The Urantia Book
PAPER 117
GOD THE SUPREME
Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on
Urantia.
117:0.1 TO THE extent that we do the will of
God in whatever universe station we may have our existence, in
that measure the almighty potential of the Supreme becomes one
step more actual. The will of God is the purpose of the First
Source and Center as it is potentialized in the three Absolutes,
personalized in the Eternal Son, conjoined for universe action
in the Infinite Spirit, and eternalized in the everlasting
patterns of Paradise. And God the Supreme is becoming the
highest finite manifestation of the total will of God.
117:0.2 If all grand universers should ever
relatively achieve the full living of the will of God, then
would the time-space creations be settled in light and life, and
then would the Almighty, the deity potential of Supremacy,
become factual in the emergence of the divine personality of God
the Supreme.
117:0.3 When an evolving mind becomes attuned
to the circuits of cosmic mind, when an evolving universe
becomes stabilized after the pattern of the central universe,
when an advancing spirit contacts the united ministry of the
Master Spirits, when an ascending mortal personality finally
attunes to the divine leading of the indwelling Adjuster, then
has the actuality of the Supreme become real by one more degree
in the universes; then has the divinity of Supremacy advanced
one more step toward cosmic realization.
117:0.4 The parts and individuals of the grand
universe evolve as a reflection of the total evolution of the
Supreme, while in turn the Supreme is the synthetic cumulative
total of all grand universe evolution. From the mortal viewpoint
both are evolutionary and experiential reciprocals.
1. NATURE OF THE SUPREME BEING
117:1.1 The Supreme is the beauty of physical
harmony, the truth of intellectual meaning, and the goodness of
spiritual value. He is the sweetness of true success and the joy
of everlasting achievement. He is the oversoul of the grand
universe, the consciousness of the finite cosmos, the completion
of finite reality, and the personification of Creator-creature
experience. Throughout all future eternity God the Supreme will
voice the reality of volitional experience in the trinity
relationships of Deity.
117:1.2 In the persons of the Supreme Creators
the Gods have descended from Paradise to the domains of time and
space, there to create and to evolve creatures with
Paradise-attainment capacity who can ascend thereto in quest of
the Father. This universe procession of descending God-revealing
Creators and ascending God-seeking creatures is revelatory of
the Deity evolution of the Supreme, in whom both descenders and
ascenders achieve mutuality of understanding, the discovery of
eternal and universal brotherhood. The Supreme Being thus
becomes the finite synthesis of the experience of the
perfect-Creator cause and the perfecting-creature response.
117:1.3 The grand universe contains the
possibility of, and ever seeks for, complete unification, and
this grows out of the fact that this cosmic existence is a
consequence of the creative acts and the power mandates of the
Paradise Trinity, which is unqualified unity. This very
trinitarian unity is expressed in the finite cosmos in the
Supreme, whose reality becomes increasingly apparent as the
universes attain to the maximum level of Trinity identification.
117:1.4 The will of the Creator and the will
of the creature are qualitatively different, but they are also
experientially akin, for creature and Creator can collaborate in
the achievement of universe perfection. Man can work in liaison
with God and thereby cocreate an eternal finaliter. God can work
even as humanity in the incarnations of his Sons, who thereby
achieve the supremacy of creature experience.
117:1.5 In the Supreme Being, Creator and
creature are united in one Deity whose will is expressive of one
divine personality. And this will of the Supreme is something
more than the will of either creature or Creator, even as the
sovereign will of the Master Son of Nebadon is now something
more than a combination of the will of divinity and humanity.
The union of Paradise perfection and time-space experience
yields a new meaning value on deity levels of reality.
117:1.6 The evolving divine nature of the
Supreme is becoming a faithful portrayal of the matchless
experience of all creatures and of all Creators in the grand
universe. In the Supreme, creatorship and creaturehood are at
one; they are forever united by that experience which was born
of the vicissitudes attendant upon the solution of the manifold
problems which beset all finite creation as it pursues the
eternal path in quest of perfection and liberation from the
fetters of incompleteness.
117:1.7 Truth, beauty, and goodness are
correlated in the ministry of the Spirit, the grandeur of
Paradise, the mercy of the Son, and the experience of the
Supreme. God the Supreme is truth, beauty, and goodness,
for these concepts of divinity represent finite maximums of
ideational experience. The eternal sources of these triune
qualities of divinity are on superfinite levels, but a creature
could only conceive of such sources as supertruth, superbeauty,
and supergoodness.
117:1.8 Michael, a creator, revealed the
divine love of the Creator Father for his terrestrial children.
And having discovered and received this divine affection, men
can aspire to reveal this love to their brethren in the flesh.
Such creature affection is a true reflection of the love of the
Supreme.
117:1.9 The Supreme is symmetrically
inclusive. The First Source and Center is potential in the three
great Absolutes, is actual in Paradise, in the Son, and in the
Spirit; but the Supreme is both actual and potential, a being of
personal supremacy and of almighty power, responsive alike to
creature effort and Creator purpose; self-acting upon the
universe and self-reactive to the sum total of the universe; and
at one and the same time the supreme creator and the supreme
creature. The Deity of Supremacy is thus expressive of the sum
total of the entire finite.
2. THE SOURCE OF EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH
117:2.1 The Supreme is God-in-time; his is the
secret of creature growth in time; his also is the conquest of
the incomplete present and the consummation of the perfecting
future. And the final fruits of all finite growth are: power
controlled through mind by spirit by virtue of the unifying and
creative presence of personality. The culminating consequence of
all this growth is the Supreme Being.
