But in order to formulate this Foreword of
definitions and limitations of terminology, it is necessary to anticipate
the usage of these terms in the subsequent presentations. This Foreword
is not, therefore, a finished statement within itself; it is only a definitive
guide designed to assist those who shall read the accompanying papers dealing
with Deity and the universe of universes which have been formulated by an
Orvonton commission sent to Urantia for this purpose.
1§5 0:0.5
Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar
inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon. This
universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of
Orvonton, from whose capital, Uversa, our commission hails. Orvonton
is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which
circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection—the
central universe of Havona. At the heart of this eternal and central
universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity
and the dwelling place of the eternal God.
1§6 0:0.6
The seven evolving superuniverses in association
with the central and divine universe, we commonly refer to as the grand
universe; these are the now organized and inhabited creations. They
are all a part of the master universe, which also embraces the uninhabited
but mobilizing universes of outer space.
I. DEITY AND DIVINITY
2§1 0:1.1
The universe of universes presents phenomena
of deity activities on diverse levels of cosmic realities, mind meanings,
and spirit values, but all of these ministrations—personal or otherwise—are
divinely co-ordinated.
2§2 0:1.2
DEITY is personalizable as God, is prepersonal
and superpersonal in ways not altogether comprehensible by man. Deity is
characterized by the quality of unity—actual or potential—on all supermaterial
levels of reality; and this unifying quality is best comprehended by creatures
as divinity.
2§3 0:1.3
Deity functions on personal, prepersonal,
and superpersonal levels. Total Deity is functional on the following seven
levels:
| 2§4 0:1.4
|
1. |
Static—self-contained and self-existent Deity. |
| 2§5 0:1.5
|
2. |
Potential—self-willed and self-purposive Deity. |
| 2§6 0:1.6
|
3. |
Associative—self-personalized and divinely fraternal Deity.
|
| 2§7 0:1.7
|
4. |
Creative—self-distributive and divinely revealed Deity.
|
| 2§8 0:1.8
|
5. |
Evolutional—self-expansive and creature-identified Deity.
|
| 2§9 0:1.9
|
6. |
Supreme—self-experiential and creature-Creator-unifying
Deity. Deity functioning on the first creature-identificational level
as time-space overcontrollers of the grand universe, sometimes designated
the Supremacy of Deity. |
| 2§10 0:1.10
|
7. |
Ultimate—self-projected and time-space-transcending Deity.
Deity omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Deity functioning on
the second level of unifying divinity expression as effective overcontrollers
and absonite upholders of the master universe. As compared with the
ministry of the Deities to the grand universe, this absonite function
in the master universe is tantamount to universal overcontrol and
supersustenance, sometimes called the Ultimacy of Deity. |
2§11 0:1.11
The finite level of reality is characterized
by creature life and time-space limitations. Finite realities may not have
endings, but they always have beginnings—they are created. The Deity level
of Supremacy may be conceived as a function in relation to finite existences.
2§12 0:1.12
The absonite level of reality is characterized
by things and beings without beginnings or endings and by the transcendence
of time and space. Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated—they
simply are. The Deity level of Ultimacy connotes a function in relation
to absonite realities. No matter in what part of the master universe, whenever
time and space are transcended, such an absonite phenomenon is an act of
the Ultimacy of Deity.
2§13 0:1.13
The absolute level is beginningless,
endless, timeless, and spaceless. For example: On Paradise, time and space
are nonexistent; the time-space status of Paradise is absolute. This level
is Trinity attained, existentially, by the Paradise Deities, but this third
level of unifying Deity expression is not fully unified experientially.
Whenever, wherever, and however the absolute level of Deity functions, Paradise-absolute
values and meanings are manifest.
3§1 0:1.14
Deity may be existential, as in the Eternal
Son; experiential, as in the Supreme Being; associative, as in God the Sevenfold;
undivided, as in the Paradise Trinity.
3§2 0:1.15
Deity is the source of all that which is divine.
Deity is characteristically and invariably divine, but all that which is
divine is not necessarily Deity, though it will be co-ordinated with Deity
and will tend towards some phase of unity with Deity—spiritual, mindal,
or personal.
3§3 0:1.16
DIVINITY is the characteristic, unifying,
and co-ordinating quality of Deity.
3§4 0:1.17
Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth,
beauty, and goodness; correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry;
disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.
3§5 0:1.18
Divinity may be perfect—complete—as on existential
and creator levels of Paradise perfection; it may be imperfect, as on experiential
and creature levels of time-space evolution; or it may be relative, neither
perfect nor imperfect, as on certain Havona levels of existential-experiential
relationships.
