The Urantia Book
PAPER 39
THE SERAPHIC HOSTS
Presented by a Melchizedek acting by request of the Chief of the
Seraphic Hosts of Nebadon.
39:0.1 AS FAR as we are cognizant, the
Infinite Spirit, as personalized on the local universe
headquarters, intends to produce uniformly perfect seraphim, but
for some unknown reason these seraphic offspring are very
diverse. This diversity may be a result of the unknown
interposition of evolving experiential Deity; if so, we cannot
prove it. But we do observe that, when seraphim have been
subjected to educational tests and training discipline, they
unfailingly and distinctly classify into the following seven
groups:
1. Supreme Seraphim.
2. Superior Seraphim.
3. Supervisor Seraphim.
4. Administrator Seraphim.
5. Planetary Helpers.
6. Transition Ministers.
7. Seraphim of the Future.
39:0.2 To say that any one seraphim is
inferior to an angel of any other group would hardly be true.
Nevertheless every angel is at first service-limited to the
group of original and inherent classification. My seraphic
associate in the preparation of this statement, Manotia, is a
supreme seraphim and onetime functioned only as a supreme
seraphim. By application and devoted service she has, one by
one, achieved all seven of the seraphic services, having
functioned in well-nigh every avenue of activity open to a
seraphim, and now holds the commission of associate chief of
seraphim on Urantia.
39:0.3 Human beings sometimes find it hard to
understand that a created capacity for higher-level ministry
does not necessarily imply ability to function on relatively
lower service levels. Man begins life as a helpless infant;
hence every mortal attainment must embrace all experiential
prerequisites; seraphim have no such preadult life -- no
childhood. They are, however, experiential creatures, and by
experience and through additional education they can augment
their divine and inherent endowment of ability by the
experiential acquirement of functional skill in one or more of
the seraphic services.
39:0.4 After being commissioned, seraphim are
assigned to the reserves of their inherent group. Those of
planetary and administrator status often serve for long periods
as originally classified, but the higher the inherent function
level, the more persistently do the angelic ministers seek
assignment to the lower orders of universe service. Especially
do they desire assignment to the reserves of the planetary
helpers, and if successful they enroll in the celestial schools
attached to the headquarters of the Planetary Prince of some
evolutionary world. Here they begin the study of the languages,
history, and local habits of the races of mankind. Seraphim must
acquire knowledge and gain experience much as do human beings.
They are not far removed from you in certain personality
attributes. And they all crave to start at the bottom, on the
lowest possible level of ministry; thus may they hope to achieve
the highest possible level of experiential destiny.
1. SUPREME SERAPHIM
39:1.1 These seraphim are the highest of the
seven revealed orders of local universe angels. They function in
seven groups, each of which is closely associated with the
angelic ministers of the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
39:1.2 1. Son-Spirit Ministers. The
first group of the supreme seraphim are assigned to the service
of the high Sons and Spirit-origin beings resident and
functioning in the local universe. This group of angelic
ministers also serve the Universe Son and the Universe Spirit
and are closely affiliated with the intelligence corps of the
Bright and Morning Star, the universe chief executive of the
united wills of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit.
39:1.3 Being of assignment to the high Sons
and Spirits, these seraphim are naturally associated with the
far-flung services of the Paradise Avonals, the divine offspring
of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. The Paradise Avonals
are always attended on all magisterial and bestowal missions by
this high and experienced order of seraphim, who are at such
times devoted to organizing and administering the special work
connected with the termination of one planetary dispensation and
the inauguration of a new age. But they are not concerned in the
work of adjudication which might be incidental to such a change
in dispensations.
39:1.4 Bestowal Attendants. Paradise
Avonals, but not Creator Sons, when on a bestowal mission are
always accompanied by a corps of 144 bestowal attendants. These
144 angels are the chiefs of all other Son-Spirit ministers who
may be associated with a bestowal mission. There might possibly
be legions of angels subject to the command of an incarnated Son
of God on a planetary bestowal, but all these seraphim would be
organized and directed by the 144 bestowal attendants. Higher
orders of angels, supernaphim and seconaphim, might also form a
part of the attending host, and though their missions are
distinct from those of the seraphim, all these activities would
be co-ordinated by the bestowal attendants.
39:1.5 These bestowal attendants are
completion seraphim; they have all traversed the circles of
Seraphington and have attained the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
And they have been further especially trained to meet the
difficulties and to cope with the emergencies associated with
the bestowals of the Sons of God for the advancement of the
children of time. Such seraphim have all achieved Paradise and
the personal embrace of the Second Source and Center, the
Eternal Son.
39:1.6 Seraphim equally crave assignment to
the missions of the incarnated Sons and attachment as destiny
guardians to the mortals of the realms; the latter is the surest
seraphic passport to Paradise, while the bestowal attendants
have achieved the highest local universe service of the
completion seraphim of Paradise attainment.
39:1.7 2. Court Advisers. These are the
seraphic advisers and helpers attached to all orders of
adjudication, from the conciliators up to the highest tribunals
of the realm. It is not the purpose of such tribunals to
determine punitive sentences but rather to adjudicate honest
differences of opinion and to decree the everlasting survival of
ascending mortals. Herein lies the duty of the court advisers:
to see that all charges against mortal creatures are stated in
justice and adjudicated in mercy. In this work they are closely
associated with the High Commissioners, Spirit-fused ascendant
mortals serving in the local universe.
39:1.8 The seraphic court advisers serve
extensively as defenders of mortals. Not that there ever exists
any disposition to be unfair to the lowly creatures of the
realms, but while justice demands the adjudication of every
default in the climb towards divine perfection, mercy requires
that every such misstep be fairly adjudged in accordance with
the creature nature and the divine purpose. These angels are the
exponents and exemplification of the element of mercy inherent
in divine justice -- of fairness based on the knowledge of the
underlying facts of personal motives and racial tendencies.