117:2.2 To mortal man, existence is equivalent
to growth. And so indeed it would seem to be, even in the larger
universe sense, for spirit-led existence does seem to result in
experiential growth -- augmentation of status. We have long
held, however, that the present growth which characterizes
creature existence in the present universe age is a function of
the Supreme. We equally hold that this kind of growth is
peculiar to the age of the growth of the Supreme, and that it
will terminate with the completion of the growth of the Supreme.
117:2.3 Consider the status of the
creature-trinitized sons: They are born and live in the present
universe age; they have personalities, together with mind and
spirit endowments. They have experiences and the memory thereof,
but they do not grow as do ascenders. It is our belief
and understanding that these creature-trinitized sons, while
they are in the present universe age, are really of
the next universe age -- the age which will follow the
completion of the growth of the Supreme. Hence they are not
in the Supreme as of his present status of incompleteness
and consequent growth. Thus they are nonparticipating in the
experiential growth of the present universe age, being held in
reserve for the next universe age.
117:2.4 My own order, the Mighty Messengers,
being Trinity embraced, are nonparticipating in the growth of
the present universe age. In a sense we are in status as of the
preceding universe age as in fact are the Stationary Sons of the
Trinity. One thing is certain: Our status is fixed by the
Trinity embrace, and experience no longer eventuates in growth.
117:2.5 This is not true of the finaliters nor
of any other of the evolutionary and experiential orders which
are participants in the growth process of the Supreme. You
mortals now living on Urantia who may aspire to Paradise
attainment and finaliter status should understand that such a
destiny is only realizable because you are in and of the
Supreme, hence are participants in the cycle of the growth of
the Supreme.
117:2.6 There will come an end sometime to the
growth of the Supreme; his status will achieve completion (in
the energy-spirit sense). This termination of the evolution of
the Supreme will also witness the ending of creature evolution
as a part of Supremacy. What kind of growth may characterize the
universes of outer space, we do not know. But we are very sure
that it will be something very different from anything that has
been seen in the present age of the evolution of the seven
superuniverses. It will undoubtedly be the function of the
evolutionary citizens of the grand universe to compensate the
outer-spacers for this deprivation of the growth of Supremacy.
117:2.7 As existent upon the consummation of
the present universe age, the Supreme Being will function as an
experiential sovereign in the grand universe. Outer-spacers --
citizens of the next universe age -- will have a
postsuperuniverse growth potential, a capacity for evolutionary
attainment presupposing the sovereignty of the Almighty Supreme,
hence excluding creature participation in the power-personality
synthesis of the present universe age.
117:2.8 Thus may the incompleteness of the
Supreme be regarded as a virtue since it makes possible the
evolutionary growth of the creature-creation of the present
universes. Emptiness does have its virtue, for it may become
experientially filled.
117:2.9 One of the most intriguing questions
in finite philosophy is this: Does the Supreme Being actualize
in response to the evolution of the grand universe, or does this
finite cosmos progressively evolve in response to the gradual
actualization of the Supreme? Or is it possible that they are
mutually interdependent for their development? that they are
evolutionary reciprocals, each initiating the growth of the
other? Of this we are certain: Creatures and universes, high and
low, are evolving within the Supreme, and as they evolve, there
is appearing the unified summation of the entire finite activity
of this universe age. And this is the appearance of the Supreme
Being, to all personalities the evolution of the almighty power
of God the Supreme.
3. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUPREME TO UNIVERSE
CREATURES
117:3.1 The cosmic reality variously
designated as the Supreme Being, God the Supreme, and the
Almighty Supreme, is the complex and universal synthesis of the
emerging phases of all finite realities. The far-flung
diversification of eternal energy, divine spirit, and universal
mind attains finite culmination in the evolution of the Supreme,
who is the sum total of all finite growth, self-realized on
deity levels of finite maximum completion.
117:3.2 The Supreme is the divine channel
through which flows the creative infinity of the triodities that
crystallizes into the galactic panorama of space, against which
takes place the magnificent personality drama of time: the
spirit conquest of energy-matter through the mediation of mind.
117:3.3 Said Jesus: "I am the living way," and
so he is the living way from the material level of
self-consciousness to the spiritual level of God-consciousness.
And even as he is this living way of ascension from the self to
God, so is the Supreme the living way from finite consciousness
to transcendence of consciousness, even to the insight of
absonity.
117:3.4 Your Creator Son can actually be such
a living channel from humanity to divinity since he has
personally experienced the fullness of the traversal of this
universe path of progression, from the true humanity of Joshua
ben Joseph, the Son of Man, to the Paradise divinity of Michael
of Nebadon, the Son of the infinite God. Similarly can the
Supreme Being function as the universe approach to the
transcendence of finite limitations, for he is the actual
embodiment and personal epitome of all creature evolution,
progression, and spiritualization. Even the grand universe
experiences of the descending personalities from Paradise are
that part of his experience which is complemental to his
summation of the ascending experiences of the pilgrims of time.
117:3.5 Mortal man is more than figuratively
made in the image of God. From a physical standpoint this
statement is hardly true, but with reference to certain universe
potentialities it is an actual fact. In the human race,
something of the same drama of evolutionary attainment is being
unfolded as takes place, on a vastly larger scale, in the
universe of universes. Man, a volitional personality, becomes
creative in liaison with an Adjuster, an impersonal entity, in
the presence of the finite potentialities of the Supreme, and
the result is the flowering of an immortal soul. In the
universes the Creator personalities of time and space function
in liaison with the impersonal spirit of the Paradise Trinity
and become thereby creative of a new power potential of Deity
reality.