3§6 0:1.19
When we attempt to conceive of perfection
in all phases and forms of relativity, we encounter seven conceivable types:
| 3§7
|
1. |
Absolute perfection in all aspects. |
| 3§8
|
2. |
Absolute perfection in some phases and relative perfection in all
other aspects. |
| 3§9
|
3. |
Absolute, relative, and imperfect aspects in varied association.
|
| 3§10
|
4. |
Absolute perfection in some respects, imperfection in all others |
| 3§11
|
5. |
Absolute perfection in no direction, relative perfection in all
other
manifestations. |
| 3§12
|
6. |
Absolute perfection in no phase, relative in some, imperfect in
others. |
| 3§13
|
7. |
Absolute perfection in no attribute, imperfection in all. |
II. GOD
3§14 0:2.1
Evolving mortal creatures experience an irresistible
urge to symbolize their finite concepts of God. Man's consciousness of moral
duty and his spiritual idealism represent a value level—an experiential
reality—which is difficult of symbolization.
3§15 0:2.2
Cosmic consciousness implies the recognition
of a First Cause, the one and only uncaused reality. God, the Universal
Father, functions on three Deity-personality levels of subinfinite value
and relative divinity expression:
| 3§16
|
1. |
Prepersonal—as in the ministry of the Father fragments, such
as the Thought Adjusters. |
| 3§17
|
2. |
Personal—as in the evolutionary experience of created and
procreated beings. |
| 3§18
|
3. |
Superpersonal—as in the eventuated existences of certain
absonite and associated beings. |
P.3§19 0:2.3
GOD is a word symbol designating all personalizations
of Deity. The term requires a different definition on each personal level
of Deity function and must be still further redefined within each of these
levels, as this term may be used to designate the diverse co-ordinate and
subordinate personalizations of Deity; for example: the Paradise Creator
Sons—the local universe fathers.
4§1 0:2.4
The term God, as we make use of it, may be
understood:
4§2 0:2.5
By designation—as God the Father.
4§3 0:2.6
By context—as when used in the discussion
of some one deity level or association. When in doubt as to the exact interpretation
of the word God, it would be advisable to refer it to the person of the
Universal Father.
4§4 0:2.7
The term God always denotes personality.
Deity may, or may not, refer to divinity personalities.
4§5 0:2.8
The word GOD is used, in these papers, with
the following meanings:
| 4§6 0:2.9
|
1. |
God the Father—Creator, Controller, and Upholder. The Universal
Father, the First Person of Deity. |
| 4§7 0:2.10
|
2. |
God the Son—Co-ordinate Creator, Spirit Controller, and Spiritual
Administrator. The Eternal Son, the Second Person of Deity. |
| 4§8 0:2.11
|
3. |
God the Spirit—Conjoint Actor, Universal Integrator, and
Mind Bestower. The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity. |
| 4§9 0:2.12
|
4. |
God the Supreme—the actualizing or evolving God of time and
space. Personal Deity associatively realizing the time-space experiential
achievement of creature-Creator identity. The Supreme Being is personally
experiencing the achievement of Deity unity as the evolving and experiential
God of the evolutionary creatures of time and space. |
| 4§10 0:2.13
|
5. |
God the Sevenfold—Deity personality anywhere actually functioning
in time and space. The personal Paradise Deities and their creative
associates functioning in and beyond the borders of the central universe
and power-personalizing as the Supreme Being on the first creature
level of unifying Deity revelation in time and space. This level,
the grand universe, is the sphere of the time-space descension of
Paradise personalities in reciprocal association with the time-space
ascension of evolutionary creatures. |
| 4§11 0:2.14
|
6. |
God the Ultimate—the eventuating God of supertime and transcended
space. The second experiential level of unifying Deity manifestation.
God the Ultimate implies the attained realization of the synthesized
absonite-superpersonal, time-space-transcended, and eventuated-experiential
values, co-ordinated on final creative levels of Deity reality. |
| 4§12 0:2.15
|
7. |
God the Absolute—the experientializing God of transcended
superpersonal values and divinity meanings, now existential as the
Deity Absolute. This is the third level of unifying Deity expression
and expansion. On this supercreative level, Deity experiences exhaustion
of personalizable potential, encounters completion of divinity, and
undergoes depletion of capacity for self-revelation to successive
and progressive levels of other-personalization. Deity now encounters,
impinges upon, and experiences identity with, the Unqualified Absolute.
|
III. THE FIRST SOURCE AND CENTER
4§13 0:3.1
Total, infinite reality is existential in
seven phases and as seven co-ordinate Absolutes:
| 5§1 |
1. |
The First Source and Center. |
| 5§2 |
2. |
The Second Source and Center. |
| 5§3 |
3. |
The Third Source and Center. |
| 5§4 |
4. |
The Isle of Paradise. |
| 5§5 |
5. |
The Deity Absolute. |
| 5§6 |
6. |
The Universal Absolute. |
| 5§7 |
7. |
The Unqualified Absolute. |
5§8 0:3.2
God, as the First Source and Center, is primal
in relation to total reality—unqualifiedly. The First Source and Center
is infinite as well as eternal and is therefore limited or conditioned only
by volition.