39:1.9 This order of angels serves from the
councils of the Planetary Princes to the highest tribunals of
the local universe, while their associates of the Seraphic Corps
of Completion function in the higher realms of Orvonton, even to
the courts of the Ancients of Days on Uversa.
39:1.10 3. Universe Orientators. These
are the true friends and postgraduate counselors of all those
ascending creatures who are pausing for the last time on
Salvington, in their universe of origin, as they stand on the
brink of the spirit adventure stretching out before them in the
vast superuniverse of Orvonton. And at such a time many an
ascender has a feeling which mortals could understand only by
comparison with the human emotion of nostalgia. Behind lie the
realms of achievement, realms grown familiar by long service and
morontia attainment; ahead lies the challenging mystery of a
greater and vaster universe.
39:1.11 It is the task of the universe
orientators to facilitate the passage of the ascending pilgrims
from the attained to the unattained level of universe service,
to help these pilgrims in making those kaleidoscopic adjustments
in the comprehension of meanings and values inherent in the
realization that a first-stage spirit being stands, not at the
end and climax of the local universe morontia ascent, but rather
at the very bottom of the long ladder of spiritual ascent to the
Universal Father on Paradise.
39:1.12 Many of the Seraphington graduates,
members of the Seraphic Corps of Completion who are associated
with these seraphim, engage in extensive teaching in certain
Salvington schools concerned with the preparation of the
creatures of Nebadon for the relationships of the next universe
age.
39:1.13 4. The Teaching Counselors.
These angels are the invaluable assistants of the spiritual
teaching corps of the local universe. Teaching counselors are
secretaries to all orders of teachers, from the Melchizedeks and
the Trinity Teacher Sons down to the morontia mortals who are
assigned as helpers to those of their kind who are just behind
them in the scale of ascendant life. You will first see these
associate teaching seraphim on some one of the seven mansion
worlds surrounding Jerusem.
39:1.14 These seraphim become associates of
the division chiefs of the numerous educational and training
institutions of the local universes, and they are attached in
large numbers to the faculties of the seven training worlds of
the local systems and of the seventy educational spheres of the
constellations. These ministrations extend on down to the
individual worlds. Even the true and consecrated teachers of
time are assisted, and often attended, by these counselors of
the supreme seraphim.
39:1.15 The fourth creature bestowal of the
Creator Son was in the likeness of a teaching counselor of the
supreme seraphim of Nebadon.
39:1.16 5. Directors of Assignment. A
body of 144 supreme seraphim is elected from time to time by the
angels serving on the evolutionary and on the architectural
spheres of creature habitation. This is the highest angelic
council on any sphere, and it co-ordinates the self-directed
phases of seraphic service and assignment. These angels preside
over all seraphic assemblies pertaining to the line of duty or
the call to worship.
39:1.17 6. The Recorders. These are the
official recorders for the supreme seraphim. Many of these high
angels were born with their gifts fully developed; others have
qualified for their positions of trust and responsibility by
diligent application to study and faithful performance of
similar duties while attached to lower or less responsible
orders.
39:1.18 7. Unattached Ministers. Large
numbers of unattached seraphim of the supreme order are
self-directed servers on the architectural spheres and on the
inhabited planets. Such ministers voluntarily meet the
differential of demand for the service of the supreme seraphim,
thus constituting the general reserve of this order.
2. SUPERIOR SERAPHIM
39:2.1 Superior seraphim receive their name,
not because they are in any sense qualitatively superior to
other orders of angels, but because they are in charge of the
higher activities of a local universe. Very many of the first
two groups of this seraphic corps are attainment seraphim,
angels who have served in all phases of training and have
returned to a glorified assignment as directors of their kind in
the spheres of their earlier activities. Being a young universe,
Nebadon does not have many of this order.
39:2.2 The superior seraphim function in the
following seven groups:
39:2.3 1. The Intelligence Corps. These
seraphim belong to the personal staff of Gabriel, the Bright and
Morning Star. They range the local universe gathering the
information of the realms for his guidance in the councils of
Nebadon. They are the intelligence corps of the mighty hosts
over which Gabriel presides as vicegerent of the Master Son.
These seraphim are not directly affiliated with either the
systems or the constellations, and their information pours in
direct to Salvington upon a continuous, direct, and independent
circuit.
39:2.4 The intelligence corps of the various
local universes can and do intercommunicate but only within a
given superuniverse. There is a differential of energy which
effectively segregates the business and transactions of the
various supergovernments. One superuniverse can ordinarily
communicate with another superuniverse only through the
provisions and facilities of the Paradise clearinghouse.
39:2.5 2. The Voice of Mercy. Mercy is
the keynote of seraphic service and angelic ministry. It is
therefore fitting that there should be a corps of angels who, in
a special manner, portray mercy. These seraphim are the real
mercy ministers of the local universes. They are the inspired
leaders who foster the higher impulses and holier emotions of
men and angels. The directors of these legions are now always
completion seraphim who are also graduate guardians of mortal
destiny; that is, each angelic pair has guided at least one soul
of animal origin during the life in the flesh and has
subsequently traversed the circles of Seraphington and has been
mustered into the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
39:2.6 3. Spirit Co-ordinators. The
third group of superior seraphim are based on Salvington but
function in the local universe anywhere they can be of fruitful
service. While their tasks are essentially spiritual and
therefore beyond the real understanding of human minds, you will
perhaps grasp something of their ministry to mortals if it is
explained that these angels are intrusted with the task of
preparing the ascendant sojourners on Salvington for their last
transition in the local universe -- from the highest morontia
level to the status of newborn spirit beings. As the mind
planners on the mansion worlds help the surviving creature to
adjust to, and make effective use of, the potentials of morontia
mind, so do these seraphim instruct the morontia graduates on
Salvington regarding the newly attained capacities of the mind
of the spirit. And they serve the ascendant mortals in many
other ways.