117:3.6 Mortal man, being a creature, is not
exactly like the Supreme Being, who is deity, but man's
evolution does in some ways resemble the growth of the Supreme.
Man consciously grows from the material toward the spiritual by
the strength, power, and persistency of his own decisions; he
also grows as his Thought Adjuster develops new techniques for
reaching down from the spiritual to the morontial soul levels;
and once the soul comes into being, it begins to grow in and of
itself.
117:3.7 This is somewhat like the way in which
the Supreme Being expands. His sovereignty grows in and out of
the acts and achievements of the Supreme Creator Personalities;
that is the evolution of the majesty of his power as the ruler
of the grand universe. His deity nature is likewise dependent on
the pre-existent unity of the Paradise Trinity. But there is
still another aspect to the evolution of God the Supreme: He is
not only Creator-evolved and Trinity-derived; he is also
self-evolved and self-derived. God the Supreme is himself a
volitional, creative participant in his own deity actualization.
The human morontial soul is likewise a volitional, cocreative
partner in its own immortalization.
117:3.8 The Father collaborates with the
Conjoint Actor in manipulating the energies of Paradise and in
rendering these responsive to the Supreme. The Father
collaborates with the Eternal Son in the production of Creator
personalities whose acts will sometime culminate in the
sovereignty of the Supreme. The Father collaborates with both
Son and Spirit in the creation of Trinity personalities to
function as rulers of the grand universe until such time as the
completed evolution of the Supreme qualifies him to assume that
sovereignty. The Father co-operates with his Deity and non-Deity
co-ordinates in these and many other ways in the furtherance of
the evolution of Supremacy, but he also functions alone in these
matters. And his solitary function is probably best revealed in
the ministry of the Thought Adjusters and their associated
entities.
117:3.9 Deity is unity, existential in the
Trinity, experiential in the Supreme, and, in mortals,
creature-realized in Adjuster fusion. The presence of the
Thought Adjusters in mortal man reveals the essential unity of
the universe, for man, the lowest possible type of universe
personality, contains within himself an actual fragment of the
highest and eternal reality, even the original Father of all
personalities.
117:3.10 The Supreme Being evolves by virtue
of his liaison with the Paradise Trinity and in consequence of
the divinity successes of the creator and administrator children
of that Trinity. Man's immortal soul evolves its own eternal
destiny by association with the divine presence of the Paradise
Father and in accordance with the personality decisions of the
human mind. What the Trinity is to God the Supreme, the Adjuster
is to evolving man.
117:3.11 During the present universe age the
Supreme Being is apparently unable to function directly as a
creator except in those instances where the finite possibilities
of action have been exhausted by the creative agencies of time
and space. Thus far in universe history this has transpired but
once; when the possibilities of finite action in the matter of
universe reflectivity had been exhausted, then did the Supreme
function as the creative culminator of all antecedent creator
actions. And we believe he will again function as a culminator
in future ages whenever antecedent creatorship has completed an
appropriate cycle of creative activity.
117:3.12 The Supreme Being did not create man,
but man was literally created out of, his very life was derived
from, the potentiality of the Supreme. Nor does he evolve man;
yet is the Supreme himself the very essence of evolution. From
the finite standpoint, we actually live, move, and have our
being within the immanence of the Supreme.
117:3.13 The Supreme apparently cannot
initiate original causation but appears to be the catalyzer of
all universe growth and is seemingly destined to provide
totality culmination as regards the destiny of all
experiential-evolutionary beings. The Father originates the
concept of a finite cosmos; the Creator Sons factualize this
idea in time and space with the consent and co-operation of the
Creative Spirits; the Supreme culminates the total finite and
establishes its relationship with the destiny of the absonite.
4. THE FINITE GOD
117:4.1 As we view the ceaseless struggles of
the creature creation for perfection of status and divinity of
being, we cannot but believe that these unending efforts bespeak
the unceasing struggle of the Supreme for divine
self-realization. God the Supreme is the finite Deity, and he
must cope with the problems of the finite in the total sense of
that word. Our struggles with the vicissitudes of time in the
evolutions of space are reflections of his efforts to achieve
reality of self and completion of sovereignty within the sphere
of action which his evolving nature is expanding to the
outermost limits of possibility.
117:4.2 Throughout the grand universe the
Supreme struggles for expression. His divine evolution is in
measure predicated on the wisdom-action of every personality in
existence. When a human being chooses eternal survival, he is
cocreating destiny; and in the life of this ascending mortal the
finite God finds an increased measure of personality
self-realization and an enlargement of experiential sovereignty.
But if a creature rejects the eternal career, that part of the
Supreme which was dependent on this creature's choice
experiences inescapable delay, a deprivation which must be
compensated by substitutional or collateral experience; as for
the personality of the nonsurvivor, it is absorbed into the
oversoul of creation, becoming a part of the Deity of the
Supreme.
117:4.3 God is so trusting, so loving, that he
gives a portion of his divine nature into the hands of even
human beings for safekeeping and self-realization. The Father
nature, the Adjuster presence, is indestructible regardless of
the choice of the mortal being. The child of the Supreme, the
evolving self, can be destroyed notwithstanding that the
potentially unifying personality of such a misguided self will
persist as a factor of the Deity of Supremacy.
