The Urantia Book
PAPER 56
UNIVERSAL UNITY
Presented by a Mighty Messenger visiting on Urantia, by request
of the Nebadon Revelatory Corps and in collaboration with a
certain Melchizedek, the vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia.
This paper
on Universal Unity is the twenty-fifth of a series of
presentations by various authors, having been sponsored as a
group by a commission of Nebadon personalities numbering twelve
and acting under the direction of Mantutia Melchizedek. We
indited these narratives and put them in the English language,
by a technique authorized by our superiors, in the year 1934 of
Urantia time.
56:0.1 GOD is unity. Deity is universally
co-ordinated. The universe of universes is one vast integrated
mechanism which is absolutely controlled by one infinite mind.
The physical, intellectual, and spiritual domains of universal
creation are divinely correlated. The perfect and imperfect are
truly interrelated, and therefore may the finite evolutionary
creature ascend to Paradise in obedience to the Universal
Father's mandate: "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect."
56:0.2 The diverse levels of creation are all
unified in the plans and administration of the Architects of the
Master Universe. To the circumscribed minds of time-space
mortals the universe may present many problems and situations
which apparently portray disharmony and indicate absence of
effective co-ordination; but those of us who are able to observe
wider stretches of universal phenomena, and who are more
experienced in this art of detecting the basic unity which
underlies creative diversity and of discovering the divine
oneness which overspreads all this functioning of plurality,
better perceive the divine and single purpose exhibited in all
these manifold manifestations of universal creative energy.
1. PHYSICAL CO-ORDINATION
56:1.1 The physical or material creation is
not infinite, but it is perfectly co-ordinated. There are force,
energy, and power, but they are all one in origin. The seven
superuniverses are seemingly dual; the central universe, triune;
but Paradise is of single constitution. And Paradise is the
actual source of all material universes -- past, present, and
future. But this cosmic derivation is an eternity event;
at no time -- past, present, or future -- does either
space or the material cosmos come forth from the nuclear Isle of
Light. As the cosmic source, Paradise functions prior to space
and before time; hence would its derivations seem to be orphaned
in time and space did they not emerge through the Unqualified
Absolute, their ultimate repository in space and their revealer
and regulator in time.
56:1.2 The Unqualified Absolute upholds the
physical universe, while the Deity Absolute motivates the
exquisite overcontrol of all material reality; and both
Absolutes are functionally unified by the Universal Absolute.
This cohesive correlation of the material universe is best
understood by all personalities -- material, morontia, absonite,
or spiritual -- by the observation of the gravity response of
all bona fide material reality to the gravity centering on
nether Paradise.
56:1.3 Gravity unification is universal and
unvarying; pure-energy response is likewise universal and
inescapable. Pure energy (primordial force) and pure spirit are
wholly preresponsive to gravity. These primal forces, inhering
in the Absolutes, are personally controlled by the Universal
Father; hence does all gravity center in the personal presence
of the Paradise Father of pure energy and pure spirit and in his
supermaterial abode.
56:1.4 Pure energy is the ancestor of all
relative, nonspirit functional realities, while pure spirit is
the potential of the divine and directive overcontrol of all
basic energy systems. And these realities, so diverse as
manifested throughout space and as observed in the motions of
time, are both centered in the person of the Paradise Father. In
him they are one -- must be unified -- because God is one. The
Father's personality is absolutely unified.
56:1.5 In the infinite nature of God the
Father there could not possibly exist duality of reality, such
as physical and spiritual; but the instant we look aside from
the infinite levels and absolute reality of the personal values
of the Paradise Father, we observe the existence of these two
realities and recognize that they are fully responsive to his
personal presence; in him all things consist.
56:1.6 The moment you depart from the
unqualified concept of the infinite personality of the Paradise
Father, you must postulate MIND as the inevitable technique of
unifying the ever-widening divergence of these dual universe
manifestations of the original monothetic Creator personality,
the First Source and Center -- the I AM.