39:2.7 4. Assistant Teachers. The
assistant teachers are the helpers and associates of their
fellow seraphim, the teaching counselors. They are also
individually connected with the extensive educational
enterprises of the local universe, especially with the sevenfold
scheme of training operative on the mansion worlds of the local
systems. A marvelous corps of this order of seraphim functions
on Urantia for the purpose of fostering and furthering the cause
of truth and righteousness.
39:2.8 5. The Transporters. All groups
of ministering spirits have their transport corps, angelic
orders dedicated to the ministry of transporting those
personalities who are unable, of themselves, to journey from one
sphere to another. The fifth group of the superior seraphim are
headquartered on Salvington and serve as space traversers to and
from the headquarters of the local universe. Like other
subdivisions of the superior seraphim, some were created as such
while others have risen from the lower or less endowed groups.
39:2.9 The "energy range" of seraphim is
wholly adequate for local universe and even for superuniverse
requirements, but they could never withstand the energy demands
entailed by such a long journey as that from Uversa to Havona.
Such an exhaustive journey requires the special powers of a
primary seconaphim of transport endowments. Transporters take on
energy for flight while in transit and recuperate personal power
at the end of the journey.
39:2.10 Even on Salvington ascending mortals
do not possess personal transit forms. Ascenders must depend
upon seraphic transport in advancing from world to world until
after the last rest of sleep on the inner circle of Havona and
the eternal awakening on Paradise. Subsequently you will not be
dependent on angels for transport from universe to universe.
39:2.11 The process of being enseraphimed is
not unlike the experience of death or sleep except that there is
an automatic time element in the transit slumber. You are
consciously unconscious during seraphic rest. But the Thought
Adjuster is wholly and fully conscious, in fact, exceptionally
efficient since you are unable to oppose, resist, or otherwise
hinder creative and transforming work.
39:2.12 When enseraphimed, you go to sleep for
a specified time, and you will awake at the designated moment.
The length of a journey when in transit sleep is immaterial. You
are not directly aware of the passing of time. It is as if you
went to sleep on a transport vehicle in one city and, after
resting in peaceful slumber all night, awakened in another and
distant metropolis. You journeyed while you slumbered. And so
you take flight through space, enseraphimed, while you rest --
sleep. The transit sleep is induced by the liaison between the
Adjusters and the seraphic transporters.
39:2.13 The angels cannot transport combustion
bodies -- flesh and blood -- such as you now have, but they can
transport all others, from the lowest morontia to the higher
spirit forms. They do not function in the event of natural
death. When you finish your earthly career, your body remains on
this planet. Your Thought Adjuster proceeds to the bosom of the
Father, and these angels are not directly concerned in your
subsequent personality reassembly on the identification mansion
world. There your new body is a morontia form, one that can
enseraphim. You "sow a mortal body" in the grave; you "reap a
morontia form" on the mansion worlds.
39:2.14 6. The Recorders. These
personalities are especially concerned with the reception,
filing, and redispatch of the records of Salvington and its
associated worlds. They also serve as special recorders for
resident groups of superuniverse and higher personalities and as
clerks of the courts of Salvington and secretaries to the rulers
thereof.
39:2.15 Broadcasters -- receivers and
dispatchers -- are a specialized subdivision of the seraphic
recorders, being concerned with the dispatch of records and with
the dissemination of essential information. Their work is of a
high order, being so multicircuited that 144,000 messages can
simultaneously traverse the same lines of energy. They adapt the
higher ideographic techniques of the superaphic chief recorders
and with these common symbols maintain reciprocal contact with
both the intelligence co-ordinators of the tertiary supernaphim
and the glorified intelligence co-ordinators of the Seraphic
Corps of Completion.
39:2.16 Seraphic recorders of the superior
order thus effect a close liaison with the intelligence corps of
their own order and with all subordinate recorders, while the
broadcasts enable them to maintain constant communication with
the higher recorders of the superuniverse and, through this
channel, with the recorders of Havona and the custodians of
knowledge on Paradise. Many of the superior order of recorders
are seraphim ascended from similar duties in lower sections of
the universe.
39:2.17 7. The Reserves. Large reserves
of all types of the superior seraphim are held on Salvington,
instantly available for dispatch to the farthermost worlds of
Nebadon as they are requisitioned by the directors of assignment
or upon the request of the universe administrators. The reserves
of superior seraphim also furnish messenger aids upon
requisition by the chief of the Brilliant Evening Stars, who is
intrusted with the custody and dispatch of all personal
communications. A local universe is fully provided with adequate
means of intercommunication, but there is always a residue of
messages which requires dispatch by personal messengers.
39:2.18 The basic reserves for the entire
local universe are held on the seraphic worlds of Salvington.
This corps includes all types of all groups of angels.
3. SUPERVISOR SERAPHIM
39:3.1 This versatile order of universe angels
is assigned to the exclusive service of the constellations.
These able ministers make their headquarters on the
constellation capitals but function throughout all Nebadon in
the interests of their assigned realms.
39:3.2 1. Supervising Assistants. The
first order of the supervising seraphim are assigned to the
collective work of the Constellation Fathers, and they are the
ever-efficient helpers of the Most Highs. These seraphim are
primarily concerned with the unification and stabilization of a
whole constellation.