117:4.4 The human personality can truly
destroy individuality of creaturehood, and though all that was
worth while in the life of such a cosmic suicide will persist,
these qualities will not persist as an individual creature.
The Supreme will again find expression in the creatures of the
universes but never again as that particular person; the unique
personality of a nonascender returns to the Supreme as a drop of
water returns to the sea.
117:4.5 Any isolated action of the personal
parts of the finite is comparatively irrelevant to the eventual
appearance of the Supreme Whole, but the whole is nonetheless
dependent on the total acts of the manifold parts. The
personality of the individual mortal is insignificant in the
face of the total of Supremacy, but the personality of each
human being represents an irreplaceable meaning-value in the
finite; personality, having once been expressed, never again
finds identical expression except in the continuing existence of
that living personality.
117:4.6 And so, as we strive for
self-expression, the Supreme is striving in us, and with us, for
deity expression. As we find the Father, so has the Supreme
again found the Paradise Creator of all things. As we master the
problems of self-realization, so is the God of experience
achieving almighty supremacy in the universes of time and space.
117:4.7 Mankind does not ascend effortlessly
in the universe, neither does the Supreme evolve without
purposeful and intelligent action. Creatures do not attain
perfection by mere passivity, nor can the spirit of Supremacy
factualize the power of the Almighty without unceasing service
ministry to the finite creation.
117:4.8 The temporal relation of man to the
Supreme is the foundation for cosmic morality, the universal
sensitivity to, and acceptance of, duty. This is a
morality which transcends the temporal sense of relative right
and wrong; it is a morality directly predicated on the
self-conscious creature's appreciation of experiential
obligation to experiential Deity. Mortal man and all other
finite creatures are created out of the living potential of
energy, mind, and spirit existent in the Supreme. It is upon the
Supreme that the Adjuster-mortal ascender draws for the creation
of the immortal and divine character of a finaliter. It is out
of the very reality of the Supreme that the Adjuster, with the
consent of the human will, weaves the patterns of the eternal
nature of an ascending son of God.
117:4.9 The evolution of Adjuster progress in
the spiritualizing and eternalizing of a human personality is
directly productive of an enlargement of the sovereignty of the
Supreme. Such achievements in human evolution are at the same
time achievements in the evolutionary actualization of the
Supreme. While it is true that creatures could not evolve
without the Supreme, it is probably also true that the evolution
of the Supreme can never be fully attained independent of the
completed evolution of all creatures. Herein lies the great
cosmic responsibility of self-conscious personalities: That
Supreme Deity is in a certain sense dependent on the choosing of
the mortal will. And the mutual progression of creature
evolution and of Supreme evolution is faithfully and fully
indicated to the Ancients of Days over the inscrutable
mechanisms of universe reflectivity.
117:4.10 The great challenge that has been
given to mortal man is this: Will you decide to personalize the
experiencible value meanings of the cosmos into your own
evolving selfhood? or by rejecting survival, will you allow
these secrets of Supremacy to lie dormant, awaiting the action
of another creature at some other time who will in his
way attempt a creature contribution to the evolution of the
finite God? But that will be his contribution to the Supreme,
not yours.
117:4.11 The great struggle of this universe
age is between the potential and the actual -- the seeking for
actualization by all that is as yet unexpressed. If mortal man
proceeds upon the Paradise adventure, he is following the
motions of time, which flow as currents within the stream of
eternity; if mortal man rejects the eternal career, he is moving
counter to the stream of events in the finite universes. The
mechanical creation moves on inexorably in accordance with the
unfolding purpose of the Paradise Father , but the volitional
creation has the choice of accepting or of rejecting the role of
personality participation in the adventure of eternity. Mortal
man cannot destroy the supreme values of human existence, but he
can very definitely prevent the evolution of these values in his
own personal experience. To the extent that the human self thus
refuses to take part in the Paradise ascent, to just that extent
is the Supreme delayed in achieving divinity expression in the
grand universe.
117:4.12 Into the keeping of mortal man has
been given not only the Adjuster presence of the Paradise Father
but also control over the destiny of an infinitesimal fraction
of the future of the Supreme. For as man attains human destiny,
so does the Supreme achieve destiny on deity levels.
117:4.13 And so the decision awaits each of
you as it once awaited each of us: Will you fail the God of
time, who is so dependent upon the decisions of the finite mind?
will you fail the Supreme personality of the universes by the
slothfulness of animalistic retrogression? will you fail the
great brother of all creatures, who is so dependent on each
creature? can you allow yourself to pass into the realm of the
unrealized when before you lies the enchanting vista of the
universe career -- the divine discovery of the Paradise Father
and the divine participation in the search for, and the
evolution of, the God of Supremacy?
117:4.14 God's gifts -- his bestowal of
reality -- are not divorcements from himself; he does not
alienate creation from himself, but he has set up tensions in
the creations circling Paradise. God first loves man and confers
upon him the potential of immortality -- eternal reality. And as
man loves God, so does man become eternal in actuality. And here
is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love,
the greater the reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more
man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality
-- cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the
doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has,
then does God make that man more than he is.
5. THE OVERSOUL OF CREATION
117:5.1 The great Supreme is the cosmic
oversoul of the grand universe. In him the qualities and
quantities of the cosmos do find their deity reflection; his
deity nature is the mosaic composite of the total vastness of
all creature-Creator nature throughout the evolving universes.