2. INTELLECTUAL UNITY
56:2.1 The Thought-Father realizes spirit
expression in the Word-Son and attains reality expansion through
Paradise in the far-flung material universes. The spiritual
expressions of the Eternal Son are correlated with the material
levels of creation by the functions of the Infinite Spirit, by
whose spirit-responsive ministry of mind, and in whose
physical-directive acts of mind, the spiritual realities of
Deity and the material repercussions of Deity are correlated the
one with the other.
56:2.2 Mind is the functional endowment of the
Infinite Spirit, therefore infinite in potential and universal
in bestowal. The primal thought of the Universal Father
eternalizes in dual expression: the Isle of Paradise and his
Deity equal, the spiritual and Eternal Son. Such duality of
eternal reality renders the mind God, the Infinite Spirit,
inevitable. Mind is the indispensable channel of communication
between spiritual and material realities. The material
evolutionary creature can conceive and comprehend the indwelling
spirit only by the ministry of mind.
56:2.3 This infinite and universal mind is
ministered in the universes of time and space as the cosmic
mind; and though extending from the primitive ministry of the
adjutant spirits up to the magnificent mind of the chief
executive of a universe, even this cosmic mind is adequately
unified in the supervision of the Seven Master Spirits, who are
in turn co-ordinated with the Supreme Mind of time and space and
perfectly correlated with the all-embracing mind of the Infinite
Spirit.
3. SPIRITUAL UNIFICATION
56:3.1 As the universal mind gravity is
centered in the Paradise personal presence of the Infinite
Spirit, so does the universal spirit gravity center in the
Paradise personal presence of the Eternal Son. The Universal
Father is one, but to time-space he is revealed in the dual
phenomena of pure energy and pure spirit.
56:3.2 Paradise spirit realities are likewise
one, but in all time-space situations and relations this single
spirit is revealed in the dual phenomena of the spirit
personalities and emanations of the Eternal Son and the spirit
personalities and influences of the Infinite Spirit and
associated creations; and there is yet a third -- pure-spirit
fragmentations -- the Father's bestowal of the Thought Adjusters
and other spirit entities which are prepersonal.
56:3.3 No matter on what level of universe
activities you may encounter spiritual phenomena or contact with
spirit beings, you may know that they are all derived from the
God who is spirit by the ministry of the Spirit Son and the
Infinite Mind Spirit. And this far-flung spirit functions as a
phenomenon on the evolutionary worlds of time as it is directed
from the headquarters of the local universes. From these
capitals of the Creator Sons come the Holy Spirit and the Spirit
of Truth, together with the ministry of the adjutant
mind-spirits, to the lower and evolving levels of material
minds.
56:3.4 While mind is more unified on the level
of the Master Spirits in association with the Supreme Being and
as the cosmic mind in subordination to the Absolute Mind, the
spirit ministry to the evolving worlds is more directly unified
in the personalities resident on the headquarters of the local
universes and in the persons of the presiding Divine Ministers,
who are in turn well-nigh perfectly correlated with the Paradise
gravity circuit of the Eternal Son, wherein occurs final
unification of all time-space spirit manifestations.
56:3.5 Perfected creature existence can be
attained, sustained, and eternalized by the fusion of
self-conscious mind with a fragment of the pre-Trinity spirit
endowment of some one of the persons of the Paradise Trinity.
The mortal mind is the creation of the Sons and Daughters of the
Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit and, when fused with the
Thought Adjuster from the Father, partakes of the threefold
spirit endowment of the evolutionary realms. But these three
spirit expressions become perfectly unified in the finaliters,
even as they were in eternity so unified in the Universal I AM
ere he ever became the Universal Father of the Eternal Son and
the Infinite Spirit.
56:3.6 Spirit must always and ultimately
become threefold in expression and Trinity-unified in final
realization. Spirit originates from one source through a
threefold expression; and in finality it must and does attain
its full realization in that divine unification which is
experienced in finding God -- oneness with divinity -- in
eternity, and by means of the ministry of the cosmic mind of the
infinite expression of the eternal word of the Father's
universal thought.
4. PERSONALITY UNIFICATION
56:4.1 The Universal Father is a divinely
unified personality; hence will all his ascendant children who
are carried to Paradise by the rebound momentum of the Thought
Adjusters, who went forth from Paradise to indwell material
mortals in obedience to the Father's mandate, likewise be fully
unified personalities ere they reach Havona.