39:3.3 2. Law Forecasters. The
intellectual foundation of justice is law, and in a local
universe law originates in the legislative assemblies of the
constellations. These deliberative bodies codify and formally
promulgate the basic laws of Nebadon, laws designed to afford
the greatest possible co-ordination of a whole constellation
consistent with the fixed policy of noninfringement of the moral
free will of personal creatures. It is the duty of the second
order of supervisor seraphim to place before the constellation
lawmakers a forecast of how any proposed enactment would affect
the lives of freewill creatures. This service they are well
qualified to perform by virtue of long experience in the local
systems and on the inhabited worlds. These seraphim seek no
special favors for one group or another, but they do appear
before the celestial lawmakers to speak for those who cannot be
present to speak for themselves. Even mortal man may contribute
to the evolution of universe law, for these very seraphim do
faithfully and fully portray, not necessarily man's transient
and conscious desires, but rather the true longings of the inner
man, the evolving morontia soul of the material mortal on the
worlds of space.
39:3.4 3. Social Architects. From the
individual planets up through the morontia training worlds,
these seraphim labor to enhance all sincere social contacts and
to further the social evolution of universe creatures. These are
the angels who seek to divest the associations of intelligent
beings of all artificiality while endeavoring to facilitate the
interassociation of will creatures on a basis of real
self-understanding and genuine mutual appreciation.
39:3.5 Social architects do everything within
their province and power to bring together suitable individuals
that they may constitute efficient and agreeable working groups
on earth; and sometimes such groups have found themselves
reassociated on the mansion worlds for continued fruitful
service. But not always do these seraphim attain their ends; not
always are they able to bring together those who would form the
most ideal group to achieve a given purpose or to accomplish a
certain task; under these conditions they must utilize the best
of the material available.
39:3.6 These angels continue their ministry on
the mansion and higher morontia worlds. They are concerned with
any undertaking having to do with progress on the morontia
worlds and which concerns three or more persons. Two beings are
regarded as operating on the mating, complemental, or
partnership basis, but when three or more are grouped for
service, they constitute a social problem and therefore fall
within the jurisdiction of the social architects. These
efficient seraphim are organized in seventy divisions on
Edentia, and these divisions minister on the seventy morontia
progress worlds encircling the headquarters sphere.
39:3.7 4. Ethical Sensitizers. It is
the mission of these seraphim to foster and to promote the
growth of creature appreciation of the morality of interpersonal
relationships, for such is the seed and secret of the continued
and purposeful growth of society and government, human or
superhuman. These enhancers of ethical appreciation function
anywhere and everywhere they may be of service, as volunteer
counselors to the planetary rulers and as exchange teachers on
the system training worlds. You will not, however, come under
their full guidance until you reach the brotherhood schools on
Edentia, where they will quicken your appreciation of those very
truths of fraternity which you will even then be so earnestly
exploring by the actual experience of living with the univitatia
in the social laboratories of Edentia, the seventy satellites of
the Norlatiadek capital.
39:3.8 5. The Transporters. The fifth
group of supervisor seraphim operate as personality
transporters, carrying beings to and from the headquarters of
the constellations. Such transport seraphim, while in flight
from one sphere to another, are fully conscious of their
velocity, direction, and astronomic whereabouts. They are not
traversing space as would an inanimate projectile. They may pass
near one another during space flight without the least danger of
collision. They are fully able to vary speed of progression and
to alter direction of flight, even to change destinations if
their directors should so instruct them at any space junction of
the universe intelligence circuits.
39:3.9 These transit personalities are so
organized that they can simultaneously utilize all three of the
universally distributed lines of energy, each having a clear
space velocity of 186,280 miles per second. These transporters
are thus able to superimpose velocity of energy upon velocity of
power until they attain an average speed on their long journeys
varying anywhere from 555,000 to almost 559,000 of your miles
per second of your time. The velocity is affected by the mass
and proximity of neighboring matter and by the strength and
direction of the near-by main circuits of universe power. There
are numerous types of beings, similar to the seraphim, who are
able to traverse space, and who also are able to transport other
beings who have been properly prepared.
39:3.10 6. The Recorders. The sixth
order of supervising seraphim act as the special recorders of
constellation affairs. A large and efficient corps functions on
Edentia, the headquarters of the constellation of Norlatiadek,
to which your system and planet belong.
39:3.11 7. The Reserves. General
reserves of the supervisor seraphim are held on the headquarters
of the constellations. Such angelic reservists are in no sense
inactive; many serve as messenger aids to the constellation
rulers; others are attached to the Salvington reserves of
unassigned Vorondadeks; still others may be attached to
Vorondadek Sons on special assignment, such as the Vorondadek
observer, and sometimes Most High regent, of Urantia.
4. ADMINISTRATOR SERAPHIM
39:4.1 The fourth order of seraphim are
assigned to the administrative duties of the local systems. They
are indigenous to the system capitals but are stationed in large
numbers on the mansion and morontia spheres and on the inhabited
worlds. Fourth-order seraphim are by nature endowed with unusual
administrative ability. They are the able assistants of the
directors of the lower divisions of the universe government of a
Creator Son and are mainly occupied with the affairs of the
local systems and their component worlds. They are organized for
service as follows:
39:4.2 1. Administrative Assistants.
These able seraphim are the immediate assistants of a System
Sovereign, a primary Lanonandek Son. They are invaluable aids in
the execution of the intricate details of the executive work of
the system headquarters. They also serve as the personal agents
of the system rulers, journeying back and forth in large numbers
to the various transition worlds and to the inhabited planets,
executing many commissions for the welfare of the system and in
the physical and biologic interests of its inhabited worlds.