And the Supreme is also an actualizing Deity embodying a
creative will which embraces an evolving universe purpose.
117:5.2 The intellectual, potentially personal
selves of the finite emerge from the Third Source and Center and
achieve finite time-space Deity synthesis in the Supreme. When
the creature submits to the will of the Creator, he does not
submerge or surrender his personality; the individual
personality participants in the actualization of the finite God
do not lose their volitional selfhood by so functioning. Rather
are such personalities progressively augmented by participation
in this great Deity adventure; by such union with divinity man
exalts, enriches, spiritualizes, and unifies his evolving self
to the very threshold of supremacy.
117:5.3 The evolving immortal soul of man, the
joint creation of the material mind and the Adjuster, ascends as
such to Paradise and subsequently, when mustered into the Corps
of the Finality, becomes allied in some new way with the
spirit-gravity circuit of the Eternal Son by a technique of
experience known as finaliter transcendation. Such
finaliters thus become acceptable candidates for experiential
recognition as personalities of God the Supreme. And when these
mortal intellects in the unrevealed future assignments of the
Corps of the Finality attain the seventh stage of spirit
existence, such dual minds will become triune. These two attuned
minds, the human and the divine, will become glorified in union
with the experiential mind of the then actualized Supreme Being.
117:5.4 In the eternal future, God the Supreme
will be actualized -- creatively expressed and spiritually
portrayed -- in the spiritualized mind, the immortal soul, of
ascendant man, even as the Universal Father was so revealed in
the earth life of Jesus.
117:5.5 Man does not unite with the Supreme
and submerge his personal identity, but the universe
repercussions of the experience of all men do thus form a part
of the divine experiencing of the Supreme. "The act is ours, the
consequences God's."
117:5.6 The progressing personality leaves a
trail of actualized reality as it passes through the ascending
levels of the universes. Be they mind, spirit, or energy, the
growing creations of time and space are modified by the
progression of personality through their domains. When man acts,
the Supreme reacts, and this transaction constitutes the fact of
progression.
117:5.7 The great circuits of energy, mind,
and spirit are never the permanent possessions of ascending
personality; these ministries remain forever a part of
Supremacy. In the mortal experience the human intellect resides
in the rhythmic pulsations of the adjutant mind-spirits and
effects its decisions within the arena produced by encircuitment
within this ministry. Upon mortal death the human self is
everlastingly divorced from the adjutant circuit. While these
adjutants never seem to transmit experience from one personality
to another, they can and do transmit the impersonal
repercussions of decision-action through God the Sevenfold to
God the Supreme. (At least this is true of the adjutants of
worship and wisdom.)
117:5.8 And so it is with the spiritual
circuits: Man utilizes these in his ascent through the
universes, but he never possesses them as a part of his eternal
personality. But these circuits of spiritual ministry, whether
Spirit of Truth, Holy Spirit, or superuniverse spirit presences,
are receptive and reactive to the emerging values in ascending
personality, and these values are faithfully transmitted through
the Sevenfold to the Supreme.
117:5.9 While such spiritual influences as the
Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth are local universe
ministrations, their guidance is not wholly confined to the
geographic limitations of a given local creation. As the
ascending mortal passes beyond the boundaries of his local
universe of origin, he is not entirely deprived of the ministry
of the Spirit of Truth which has so constantly taught and guided
him through the philosophic mazes of the material and morontial
worlds, in every crisis of ascension unfailingly directing the
Paradise pilgrim, ever saying: "This is the way." When you leave
the domains of the local universe, through the ministry of the
spirit of the emerging Supreme Being and through the provisions
of superuniverse reflectivity, you will still be guided in your
Paradise ascent by the comforting directive spirit of the
Paradise bestowal Sons of God.
117:5.10 How do these manifold circuits of
cosmic ministry register the meanings, values, and facts of
evolutionary experience in the Supreme? We are not exactly
certain, but we believe that this registry takes place through
the persons of the Supreme Creators of Paradise origin who are
the immediate bestowers of these circuits of time and space. The
mind-experience accumulations of the seven adjutant
mind-spirits, in their ministry to the physical level of
intellect, are a part of the local universe experience of the
Divine Minister, and through this Creative Spirit they probably
find registry in the mind of Supremacy. Likewise are mortal
experiences with the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit
probably registered by similar techniques in the person of
Supremacy.
117:5.11 Even the experience of man and
Adjuster must find echo in the divinity of God the Supreme, for,
as the Adjusters experience, they are like the Supreme, and the
evolving soul of mortal man is created out of the pre-existent
possibility for such experience within the Supreme.
117:5.12 In this manner do the manifold
experiences of all creation become a part of the evolution of
Supremacy. Creatures merely utilize the qualities and quantities
of the finite as they ascend to the Father; the impersonal
consequences of such utilization remain forever a part of the
living cosmos, the Supreme person.
117:5.13 What man himself takes with him as a
personality possession are the character consequences of the
experience of having used the mind and spirit circuits of the
grand universe in his Paradise ascent. When man decides, and
when he consummates this decision in action, man experiences,
and the meanings and the values of this experience are forever a
part of his eternal character on all levels, from the finite to
the final. Cosmically moral and divinely spiritual character
represents the creature's capital accumulation of personal
decisions which have been illuminated by sincere worship,
glorified by intelligent love, and consummated in brotherly
service.