56:4.2 Personality inherently reaches out to
unify all constituent realities. The infinite personality of the
First Source and Center, the Universal Father, unifies all seven
constituent Absolutes of Infinity; and the personality of mortal
man, being an exclusive and direct bestowal of the Universal
Father, likewise possesses the potential of unifying the
constituent factors of the mortal creature. Such unifying
creativity of all creature personality is a birthmark of its
high and exclusive source and is further evidential of its
unbroken contact with this same source through the personality
circuit, by means of which the personality of the creature
maintains direct and sustaining contact with the Father of all
personality on Paradise.
56:4.3 Notwithstanding that God is manifest
from the domains of the Sevenfold up through supremacy and
ultimacy to God the Absolute, the personality circuit, centering
on Paradise and in the person of God the Father, provides for
the complete and perfect unification of all these diverse
expressions of divine personality so far as concerns all
creature personalities on all levels of intelligent existence
and in all the realms of the perfect, perfected, and perfecting
universes.
56:4.4 While God is to and in the universes
all that we have portrayed, nevertheless, to you and to all
other God-knowing creatures he is one, your Father and their
Father. To personality God cannot be plural. God is Father to
each of his creatures, and it is literally impossible for any
child to have more than one father.
56:4.5 Philosophically, cosmically, and with
reference to differential levels and locations of manifestation,
you may and perforce must conceive of the functioning of plural
Deities and postulate the existence of plural Trinities; but in
the worshipful experience of the personal contact of every
worshiping personality throughout the master universe, God is
one; and that unified and personal Deity is our Paradise parent,
God the Father, the bestower, conservator, and Father of all
personalities from mortal man on the inhabited worlds to the
Eternal Son on the central Isle of Light.
5. DEITY UNITY
56:5.1 The oneness, the indivisibility, of
Paradise Deity is existential and absolute. There are three
eternal personalizations of Deity -- the Universal Father, the
Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit -- but in the Paradise
Trinity they are actually one Deity, undivided and
indivisible.
56:5.2 From the original Paradise-Havona level
of existential reality, two subabsolute levels have
differentiated, and thereon have the Father, Son, and Spirit
engaged in the creation of numerous personal associates and
subordinates. And while it is inappropriate in this connection
to undertake the consideration of absonite deity unification on
transcendental levels of ultimacy, it is feasible to look at
some features of the unifying function of the various Deity
personalizations in whom divinity is functionally manifest to
the diverse sectors of creation and to the different orders of
intelligent beings.
56:5.3 The present functioning of divinity in
the superuniverses is actively manifest in the operations of the
Supreme Creators -- the local universe Creator Sons and Spirits,
the superuniverse Ancients of Days, and the Seven Master Spirits
of Paradise. These beings constitute the first three levels of
God the Sevenfold leading inward to the Universal Father, and
this entire domain of God the Sevenfold is co-ordinating on the
first level of experiential deity in the evolving Supreme Being.
56:5.4 On Paradise and in the central
universe, Deity unity is a fact of existence. Throughout the
evolving universes of time and space, Deity unity is an
achievement.
6. UNIFICATION OF EVOLUTIONARY DEITY
56:6.1 When the three eternal persons of Deity
function as undivided Deity in the Paradise Trinity, they
achieve perfect unity; likewise, when they create, either
associatively or severally, their Paradise progeny exhibit the
characteristic unity of divinity. And this divinity of purpose
manifested by the Supreme Creators and Rulers of the time-space
domains eventuates in the unifying power potential of the
sovereignty of experiential supremacy which, in the presence of
the impersonal energy unity of the universe, constitutes a
reality tension that can be resolved only through adequate
unification with the experiential personality realities of
experiential Deity.
56:6.2 The personality realities of the
Supreme Being come forth from the Paradise Deities and on the
pilot world of the outer Havona circuit unify with the power
prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme coming up from the Creator
divinities of the grand universe. God the Supreme as a person
existed in Havona before the creation of the seven
superuniverses, but he functioned only on spiritual levels. The
evolution of the Almighty power of Supremacy by diverse divinity
synthesis in the evolving universes eventuated in a new power
presence of Deity which co-ordinated with the spiritual person
of the Supreme in Havona by means of the Supreme Mind, which
concomitantly translated from the potential resident in the
infinite mind of the Infinite Spirit to the active functional
mind of the Supreme Being.