39:4.3 These same seraphic administrators are
also attached to the governments of the world rulers, the
Planetary Princes. The majority of planets in a given universe
are under the jurisdiction of a secondary Lanonandek Son, but on
certain worlds, such as Urantia, there has been a miscarriage of
the divine plan. In the event of the defection of a Planetary
Prince, these seraphim become attached to the Melchizedek
receivers and their successors in planetary authority. The
present acting ruler of Urantia is assisted by a corps of one
thousand of this versatile order of seraphim.
39:4.4 2. Justice Guides. These are the
angels who present the summary of evidence concerning the
eternal welfare of men and angels when such matters come up for
adjudication in the tribunals of a system or a planet. They
prepare the statements for all preliminary hearings involving
mortal survival, statements which are subsequently carried with
the records of such cases to the higher tribunals of the
universe and the superuniverse. The defense of all cases of
doubtful survival is prepared by these seraphim, who have a
perfect understanding of all the details of every feature of
every count in the indictments drawn by the administrators of
universe justice.
39:4.5 It is not the mission of these angels
to defeat or to delay justice but rather to insure that unerring
justice is dealt out with generous mercy in fairness to all
creatures. These seraphim often function on the local worlds,
commonly appearing before the referee trios of the conciliating
commissions -- the courts for minor misunderstandings. Many who
at one time served as justice guides in the lower realms later
appear as Voices of Mercy in the higher spheres and on
Salvington.
39:4.6 In the Lucifer rebellion in Satania
very few of the justice guides were lost, but more than one
quarter of the other administrator seraphim and of the lower
orders of seraphic ministers were misled and deluded by the
sophistries of unbridled personal liberty.
39:4.7 3. Interpreters of Cosmic
Citizenship. When ascending mortals have completed the
mansion world training, the first student apprenticeship in the
universe career, they are permitted to enjoy the transient
satisfactions of relative maturity -- citizenship on the system
capital. While the attainment of each ascendant goal is a
factual achievement, in the larger sense such goals are simply
milestones on the long ascending path to Paradise. But however
relative such successes may be, no evolutionary creature is ever
denied the full though transient satisfaction of goal
attainment. Ever and anon there is a pause in the Paradise
ascent, a short breathing spell, during which universe horizons
stand still, creature status is stationary, and the personality
tastes the sweetness of goal fulfillment.
39:4.8 The first of such periods in the career
of a mortal ascender occurs on the capital of a local system.
During this pause you will, as a citizen of Jerusem, attempt to
express in creature life those things which you have acquired
during the eight preceding life experiences -- embracing Urantia
and the seven mansion worlds.
39:4.9 The seraphic interpreters of cosmic
citizenship guide the new citizens of the system capitals and
quicken their appreciation of the responsibilities of universe
government. These seraphim are also closely associated with the
Material Sons in the system administration, while they portray
the responsibility and morality of cosmic citizenship to the
material mortals on the inhabited worlds.
39:4.10 4. Quickeners of Morality. On
the mansion worlds you begin to learn self-government for the
benefit of all concerned. Your mind learns co-operation, learns
how to plan with other and wiser beings. On the system
headquarters the seraphic teachers will further quicken your
appreciation of cosmic morality -- of the interactions of
liberty and loyalty.
39:4.11 What is loyalty? It is the fruit of an
intelligent appreciation of universe brotherhood; one could not
take so much and give nothing. As you ascend the personality
scale, first you learn to be loyal, then to love, then to be
filial, and then may you be free; but not until you are a
finaliter, not until you have attained perfection of loyalty,
can you self-realize finality of liberty.
39:4.12 These seraphim teach the fruitfulness
of patience: That stagnation is certain death, but that
overrapid growth is equally suicidal; that as a drop of water
from a higher level falls to a lower and, flowing onward, passes
ever downward through a succession of short falls, so ever
upward is progress in the morontia and spirit worlds -- and just
as slowly and by just such gradual stages.
39:4.13 To the inhabited worlds the quickeners
of morality portray mortal life as an unbroken chain of many
links. Your short sojourn on Urantia, on this sphere of mortal
infancy, is only a single link, the very first in the long chain
that is to stretch across universes and through the eternal
ages. It is not so much what you learn in this first life; it is
the experience of living this life that is important. Even the
work of this world, paramount though it is, is not nearly so
important as the way in which you do this work. There is no
material reward for righteous living, but there is profound
satisfaction -- consciousness of achievement -- and this
transcends any conceivable material reward.
39:4.14 The keys of the kingdom of heaven are:
sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. All men have
these keys. Men use them -- advance in spirit status -- by
decisions, by more decisions, and by more decisions. The highest
moral choice is the choice of the highest possible value, and
always -- in any sphere, in all of them -- this is to choose to
do the will of God. If man thus chooses, he is great, though he
be the humblest citizen of Jerusem or even the least of mortals
on Urantia.
39:4.15 5. The Transporters. These are
the transport seraphim who function in the local systems. In
Satania, your system, they carry passengers back and forth from
Jerusem and otherwise serve as interplanetary transporters.
Seldom does a day pass in which a transport seraphim of Satania
does not deposit some student visitor or some other traveler of
spirit or semispirit nature on the shores of Urantia. These very
space traversers will sometime carry you to and from the various
worlds of the system headquarters group, and when you have
finished the Jerusem assignment, they will carry you forward to
Edentia. But under no circumstances will they carry you backward
to the world of human origin. A mortal never returns to his
native planet during the dispensation of his temporal existence,
and if he should return during a subsequent dispensation, he
would be escorted by a transport seraphim of the universe
headquarters group.