117:5.14 The evolving Supreme will eventually
compensate finite creatures for their inability ever to achieve
more than limited experience contact with the universe of
universes. Creatures can attain the Paradise Father, but their
evolutionary minds, being finite, are incapable of really
understanding the infinite and absolute Father. But since all
creature experiencing registers in, and is a part of, the
Supreme, when all creatures attain the final level of finite
existence, and after total universe development makes possible
their attainment of God the Supreme as an actual divinity
presence, then, inherent in the fact of such contact, is contact
with total experience. The finite of time contains within itself
the seeds of eternity; and we are taught that, when the fullness
of evolution witnesses the exhaustion of the capacity for cosmic
growth, the total finite will embark upon the absonite phases of
the eternal career in quest of the Father as Ultimate.
6. THE QUEST FOR THE SUPREME
117:6.1
We seek the Supreme in the universes, but we find him not. "He
is the within and the without of all things and beings, moving
and quiescent. Unrecognizable in his mystery, though distant,
yet is he near." The Almighty Supreme is "the form of the yet
unformed, the pattern of the yet uncreated." The Supreme is your
universe home, and when you find him, it will be like returning
home. He is your experiential parent, and even as in the
experience of human beings, so has he grown in the experience of
divine parenthood. He knows you because he is creaturelike as
well as creatorlike.
117:6.2 If you truly desire to find God, you
cannot help having born in your minds the consciousness of the
Supreme. As God is your divine Father, so is the Supreme your
divine Mother, in whom you are nurtured throughout your lives as
universe creatures. "How universal is the Supreme -- he is on
all sides! The limitless things of creation depend on his
presence for life, and none are refused."
117:6.3 What Michael is to Nebadon, the
Supreme is to the finite cosmos; his Deity is the great avenue
through which the love of the Father flows outward to all
creation, and he is the great avenue through which finite
creatures pass inward in their quest of the Father, who is love.
Even Thought Adjusters are related to him; in original nature
and divinity they are like the Father, but when they experience
the transactions of time in the universes of space, they become
like the Supreme.
117:6.4 The act of the creature's choosing to
do the will of the Creator is a cosmic value and has a universe
meaning which is immediately reacted to by some unrevealed but
ubiquitous force of co-ordination, probably the functioning of
the ever-enlarging action of the Supreme Being.
117:6.5 The morontia soul of an evolving
mortal is really the son of the Adjuster action of the Universal
Father and the child of the cosmic reaction of the Supreme
Being, the Universal Mother. The mother influence dominates the
human personality throughout the local universe childhood of the
growing soul. The influence of the Deity parents becomes more
equal after the Adjuster fusion and during the superuniverse
career, but when the creatures of time begin the traversal of
the central universe of eternity, the Father nature becomes
increasingly manifest, attaining its height of finite
manifestation upon the recognition of the Universal Father and
the admission into the Corps of the Finality.
117:6.6 In and through the experience of
finaliter attainment the experiential mother qualities of the
ascending self become tremendously affected by contact and
infusion with the spirit presence of the Eternal Son and the
mind presence of the Infinite Spirit. Then, throughout the
realms of finaliter activity in the grand universe, there
appears a new awakening of the latent mother potential of the
Supreme, a new realization of experiential meanings, and a new
synthesis of experiential values of the entire ascension career.
It appears that this realization of self will continue in the
universe careers of the sixth-stage finaliters until the mother
inheritance of the Supreme attains to finite synchrony with the
Adjuster inheritance of the Father. This intriguing period of
grand universe function represents the continuing adult career
of the ascendant and perfected mortal.
117:6.7 Upon the completion of the sixth stage
of existence and the entrance upon the seventh and final stage
of spirit status, there will probably ensue the advancing ages
of enriching experience, ripening wisdom, and divinity
realization. In the nature of the finaliter this will probably
equal the completed attainment of the mind struggle for spirit
self-realization, the completion of the co-ordination of the
ascendant man-nature with the divine Adjuster-nature within the
limits of finite possibilities. Such a magnificent universe self
thus becomes the eternal finaliter son of the Paradise Father as
well as the eternal universe child of the Mother Supreme, a
universe self qualified to represent both the Father and Mother
of universes and personalities in any activity or undertaking
pertaining to the finite administration of created, creating, or
evolving things and beings.
117:6.8 All soul-evolving humans are literally
the evolutionary sons of God the Father and God the Mother, the
Supreme Being. But until such time as mortal man becomes
soul-conscious of his divine heritage, this assurance of Deity
kinship must be faith realized. Human life experience is the
cosmic cocoon in which the universe endowments of the Supreme
Being and the universe presence of the Universal Father (none of
which are personalities) are evolving the morontia soul of time
and the human-divine finaliter character of universe destiny and
eternal service.
117:6.9 Men all too often forget that God is
the greatest experience in human existence. Other experiences
are limited in their nature and content, but the experience of
God has no limits save those of the creature's comprehension
capacity, and this very experience is in itself capacity
enlarging.
When men search for God, they are searching for
everything. When they find God, they have found everything. The
search for God is the unstinted bestowal of love attended by
amazing discoveries of new and greater love to be bestowed.
117:6.10
All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection
as he himself bestows this love upon his fellows. Love is
dynamic. It can never be captured; it is alive, free, thrilling,
and always moving. Man can never take the love of the Father and
imprison it within his heart. The Father's love can become real
to mortal man only by passing through that man's personality as
he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows. The great circuit
of love is from the Father, through sons to brothers, and hence
to the Supreme. The love of the Father appears in the mortal
personality by the ministry of the indwelling Adjuster. Such a
God-knowing son reveals this love to his universe brethren, and
this fraternal affection is the essence of the love of the
Supreme.