56:6.3 The material-minded creatures of the
evolutionary worlds of the seven superuniverses can comprehend
Deity unity only as it is evolving in this power-personality
synthesis of the Supreme Being. On any level of existence God
cannot exceed the conceptual capacity of the beings who live on
such a level. Mortal man must, through the recognition of truth,
the appreciation of beauty, and the worship of goodness, evolve
the recognition of a God of love and then progress through
ascending deity levels to the comprehension of the Supreme.
Deity, having been thus grasped as unified in power, can then be
personalized in spirit to creature understanding and attainment.
56:6.4 While ascending mortals achieve power
comprehension of the Almighty on the capitals of the
superuniverses and personality comprehension of the Supreme on
the outer circuits of Havona, they do not actually find the
Supreme Being as they are destined to find the Paradise Deities.
Even the finaliters, sixth-stage spirits, have not found the
Supreme Being, nor are they likely to until they have achieved
seventh-stage-spirit status, and until the Supreme has become
actually functional in the activities of the future outer
universes.
56:6.5 But when ascenders find the Universal
Father as the seventh level of God the Sevenfold, they have
attained the personality of the First Person of all deity
levels of personal relationships with universe creatures.
7. UNIVERSAL EVOLUTIONARY REPERCUSSIONS
56:7.1 The steady progress of evolution in the
time-space universes is accompanied by ever-enlarging
revelations of Deity to all intelligent creatures. The
attainment of the height of evolutionary progress on a world, in
a system, constellation, universe, superuniverse, or in the
grand universe signalizes corresponding enlargements of deity
function to and in these progressive units of creation. And
every such local enhancement of divinity realization is
accompanied by certain well-defined repercussions of enlarged
deity manifestation to all other sectors of creation. Extending
outward from Paradise, each new domain of realized and attained
evolution constitutes a new and enlarged revelation of
experiential Deity to the universe of universes.
56:7.2 As the components of a local universe
are progressively settled in light and life, God the Sevenfold
is increasingly made manifest. Time-space evolution begins on a
planet with the first expression of God the Sevenfold -- the
Creator Son-Creative Spirit association -- in control. With the
settling of a system in light, this Son-Spirit liaison attains
the fullness of function; and when an entire constellation is
thus settled, the second phase of God the Sevenfold becomes more
active throughout such a realm. The completed administrative
evolution of a local universe is attended by new and more direct
ministrations of the superuniverse Master Spirits; and at this
point there also begins that ever-expanding revelation and
realization of God the Supreme which culminates in the
ascender's comprehension of the Supreme Being while passing
through the worlds of the sixth Havona circuit.
56:7.3 The Universal Father, the Eternal Son,
and the Infinite Spirit are existential deity manifestations to
intelligent creatures and are not, therefore, similarly expanded
in personality relations with the mind and spirit creatures of
all creation.
56:7.4 It should be noted that ascending
mortals may experience the impersonal presence of successive
levels of Deity long before they become sufficiently spiritual
and adequately educated to attain experiential personal
recognition of, and contact with, these Deities as personal
beings.
56:7.5 Each new evolutionary attainment within
a sector of creation, as well as every new invasion of space by
divinity manifestations, is attended by simultaneous expansions
of Deity functional-revelation within the then existing and
previously organized units of all creation. This new invasion of
the administrative work of the universes and their component
units may not always appear to be executed exactly in accordance
with the technique herewith outlined because it is the practice
to send forth advance groups of administrators to prepare the
way for the subsequent and successive eras of new administrative
overcontrol. Even God the Ultimate foreshadows his
transcendental overcontrol of the universes during the later
stages of a local universe settled in light and life.
