail of
time are enabled to gain the full satisfactions of worship in
much less time.
27:7.5 All the arts of all the beings of the
entire universe which are capable of intensifying and exalting
the abilities of self-expression and the conveyance of
appreciation, are employed to their highest capacity in the
worship of the Paradise Deities. Worship is the highest joy
of Paradise existence; it is the refreshing play of
Paradise. What play does for your jaded minds on earth, worship
will do for your perfected souls on Paradise. The mode of
worship on Paradise is utterly beyond mortal comprehension, but
the spirit of it you can begin to appreciate even down here on
Urantia, for the spirits of the Gods even now indwell you, hover
over you, and inspire you to true worship.
27:7.6 There are appointed times and places
for worship on Paradise, but these are not adequate to
accommodate the ever-increasing overflow of the spiritual
emotions of the growing intelligence and expanding divinity
recognition of the brilliant beings of experiential ascension to
the eternal Isle. Never since the times of Grandfanda have the
supernaphim been able fully to accommodate the spirit of worship
on Paradise. Always is there an excess of worshipfulness as
gauged by the preparation therefor. And this is because
personalities of inherent perfection never can fully appreciate
the tremendous reactions of the spiritual emotions of beings who
have slowly and laboriously made their way upward to Paradise
glory from the depths of the spiritual darkness of the lower
worlds of time and space. When such angels and mortals of time
attain the presence of the Powers of Paradise, there occurs the
expression of the accumulated emotions of the ages, a spectacle
astounding to the angels of Paradise and productive of the
supreme joy of divine satisfaction in the Paradise Deities.
27:7.7 Sometimes all Paradise becomes engulfed
in a dominating tide of spiritual and worshipful expression.
Often the conductors of worship cannot control such phenomena
until the appearance of the threefold fluctuation of the light
of the Deity abode, signifying that the divine heart of the Gods
has been fully and completely satisfied by the sincere worship
of the residents of Paradise, the perfect citizens of glory and
the ascendant creatures of time. What a triumph of technique!
What a fruition of the eternal plan and purpose of the Gods that
the intelligent love of the creature child should give full
satisfaction to the infinite love of the Creator Father!
27:7.8 After the attainment of the supreme
satisfaction of the fullness of worship, you are qualified for
admission to the Corps of the Finality. The ascendant career is
well-nigh finished, and the seventh jubilee prepares for
celebration. The first jubilee marked the mortal agreement with
the Thought Adjuster when the purpose to survive was sealed; the
second was the awakening in the morontia life; the third was the
fusion with the Thought Adjuster; the fourth was the awakening
in Havona; the fifth celebrated the finding of the Universal
Father; and the sixth jubilee was the occasion of the Paradise
awakening from the final transit slumber of time. The seventh
jubilee marks entrance into the mortal finaliter corps and the
beginning of the eternity service. The attainment of the seventh
stage of spirit realization by a finaliter will probably
signalize the celebration of the first of the jubilees of
eternity.
27:7.9 And thus ends the story of the Paradise
supernaphim, the highest order of all the ministering spirits,
those beings who, as a universal class, ever attend you from the
world of your origin until you are finally bidden farewell by
the conductors of worship as you take the Trinity oath of
eternity and are mustered into the Mortal Corps of the Finality.
27:7.10 The endless service of the Paradise
Trinity is about to begin; and now the finaliter is face to face
with the challenge of God the Ultimate.
27:7.11
Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.