117:6.11 There is no approach to the Supreme
except through experience, and in the current epochs of creation
there are only three avenues of creature approach to Supremacy:
117:6.12 1. The Paradise Citizens descend from
the eternal Isle through Havona, where they acquire capacity for
Supremacy comprehension through observation of the
Paradise-Havona reality differential and by exploratory
discovery of the manifold activities of the Supreme Creator
Personalities, ranging from the Master Spirits to the Creator
Sons.
117:6.13 2. The time-space ascenders coming up
from the evolutionary universes of the Supreme Creators make
close approach to the Supreme in the traversal of Havona as a
preliminary to the augmenting appreciation of the unity of the
Paradise Trinity.
117:6.14 3. The Havona natives acquire a
comprehension of the Supreme through contacts with descending
pilgrims from Paradise and ascending pilgrims from the seven
superuniverses. Havona natives are inherently in position to
harmonize the essentially different viewpoints of the citizens
of the eternal Isle and the citizens of the evolutionary
universes.
117:6.15 To evolutionary creatures there are
seven great approaches to the Universal Father, and each of
these Paradise ascensions passes through the divinity of one of
the Seven Master Spirits; and each such approach is made
possible by an enlargement of experience receptivity consequent
upon the creature's having served in the superuniverse
reflective of the nature of that Master Spirit. The sum total of
these seven experiences constitutes the present-known limits of
a creature's consciousness of the reality and actuality of God
the Supreme.
117:6.16 It is not only man's own limitations
which prevent him from finding the finite God; it is also the
incompletion of the universe; even the incompletion of all
creatures -- past, present, and future -- makes the Supreme
inaccessible. God the Father can be found by any individual who
has attained the divine level of Godlikeness, but God the
Supreme will never be personally discovered by any one
creature until that far-distant time when, through the universal
attainment of perfection, all creatures will
simultaneously find him.
117:6.17 Despite the fact that you cannot, in
this universe age, personally find him as you can and will find
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, nevertheless, the Paradise
ascent and subsequent universe career will gradually create in
your consciousness the recognition of the universe presence and
the cosmic action of the God of all experience. The fruits of
the spirit are the substance of the Supreme as he is realizable
in human experience.
117:6.18 Man's sometime attainment of the
Supreme is consequent upon his fusion with the spirit of
Paradise Deity. With Urantians this spirit is the Adjuster
presence of the Universal Father; and though the Mystery Monitor
is from the Father and like the Father, we doubt that even such
a divine gift can achieve the impossible task of revealing the
nature of the infinite God to a finite creature. We suspect that
what the Adjusters will reveal to future seventh-stage
finaliters will be the divinity and nature of God the Supreme.
And this revelation will be to a finite creature what the
revelation of the Infinite would be to an absolute being.
117:6.19 The Supreme is not infinite, but he
probably embraces all of infinity that a finite creature can
ever really comprehend. To understand more than the Supreme is
to be more than finite!
117:6.20 All experiential creations are
interdependent in their realization of destiny. Only existential
reality is self-contained and self-existent. Havona and the
seven superuniverses require each other to achieve the maximum
of finite attainment; likewise will they be sometime dependent
on the future universes of outer space for finite transcendence.
117:6.21 A human ascender can find the Father;
God is existential and therefore real, irrespective of the
status of experience in the total universe. But no single
ascender will ever find the Supreme until all ascenders have
reached that maximum universe maturity which qualifies them
simultaneously to participate in this discovery.
117:6.22 The Father is no respecter of
persons; he treats each of his ascending sons as cosmic
individuals. The Supreme likewise is no respecter of persons; he
treats his experiential children as a single cosmic total.
117:6.23 Man can discover the Father in his
heart, but he will have to search for the Supreme in the hearts
of all other men; and when all creatures perfectly reveal the
love of the Supreme, then will he become a universe actuality to
all creatures. And that is just another way of saying that the
universes will be settled in light and life.
117:6.24 The attainment of perfected
self-realization by all personalities plus the attainment of
perfected equilibrium throughout the universes equals the
attainment of the Supreme and witnesses the liberation of all
finite reality from the limitations of incomplete existence.
Such an exhaustion of all finite potentials yields the completed
attainment of the Supreme and may be otherwise defined as the
completed evolutionary actualization of the Supreme Being
himself.
117:6.25 Men do not find the Supreme suddenly
and spectacularly as an earthquake tears chasms into the rocks,
but they find him slowly and patiently as a river quietly wears
away the soil beneath.
117:6.26 When you find the Father, you will
find the great cause of your spiritual ascent in the universes;
when you find the Supreme, you will discover the great result of
your career of Paradise progression.
117:6.27 But no God-knowing mortal can ever be
lonely in his journey through the cosmos, for he knows that the
Father walks beside him each step of the way, while the very way
that he is traversing is the presence of the Supreme.
7. THE FUTURE OF THE SUPREME
117:7.1 The completed realization of all
finite potentials equals the completion of the realization of
all evolutionary experience. This suggests the final emergence
of the Supreme as an almighty Deity presence in the universes.
We believe that the Supreme, in this stage of development, will
be as discretely personalized as is the Eternal Son, as
concretely powerized as is the Isle of Paradise, as completely
unified as is the Conjoint Actor, and all of this within the
limitations of the finite possibilities of Supremacy at the
culmination of the present universe age.