56:7.6 It is a fact that, as the creations of
time and space are progressively settled in evolutionary status,
there is observed a new and fuller functioning of God the
Supreme concomitant with a corresponding withdrawing of the
first three manifestations of God the Sevenfold. If and when the
grand universe becomes settled in light and life, what then will
be the future function of the Creator-Creative manifestations of
God the Sevenfold if God the Supreme assumes direct control of
these creations of time and space? Are these organizers and
pioneers of the time-space universes to be liberated for similar
activities in outer space? We do not know, but we speculate much
concerning these and related matters.
56:7.7 As the frontiers of experiential Deity
are extended out into the domains of the Unqualified Absolute,
we envision the activity of God the Sevenfold during the earlier
evolutionary epochs of these creations of the future. We are not
all in agreement respecting the future status of the Ancients of
Days and the superuniverse Master Spirits. Neither do we know
whether or not the Supreme Being will therein function as in the
seven superuniverses. But we all conjecture that the Michaels,
the Creator Sons, are destined to function in these outer
universes. Some hold that the future ages will witness some
closer form of union between the associated Creator Sons and
Divine Ministers; it is even possible that such a creator union
might eventuate in some new expression of associate-creator
identity of an ultimate nature. But we really know nothing about
these possibilities of the unrevealed future.
56:7.8 We do know, however, that in the
universes of time and space, God the Sevenfold provides a
progressive approach to the Universal Father, and that this
evolutionary approach is experientially unified in God the
Supreme. We might conjecture that such a plan must prevail in
the outer universes; on the other hand the new orders of beings
that may sometime inhabit these universes may be able to
approach Deity on ultimate levels and by absonite techniques. In
short, we have not the slightest concept of what technique of
deity approach may become operative in the future universes of
outer space.
56:7.9 Nevertheless, we deem that the
perfected superuniverses will in some way become a part of the
Paradise-ascension careers of those beings who may inhabit these
outer creations. It is quite possible that in that future age we
may witness outer-spacers approaching Havona through the seven
superuniverses, administered by God the Supreme with or without
the collaboration of the Seven Master Spirits.
8. THE SUPREME UNIFIER
56:8.1 The Supreme Being has a threefold
function in the experience of mortal man: First, he is the
unifier of time-space divinity, God the Sevenfold; second, he is
the maximum of Deity which finite creatures can actually
comprehend; third, he is mortal man's only avenue of approach to
the transcendental experience of consorting with absonite mind,
eternal spirit, and Paradise personality.
56:8.2 Ascendant finaliters, having been born
in the local universes, nurtured in the superuniverses, and
trained in the central universe, embrace in their personal
experiences the full potential of the comprehension of the
time-space divinity of God the Sevenfold unifying in the
Supreme. Finaliters serve successively in superuniverses other
than those of nativity, thereby superimposing experience upon
experience until the fullness of the sevenfold diversity of
possible creature experience has been encompassed. Through the
ministry of the indwelling Adjusters the finaliters are enabled
to find the Universal Father, but it is by these
techniques of experience that such finaliters come really to
know the Supreme Being, and they are destined to the service
and the revelation of this Supreme Deity in and to the
future universes of outer space.
56:8.3 Bear in mind, all that God the Father
and his Paradise Sons do for us, we in turn and in spirit have
the opportunity to do for and in the emerging Supreme Being. The
experience of love, joy, and service in the universe is mutual.
God the Father does not need that his sons should return to him
all that he bestows upon them, but they do (or may) in turn
bestow all of this upon their fellows and upon the evolving
Supreme Being.
56:8.4 All creational phenomena are reflective
of antecedent creator-spirit activities. Said Jesus, and it is
literally true, "The Son does only those things which he sees
the Father do." In time you mortals may begin the revelation of
the Supreme to your fellows, and increasingly may you augment
this revelation as you ascend Paradiseward. In eternity you may
be permitted to make increasing revelations of this God of
evolutionary creatures on supreme levels -- even ultimate -- as
seventh-stage finaliters.
9. UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE UNITY
56:9.1 The Unqualified Absolute and the Deity
Absolute are unified in the Universal Absolute. The Absolutes
are co-ordinated in the Ultimate, conditioned in the Supreme,
and time-space modified in God the Sevenfold. On subinfinite
levels there are three Absolutes, but in infinity they
appear to be one. On Paradise there are three
personalizations of Deity, but in the Trinity they are
one.