39:4.16 6. The Recorders. These
seraphim are the keepers of the threefold records of the local
systems. The temple of records on a system capital is a unique
structure, one third material, constructed of luminous metals
and crystals; one third morontial, fabricated of the liaison of
spiritual and material energy but beyond the range of mortal
vision; and one third spiritual. The recorders of this order
preside over and maintain this threefold system of records.
Ascending mortals will at first consult the material archives,
Material Sons and the higher transition beings consult those of
the morontia halls, while seraphim and the higher spirit
personalities of the realm peruse the records of the spirit
section.
39:4.17 7. The Reserves. The reserve
corps of administrator seraphim on Jerusem spend much of their
waiting time in visiting, as spirit companions, with the newly
arrived ascending mortals from the various worlds of the system
-- the accredited graduates of the mansion worlds. One of the
delights of your sojourn on Jerusem will be to talk and visit,
during recess periods, with these much-traveled and
many-experienced seraphim of the waiting reserve corps.
39:4.18 It is just such friendly relationships
as these that so endear a system capital to the ascending
mortals. On Jerusem you will find the first intermingling of
Material Sons, angels, and ascending pilgrims. Here fraternize
beings who are wholly spiritual and semispiritual and
individuals just emerging from material existence. Mortal forms
are there so modified and human ranges of light reaction so
extended that all are able to enjoy mutual recognition and
sympathetic personality understanding.
5. PLANETARY HELPERS
39:5.1 These seraphim maintain headquarters on
the system capitals and, though closely associated with the
resident Adamic citizens, are primarily assigned to the service
of the Planetary Adams, the biologic or physical uplifters of
the material races on the evolutionary worlds. The ministering
work of angels becomes of increasing interest as it nears the
inhabited worlds, as it nears the actual problems faced by the
men and women of time who are preparing themselves for the
attempt to attain the goal of eternity.
39:5.2 On Urantia the majority of the
planetary helpers were removed upon the collapse of the Adamic
regime, and the seraphic supervision of your world devolved to a
greater extent upon the administrators, the transition
ministers, and the guardians of destiny. But these seraphic aids
of your defaulting Material Sons still serve Urantia in the
following groups:
39:5.3 1. The Voices of the Garden.
When the planetary course of human evolution is attaining its
highest biologic level, there always appear the Material Sons
and Daughters, the Adams and Eves, to augment the further
evolution of the races by an actual contribution of their
superior life plasm. The planetary headquarters of such an Adam
and Eve is usually denominated the Garden of Eden, and their
personal seraphim are often known as the "voices of the Garden."
These seraphim are of invaluable service to the Planetary Adams
in all their projects for the physical and intellectual
upstepping of the evolutionary races. After the Adamic default
on Urantia, some of these seraphim were left on the planet and
were assigned to Adam's successors in authority.
39:5.4 2. The Spirits of Brotherhood.
It should be apparent that, when an Adam and Eve arrive on an
evolutionary world, the task of achieving racial harmony and
social co-operation among its diverse races is one of
considerable proportions. Seldom do these races of different
colors and varied natures take kindly to the plan of human
brotherhood. These primitive men only come to realize the wisdom
of peaceful interassociation as a result of ripened human
experience and through the faithful ministry of the seraphic
spirits of brotherhood. Without the work of these seraphim the
efforts of the Material Sons to harmonize and advance the races
of an evolving world would be greatly delayed. And had your Adam
adhered to the original plan for the advancement of Urantia, by
this time these spirits of brotherhood would have worked
unbelievable transformations in the human race. In view of the
Adamic default, it is indeed remarkable that these seraphic
orders have been able to foster and bring to realization even as
much of brotherhood as you now have on Urantia.
39:5.5 3. The Souls of Peace. The early
millenniums of the upward strivings of evolutionary men are
marked by many a struggle. Peace is not the natural state of the
material realms. The worlds first realize "peace on earth and
good will among men" through the ministry of the seraphic souls
of peace. Although these angels were largely thwarted in their
early efforts on Urantia, Vevona, chief of the souls of peace in
Adam's day, was left on Urantia and is now attached to the staff
of the resident governor general. And it was this same Vevona
who, when Michael was born, heralded to the worlds, as the
leader of the angelic host, "Glory to God in Havona and on earth
peace and good will among men."
39:5.6 In the more advanced epochs of
planetary evolution these seraphim are instrumental in
supplanting the atonement idea by the concept of divine
attunement as a philosophy of mortal survival.
39:5.7 4. The Spirits of Trust.
Suspicion is the inherent reaction of primitive men; the
survival struggles of the early ages do not naturally breed
trust. Trust is a new human acquisition brought about by the
ministry of these planetary seraphim of the Adamic regime. It is
their mission to inculcate trust into the minds of evolving men.
The Gods are very trustful; the Universal Father is willing
freely to trust himself -- the Adjuster -- to man's association.
39:5.8 This entire group of seraphim was
transferred to the new regime after the Adamic miscarriage, and
they have ever since continued their labors on Urantia. And they
have not been wholly unsuccessful since a civilization is now
evolving which embodies much of their ideals of confidence and
trust.
39:5.9 In the more advanced planetary ages
these seraphim enhance man's appreciation of the truth that
uncertainty is the secret of contented continuity. They help the
mortal philosophers to realize that, when ignorance is essential
to success, it would be a colossal blunder for the creature to
know the future. They heighten man's taste for the sweetness of
uncertainty, for the romance and charm of the indefinite and
unknown future.
39:5.10 5. The Transporters. The
planetary transporters serve the individual worlds. The majority
of enseraphimed beings brought to this planet are in transit;
they merely stop over; they are in custody of their own special
seraphic transporters; but there are a large number of such
seraphim stationed on Urantia. These are the transport
personalities operating from the local planets, as from Urantia
to Jerusem.