117:7.2 While this is an entirely proper
concept of the future of the Supreme, we would call attention to
certain problems inherent in this concept:
117:7.3 1. The Unqualified Supervisors of the
Supreme could hardly be deitized at any stage prior to his
completed evolution, and yet these same supervisors even now
qualifiedly exercise the sovereignty of supremacy concerning the
universes settled in light and life.
117:7.4 2. The Supreme could hardly function
in the Trinity Ultimate until he had attained complete actuality
of universe status, and yet the Trinity Ultimate is even now a
qualified reality, and you have been informed of the existence
of the Qualified Vicegerents of the Ultimate
117:7.5 3. The Supreme is not completely real
to universe creatures, but there are many reasons for deducing
that he is quite real to the Sevenfold Deity, extending from the
Universal Father on Paradise to the Creator Sons and the
Creative Spirits of the local universes.
117:7.6 It may be that on the upper limits of
the finite, where time conjoins transcended time, there is some
sort of blurring and blending of sequence. It may be that the
Supreme is able to forecast his universe presence onto these
supertime levels and then to a limited degree anticipate future
evolution by reflecting this future forecast back to the created
levels as the Immanence of the Projected Incomplete. Such
phenomena may be observed wherever finite makes contact with
superfinite, as in the experiences of human beings who are
indwelt by Thought Adjusters that are veritable predictions of
man's future universe attainments throughout all eternity.
117:7.7 When mortal ascenders are admitted to
the finaliter corps of Paradise, they take an oath to the
Paradise Trinity, and in taking this oath of allegiance, they
are thereby pledging eternal fidelity to God the Supreme, who is
the Trinity as comprehended by all finite creature
personalities. Subsequently, as the finaliter companies function
throughout the evolving universes, they are solely amenable to
the mandates of Paradise origin until the eventful times of the
settling of local universes in light and life. As the new
governmental organizations of these perfected creations begin to
be reflective of the emerging sovereignty of the Supreme, we
observe that the outlying finaliter companies then acknowledge
the jurisdictional authority of such new governments. It appears
that God the Supreme is evolving as the unifier of the
evolutionary Corps of the Finality, but it is highly probable
that the eternal destiny of these seven corps will be directed
by the Supreme as a member of the Ultimate Trinity.
117:7.8 The Supreme Being contains three
superfinite possibilities for universe manifestation:
1. Absonite collaboration in the
first experiential Trinity.
2. Coabsolute relationship in the
second experiential Trinity.
3. Coinfinite participation in the
Trinity of Trinities, but we have no satisfactory concept as to
what this really means.
117:7.9 This is one of the generally accepted
hypotheses of the future of the Supreme, but there are also many
speculations concerning his relations to the present grand
universe subsequent to its attainment of the status of light and
life.
117:7.10 The present goal of the
superuniverses is to become, as they are and within their
potentials, perfect, even as is Havona. This perfection pertains
to physical and spiritual attainment, even to administrative,
governmental, and fraternal development. It is believed that, in
the ages to come, the possibilities for disharmony,
maladjustment, and misadaptation will be eventually exhausted in
the superuniverses. The energy circuits will be in perfect
balance and in complete subjugation to mind, while spirit, in
the presence of personality, will have achieved the dominance of
mind.
117:7.11 It is conjectured that at this
far-distant time the spirit person of the Supreme and attained
power of the Almighty will have achieved co-ordinate
development, and that both, as unified in and by the Supreme
Mind, will factualize as the Supreme Being, a completed
actuality in the universes -- an actuality which will be
observable by all creature intelligences, reacted to by all
created energies, co-ordinated in all spiritual entities, and
experienced by all universe personalities.
117:7.12 This concept implies the actual
sovereignty of the Supreme in the grand universe. It is
altogether likely that the present Trinity administrators will
continue as his vicegerents, but we believe that the present
demarcations between the seven superuniverses will gradually
disappear, and that the entire grand universe will function as a
perfected whole.
117:7.13 It is possible that the Supreme may
then be personally resident on Uversa, the headquarters of
Orvonton, from which he will direct the administration of the
time creations, but this is really only a conjecture. Certainly,
though, the personality of the Supreme Being will be definitely
contactable at some specific locality, although the ubiquity of
his Deity presence will probably continue to permeate the
universe of universes. What the relation of the superuniverse
citizens of that age will be to the Supreme we do not know, but
it may be something like the present relationship between the
Havona natives and the Paradise Trinity.
117:7.14 The perfected grand universe of those
future days will be vastly different from what it is at present.
Gone will be the thrilling adventures of the organization of the
galaxies of space, the planting of life on the uncertain worlds
of time, and the evolving of harmony out of chaos, beauty out of
potentials, truth out of meanings, and goodness out of values.
The time universes will have achieved the fulfillment of finite
destiny! And perhaps for a space there will be rest, relaxation
from the agelong struggle for evolutionary perfection. But not
for long! Certainly, surely, and inexorably the enigma of the
emerging Deity of God the Ultimate will challenge these
perfected citizens of the settled universes just as their
struggling evolutionary forebears were once challenged by the
quest for God the Supreme. The curtain of cosmic destiny will
draw back to reveal the transcendent grandeur of the alluring
absonite quest for the attainment of the Universal Father on
those new and higher levels revealed in the ultimate of creature
experience.
117:7.15
Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on
Urantia.