56:9.2 The major philosophic proposition of
the master universe is this: Did the Absolute (the three
Absolutes as one in infinity) exist before the Trinity? and is
the Absolute ancestral to the Trinity? or is the Trinity
antecedent to the Absolute?
56:9.3 Is the Unqualified Absolute a force
presence independent of the Trinity? Does the presence of the
Deity Absolute connote the unlimited function of the Trinity?
and is the Universal Absolute the final function of the Trinity,
even a Trinity of Trinities?
56:9.4 On first thought, a concept of the
Absolute as ancestor to all things -- even the Trinity -- seems
to afford transitory satisfaction of consistency gratification
and philosophic unification, but any such conclusion is
invalidated by the actuality of the eternity of the Paradise
Trinity. We are taught, and we believe, that the Universal
Father and his Trinity associates are eternal in nature and
existence. There is, then, but one consistent philosophic
conclusion, and that is: The Absolute is, to all universe
intelligences, the impersonal and co-ordinate reaction of the
Trinity (of Trinities) to all basic and primary space
situations, intrauniversal and extrauniversal. To all
personality intelligences of the grand universe the Paradise
Trinity forever stands in finality, eternity, supremacy, and
ultimacy and, for all practical purposes of personal
comprehension and creature realization, as absolute.
56:9.5 As creature minds may view this
problem, they are led to the final postulate of the Universal I
AM as the primal cause and the unqualified source of both the
Trinity and the Absolute. When, therefore, we crave to entertain
a personal concept of the Absolute, we revert to our ideas and
ideals of the Paradise Father. When we desire to facilitate
comprehension or to augment consciousness of this otherwise
impersonal Absolute, we revert to the fact that the Universal
Father is the existential Father of absolute personality; the
Eternal Son is the Absolute Person, though not, in the
experiential sense, the personalization of the Absolute. And
then we go on to envisage the experiential Trinities as
culminating in the experiential personalization of the Deity
Absolute, while conceiving the Universal Absolute as
constituting the universe and the extrauniverse phenomena of the
manifest presence of the impersonal activities of the unified
and co-ordinated Deity associations of supremacy, ultimacy, and
infinity -- the Trinity of Trinities.
56:9.6 God the Father is discernible on all
levels from the finite to the infinite, and though his creatures
from Paradise to the evolutionary worlds have variously
perceived him, only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit know
him as an infinity.
56:9.7 Spiritual personality is absolute only
on Paradise, and the concept of the Absolute is unqualified only
in infinity. Deity presence is absolute only on Paradise, and
the revelation of God must always be partial, relative, and
progressive until his power becomes experientially infinite in
the space potency of the Unqualified Absolute, while his
personality manifestation becomes experientially infinite in the
manifest presence of the Deity Absolute, and while these two
potentials of infinity become reality-unified in the Universal
Absolute.
56:9.8 But beyond subinfinite levels the three
Absolutes are one, and thereby is infinity Deity-realized
regardless of whether any other order of existence ever
self-realizes consciousness of infinity.
56:9.9 Existential status in eternity implies
existential self-consciousness of infinity, even though another
eternity may be required to experience self-realization of the
experiential potentialities inherent in an infinity eternity --
an eternal infinity.
56:9.10 And God the Father is the personal
source of all manifestations of Deity and reality to all
intelligent creatures and spirit beings throughout all the
universe of universes. As personalities, now or in the
successive universe experiences of the eternal future, no matter
if you achieve the attainment of God the Sevenfold, comprehend
God the Supreme, find God the Ultimate, or attempt to grasp the
concept of God the Absolute, you will discover to your eternal
satisfaction that in the consummation of each adventure you
have, on new experiential levels, rediscovered the eternal God
-- the Paradise Father of all universe personalities.
56:9.11 The Universal Father is the
explanation of universal unity as it must be supremely, even
ultimately, realized in the postultimate unity of absolute
values and meanings -- unqualified Reality.