39:5.11 Your conventional idea of angels has
been derived in the following way: During moments just prior to
physical death a reflective phenomenon sometimes occurs in the
human mind, and this dimming consciousness seems to visualize
something of the form of the attending angel, and this is
immediately translated into terms of the habitual concept of
angels held in that individual's mind.
39:5.12 The erroneous idea that angels possess
wings is not wholly due to olden notions that they must have
wings to fly through the air. Human beings have sometimes been
permitted to observe seraphim that were being prepared for
transport service, and the traditions of these experiences have
largely determined the Urantian concept of angels. In observing
a transport seraphim being made ready to receive a passenger for
interplanetary transit, there may be seen what are apparently
double sets of wings extending from the head to the foot of the
angel. In reality these wings are energy insulators -- friction
shields.
39:5.13 When celestial beings are to be
enseraphimed for transfer from one world to another, they are
brought to the headquarters of the sphere and, after due
registry, are inducted into the transit sleep. Meantime, the
transport seraphim moves into a horizontal position immediately
above the universe energy pole of the planet. While the energy
shields are wide open, the sleeping personality is skillfully
deposited, by the officiating seraphic assistants, directly on
top of the transport angel. Then both the upper and lower pairs
of shields are carefully closed and adjusted.
39:5.14 And now, under the influence of the
transformers and the transmitters, a strange metamorphosis
begins as the seraphim is made ready to swing into the energy
currents of the universe circuits. To outward appearance the
seraphim grows pointed at both extremities and becomes so
enshrouded in a queer light of amber hue that very soon it is
impossible to distinguish the enseraphimed personality. When all
is in readiness for departure, the chief of transport makes the
proper inspection of the carriage of life, carries out the
routine tests to ascertain whether or not the angel is properly
encircuited, and then announces that the traveler is properly
enseraphimed, that the energies are adjusted, that the angel is
insulated, and that everything is in readiness for the departing
flash. The mechanical controllers, two of them, next take their
positions. By this time the transport seraphim has become an
almost transparent, vibrating, torpedo-shaped outline of
glistening luminosity. Now the transport dispatcher of the realm
summons the auxiliary batteries of the living energy
transmitters, usually one thousand in number; as he announces
the destination of the transport, he reaches out and touches the
near point of the seraphic carriage, which shoots forward with
lightninglike speed, leaving a trail of celestial luminosity as
far as the planetary atmospheric investment extends. In less
than ten minutes the marvelous spectacle will be lost even to
reinforced seraphic vision.
39:5.15 While planetary space reports are
received at noon at the meridian of the designated spiritual
headquarters, the transporters are dispatched from this same
place at midnight. That is the most favorable time for departure
and is the standard hour when not otherwise specified.
39:5.16 6. The Recorders. These are the
custodians of the major affairs of the planet as it functions as
a part of the system, and as it is related to, and concerned in,
the universe government. They function in the recording of
planetary affairs but are not concerned with matters of
individual life and existence.
39:5.17 7. The Reserves. The Satania
reserve corps of the planetary seraphim is maintained on Jerusem
in close association with the reserves of the Material Sons.
These abundant reserves repletely provide for every phase of the
manifold activities of this seraphic order. These angels are
also the personal message bearers of the local systems. They
serve transition mortals, angels, and the Material Sons as well
as others domiciled on the system headquarters. While Urantia
is, at present, outside the spiritual circuits of Satania and
Norlatiadek, you are otherwise in intimate touch with
interplanetary affairs, for these messengers from Jerusem
frequently come to this world as to all the other spheres of the
system.
6. TRANSITION MINISTERS
39:6.1 As their name might suggest, seraphim
of transitional ministry serve wherever they can contribute to
creature transition from the material to the spiritual estate.
These angels serve from the inhabited worlds to the system
capitals, but those in Satania at present direct their greatest
efforts toward the education of the surviving mortals on the
seven mansion worlds. This ministry is diversified in accordance
with the following seven orders of assignment:
1. Seraphic Evangels.
2. Racial Interpreters.
3. Mind Planners.
4. Morontia Counselors.
5. Technicians.
6. Recorder-Teachers.
7. Ministering Reserves.
39:6.2 More about these seraphic ministers to
transitional ascenders you will learn in connection with the
narratives dealing with the mansion worlds and the morontia
life.
7. SERAPHIM OF THE FUTURE
39:7.1 These angels do not minister
extensively except in older realms and on the more advanced
planets of Nebadon. Large numbers of them are held in reserve on
the seraphic worlds near Salvington, where they are engaged in
pursuits relevant to the sometime dawning of the age of light
and life in Nebadon. These seraphim do function in connection
with the ascendant-mortal career but minister almost exclusively
to those mortals who survive by some one of the modified orders
of ascension.
39:7.2 Inasmuch as these angels are not now
directly concerned with either Urantia or Urantians, it is
deemed best to withhold the description of their fascinating
activities.
8. SERAPHIC DESTINY
39:8.1 Seraphim are of origin in the local
universes, and in these very realms of their nativity some
achieve service destiny. With the help and counsel of the senior
archangels some seraphim may be elevated to the exalted duties
of Brilliant Evening Stars, while others attain the status and
service of the unrevealed co-ordinates of the Evening Stars.
Still other adventures in local universe destiny may be
attempted, but Seraphington ever remains the eternal goal of all
angels. Seraphington is the angelic threshold to Paradise and
Deity attainment, the transition sphere from the ministry of
time to the exalted service of eternity.