56:9.12 The Master Force Organizers go out
into space and mobilize its energies to become gravity
responsive to the Paradise pull of the Universal Father; and
subsequently there come the Creator Sons, who organize these
gravity-responding forces into inhabited universes and therein
evolve intelligent creatures who receive unto themselves the
spirit of the Paradise Father and subsequently ascend to the
Father to become like him in all possible divinity attributes.
56:9.13 The ceaseless and expanding march of
the Paradise creative forces through space seems to presage the
ever-extending domain of the gravity grasp of the Universal
Father and the never-ending multiplication of varied types of
intelligent creatures who are able to love God and be loved by
him, and who, by thus becoming God-knowing, may choose to be
like him, may elect to attain Paradise and find God.
56:9.14 The universe of universes is
altogether unified. God is one in power and personality. There
is co-ordination of all levels of energy and all phases of
personality. Philosophically and experientially, in concept and
in reality, all things and beings center in the Paradise Father.
God is all and in all, and no things or beings exist without
him.
10. TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS
56:10.1 As the worlds settled in life and
light progress from the initial stage to the seventh epoch, they
successively grasp for the realization of the reality of God the
Sevenfold, ranging from the adoration of the Creator Son to the
worship of his Paradise Father. Throughout the continuing
seventh stage of such a world's history the ever-progressing
mortals grow in the knowledge of God the Supreme, while they
vaguely discern the reality of the overshadowing ministry of God
the Ultimate.
56:10.2 Throughout this glorious age the chief
pursuit of the ever-advancing mortals is the quest for a better
understanding and a fuller realization of the comprehensible
elements of Deity -- truth, beauty, and goodness. This
represents man's effort to discern God in mind, matter, and
spirit. And as the mortal pursues this quest, he finds himself
increasingly absorbed in the experiential study of philosophy,
cosmology, and divinity.
56:10.3 Philosophy you somewhat grasp, and
divinity you comprehend in worship, social service, and personal
spiritual experience, but the pursuit of beauty -- cosmology --
you all too often limit to the study of man's crude artistic
endeavors. Beauty, art, is largely a matter of the unification
of contrasts. Variety is essential to the concept of beauty. The
supreme beauty, the height of finite art, is the drama of the
unification of the vastness of the cosmic extremes of Creator
and creature. Man finding God and God finding man -- the
creature becoming perfect as is the Creator -- that is the
supernal achievement of the supremely beautiful, the attainment
of the apex of cosmic art.
56:10.4 Hence materialism, atheism, is the
maximation of ugliness, the climax of the finite antithesis of
the beautiful. Highest beauty consists in the panorama of the
unification of the variations which have been born of
pre-existent harmonious reality.
56:10.5 The attainment of cosmologic levels of
thought includes:
56:10.6 1. Curiosity. Hunger for
harmony and thirst for beauty. Persistent attempts to discover
new levels of harmonious cosmic relationships.
56:10.7 2. Aesthetic appreciation. Love
of the beautiful and ever-advancing appreciation of the artistic
touch of all creative manifestations on all levels of reality.
56:10.8 3. Ethic sensitivity. Through
the realization of truth the appreciation of beauty leads to the
sense of the eternal fitness of those things which impinge upon
the recognition of divine goodness in Deity relations with all
beings; and thus even cosmology leads to the pursuit of divine
reality values -- to God-consciousness.
56:10.9 The worlds settled in light and life
are so fully concerned with the comprehension of truth, beauty,
and goodness because these quality values embrace the revelation
of Deity to the realms of time and space. The meanings of
eternal truth make a combined appeal to the intellectual and
spiritual natures of mortal man. Universal beauty embraces the
harmonious relations and rhythms of the cosmic creation; this is
more distinctly the intellectual appeal and leads towards
unified and synchronous comprehension of the material universe.
Divine goodness represents the revelation of infinite values to
the finite mind, therein to be perceived and elevated to the
very threshold of the spiritual level of human comprehension.
56:10.10 Truth is the basis of science and
philosophy, presenting the intellectual foundation of religion.
Beauty sponsors art, music, and the meaningful rhythms of all
human experience. Goodness embraces the sense of ethics,
morality, and religion -- experiential perfection-hunger.
56:10.11 The existence of beauty implies the
presence of appreciative creature mind just as certainly as the
fact of progressive evolution indicates the dominance of the
Supreme Mind. Beauty is the intellectual recognition of the
harmonious time-space synthesis of the far-flung diversification
of phenomenal reality, all of which stems from pre-existent and
eternal oneness.
56:10.12 Goodness is the mental recognition of
the relative values of the diverse levels of divine perfection.
The recognition of goodness implies a mind of moral status, a
personal mind with ability to discriminate between good and
evil. But the possession of goodness, greatness, is the measure
of real divinity attainment.
56:10.13 The recognition of true relations
implies a mind competent to discriminate between truth and
error. The bestowal Spirit of Truth which invests the human
minds of Urantia is unerringly responsive to truth -- the living
spirit relationship of all things and all beings as they are
co-ordinated in the eternal ascent Godward.
56:10.14
Every impulse of every electron, thought, or spirit is an acting
unit in the whole universe. Only sin is isolated and evil
gravity resisting on the mental and spiritual levels. The
universe is a whole; no thing or being exists or lives in
isolation. Self-realization is potentially evil if it is
antisocial. It is literally true: "No man lives by himself."
Cosmic socialization constitutes the highest form of personality
unification. Said Jesus: "He who would be greatest among you,
let him become server of all."
56:10.15 Even truth, beauty, and goodness --
man's intellectual approach to the universe of mind, matter, and
spirit -- must be combined into one unified concept of a divine
and supreme ideal. As mortal personality unifies the
human experience with matter, mind, and spirit, so does this
divine and supreme ideal become power-unified in Supremacy and
then personalized as a God of fatherly love.
56:10.16 All insight into the relations of the
parts to any given whole requires an understanding grasp of the
relation of all parts to that whole; and in the universe this
means the relation of created parts to the Creative Whole. Deity
thus becomes the transcendental, even the infinite, goal of
universal and eternal attainment.
56:10.17 Universal beauty is the recognition
of the reflection of the Isle of Paradise in the material
creation, while eternal truth is the special ministry of the
Paradise Sons who not only bestow themselves upon the mortal
races but even pour out their Spirit of Truth upon all peoples.
Divine goodness is more fully shown forth in the loving ministry
of the manifold personalities of the Infinite Spirit. But love,
the sum total of these three qualities, is man's perception of
God as his spirit Father.
56:10.18 Physical matter is the time-space
shadow of the Paradise energy-shining of the absolute Deities.
Truth meanings are the mortal-intellect repercussions of the
eternal word of Deity -- the time-space comprehension of supreme
concepts. The goodness values of divinity are the merciful
ministries of the spirit personalities of the Universal, the
Eternal, and the Infinite to the time-space finite creatures of
the evolutionary spheres.
56:10.19 These meaningful reality values of
divinity are blended in the Father's relation with each personal
creature as divine love. They are co-ordinated in the Son and
his Sons as divine mercy. They manifest their qualities through
the Spirit and his spirit children as divine ministry, the
portrayal of loving mercy to the children of time. These three
divinities are primarily manifested by the Supreme Being as
power-personality synthesis. They are variously shown forth by
God the Sevenfold in seven differing associations of divine
meanings and values on seven ascending levels.
56:10.20 To finite man truth, beauty, and
goodness embrace the full revelation of divinity reality. As
this love-comprehension of Deity finds spiritual expression in
the lives of God-knowing mortals, there are yielded the fruits
of divinity: intellectual peace, social progress, moral
satisfaction, spiritual joy, and cosmic wisdom. The advanced
mortals on a world in the seventh stage of light and life have
learned that love is the greatest thing in the universe -- and
they know that God is love.
56:10.21 Love is the desire to do good to
others.
56:10.22
Presented by a Mighty Messenger visiting on Urantia, by request
of the Nebadon Revelatory Corps and in collaboration with a
certain Melchizedek, the vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia.
* * * * *
56:10.23 This paper on Universal Unity is the
twenty-fifth of a series of presentations by various authors,
having been sponsored as a group by a commission of Nebadon
personalities numbering twelve and acting under the direction of
Mantutia Melchizedek. We indited these narratives and put them
in the English language, by a technique authorized by our
superiors, in the year 1934 of Urantia time.