39:8.2 Seraphim may attain Paradise in scores
-- hundreds -- of ways, but the most important as elaborated in
these narratives are the following:
39:8.3 1. To gain admission to the Paradise
seraphic abode in a personal capacity by achieving perfection of
specialized service as a celestial artisan, a Technical Adviser,
or a Celestial Recorder. To become a Paradise Companion and,
having thus attained the center of all things, perhaps then to
become an eternal minister and adviser to the seraphic orders
and others.
39:8.4 2. To be summoned to Seraphington.
Under certain conditions seraphim are commanded on high; in
other circumstances angels sometimes achieve Paradise in a much
shorter time than mortals. But no matter how fitted any seraphic
pair may be, they cannot initiate departure for Seraphington or
elsewhere. None but successful destiny guardians can be sure of
proceeding to Paradise by a progressive path of evolutionary
ascent. All others must patiently await the arrival of the
Paradise messengers of the tertiary supernaphim who come with
the summons commanding them to appear on high.
39:8.5 3. To attain Paradise by the
evolutionary mortal technique. The supreme choice of seraphim in
the career of time is the post of guardian angel in order that
they may attain the career of finality and be qualified for
assignment to the eternal spheres of seraphic service. Such
personal guides of the children of time are called guardians of
destiny, signifying that they guard mortal creatures in the path
of divine destiny, and that in so doing they are determining
their own high destiny.
39:8.6 Guardians of destiny are drawn from the
ranks of the more experienced angelic personalities of all
orders of seraphim who have qualified for this service. All
surviving mortals of Adjuster-fusion destiny have temporary
guardians assigned, and these associates may become permanently
attached when mortal survivors attain the requisite intellectual
and spiritual development. Before mortal ascenders leave the
mansion worlds, they all have permanent seraphic associates.
This group of ministering spirits is discussed in connection
with the Urantia narratives.
39:8.7 It is not possible for angels to attain
God from the human level of origin, for they are created a
"little higher than you"; but it has been wisely arranged that,
while they cannot possibly start up from the very bottom, the
spiritual lowlands of mortal existence, they may go down to
those who do start from the bottom and pilot such creatures,
step by step, world by world, to the portals of Havona. When
mortal ascenders leave Uversa to begin the circles of Havona,
those guardians of attachment subsequent to the life in the
flesh will bid their pilgrim associates a temporary farewell
while they journey to Seraphington, the angelic destination of
the grand universe. Here will these guardians attempt, and
undoubtedly achieve, the seven circles of seraphic light.
39:8.8 Many, but not all, of those seraphim
assigned as destiny guardians during the material life accompany
their mortal associates through the Havona circles, and certain
other seraphim pass through the circuits of the central universe
in a way that is wholly different from the mortal ascent. But
irrespective of the route of ascent, all evolutionary seraphim
traverse Seraphington, and the majority pass through this
experience instead of the Havona circuits.
39:8.9 Seraphington is the destiny sphere for
angels, and their attainment of this world is quite different
from the experiences of the mortal pilgrims on Ascendington.
Angels are not absolutely sure of their eternal future until
they have attained Seraphington. No angel attaining Seraphington
has ever been known to go astray; sin will never find response
in the heart of a seraphim of completion.
39:8.10 The graduates of Seraphington are
variously assigned: Destiny guardians of Havona-circle
experience usually enter the Mortal Finaliter Corps. Other
guardians, having passed their Havona separation tests,
frequently rejoin their mortal associates on Paradise, and some
become the everlasting associates of the mortal finaliters,
while others enter the various nonmortal finaliter corps, and
many are mustered into the Corps of Seraphic Completion.
9. THE CORPS OF SERAPHIC COMPLETION
39:9.1 After attainment of the Father of
spirits and admission to the seraphic service of completion,
angels are sometimes assigned to the ministry of worlds settled
in light and life. They gain attachment to the high trinitized
beings of the universes and to the exalted services of Paradise
and Havona. These seraphim of the local universes have
experientially compensated the differential in divinity
potential formerly setting them apart from the ministering
spirits of the central and superuniverses. Angels of the
Seraphic Corps of Completion serve as associates of the
superuniverse seconaphim and as assistants to the high
Paradise-Havona orders of supernaphim. For such angels the
career of time is finished; henceforth and forever they are the
servants of God, the consorts of divine personalities, and the
peers of the Paradise finaliters.
39:9.2 Large numbers of the completion
seraphim return to their native universes, there to complement
the ministry of divine endowment by the ministry of experiential
perfection. Nebadon is, comparatively speaking, one of the
younger universes and therefore does not have so many of these
returned Seraphington graduates as would be found in an older
realm; nonetheless our local universe is adequately supplied
with the completion seraphim, for it is significant that the
evolutionary realms disclose increasing need for their services
as they near the status of light and life. Completion seraphim
now serve more extensively with the supreme orders of seraphim,
but some serve with each of the other angelic orders. Even your
world enjoys the extensive ministry of twelve specialized groups
of the Seraphic Corps of Completion; these master seraphim of
planetary supervision accompany each newly commissioned
Planetary Prince to the inhabited worlds.
39:9.3 Many fascinating avenues of ministry
are open to the completion seraphim, but just as they all craved
assignment as destiny guardians in the pre-Paradise days, so in
the post-Paradise experience they most desire to serve as
bestowal attendants of the incarnated Paradise Sons. They are
still supremely devoted to that universal plan of starting the
mortal creatures of the evolutionary worlds out upon the long
and enticing journey towards the Paradise goal of divinity and
eternity. Throughout the whole mortal adventure of finding God
and of achieving divine perfection, these spirit ministers of
seraphic completion, together with the faithful ministering
spirits of time, are always and forever your true friends and
unfailing helpers.
39:9.4
Presented by a Melchizedek acting by request of the Chief of the
Seraphic Hosts of Nebadon.