5§9 0:3.3
God—the Universal Father—is the personality
of the First Source and Center and as such maintains personal relations
of infinite control over all co-ordinate and subordinate sources and centers.
Such control is personal and infinite in potential, even though it
may never actually function owing to the perfection of the function of such
co-ordinate and subordinate sources and centers and personalities.
5§10 0:3.4
The First Source and Center is, therefore,
primal in all domains: deified or undeified, personal or impersonal, actual
or potential, finite or infinite. No thing or being, no relativity or finality,
exists except in direct or indirect relation to, and dependence on, the
primacy of the First Source and Center.
5§11 0:3.5
The First Source and Center is related
to the universe as:
| 5§12 0:3.6
|
1. |
The gravity forces of the material universes are convergent in the
gravity center of nether Paradise. That is just why the geographic
location of his person is eternally fixed in absolute relation to
the force-energy center of the nether or material plane of Paradise.
But the absolute personality of Deity exists on the upper or spiritual
plane of Paradise. |
| 5§13 0:3.7
|
2. |
The mind forces are convergent in the Infinite Spirit; the differential
and divergent cosmic mind in the Seven Master Spirits; the factualizing
mind of the Supreme as a time-space experience in Majeston. |
| 5§14 0:3.8
|
3. |
The universe spirit forces are convergent in the Eternal Son. |
| 5§15 0:3.9
|
4. |
The unlimited capacity for deity action resides in the Deity Absolute. |
| 5§16 0:3.10
|
5. |
The unlimited capacity for infinity response exists in the Unqualified
Absolute. |
| 5§17 0:3.11
|
6. |
The two Absolutes—Qualified and Unqualified—are co-ordinated and
unified in and by the Universal Absolute. |
| 5§18 0:3.12
|
7. |
The potential personality of an evolutionary moral being or of any
other moral being is centered in the personality of the Universal
Father. |
5§19 0:3.13
REALITY, as comprehended by finite beings,
is partial, relative, and shadowy. The maximum Deity reality fully comprehensible
by evolutionary finite creatures is embraced within the Supreme Being. Nevertheless
there are antecedent and eternal realities, superfinite realities, which
are ancestral to this Supreme Deity of evolutionary time-space creatures.
In attempting to portray the origin and nature of universal reality, we
are forced to employ the technique of time-space reasoning in order to reach
the level of the finite mind. Therefore must many of the simultaneous events
of eternity be presented as sequential transactions.
5§19 0:3.14
As a time-space creature would view the origin
and differentiation of Reality, the eternal and infinite I AM achieved Deity
liberation from the fetters of unqualified infinity through the exercise
of inherent and eternal free will, and this divorcement from unqualified
infinity produced the first absolute divinity-tension. This tension
of infinity differential is resolved by the Universal Absolute, which functions
to unify and co-ordinate the dynamic infinity of Total Deity and the static
infinity of the Unqualified Absolute.
6§2 0:3.15
In this original transaction the theoretical
I AM achieved the realization of personality by becoming the Eternal Father
of the Original Son simultaneously with becoming the Eternal Source of the
Isle of Paradise. Coexistent with the differentiation of the Son from the
Father, and in the presence of Paradise, there appeared the person of the
Infinite Spirit and the central universe of Havona. With the appearance
of coexistent personal Deity, the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, the
Father escaped, as a personality, from otherwise inevitable diffusion throughout
the potential of Total Deity. Thenceforth it is only in Trinity association
with his two Deity equals that the Father fills all Deity potential, while
increasingly experiential Deity is being actualized on the divinity levels
of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.
6§3 0:3.16
The concept of the I AM is a philosophic
concession which we make to the time-bound, space-fettered, finite mind
of man, to the impossibility of creature comprehension of eternity existences—nonbeginning,
nonending realities and relationships. To the time-space creature, all things
must have a beginning save only the ONE UNCAUSED —the primeval cause of
causes. Therefore do we conceptualize this philosophic value-level as the
I AM, at the same time instructing all creatures that the Eternal Son and
the Infinite Spirit are coeternal with the I AM; in other words, that there
never was a time when the I AM was not the Father of the Son and, with him,
of the Spirit.
6§4 0:3.17
The Infinite is used to denote the
fullness—the finality—implied by the primacy of the First Source and Center.
The theoretical I AM is a creature-philosophic extension of the "infinity
of will," but the Infinite is an actual value-level representing the eternity-intension
of the true infinity of the absolute and unfettered free will of the Universal
Father. This concept is sometimes designated the Father-Infinite.
6§5 0:3.18
Much of the confusion of all orders of beings,
high and low, in their efforts to discover the Father-Infinite, is inherent
in their limitations of comprehension. The absolute primacy of the Universal
Father is not apparent on subinfinite levels; therefore is it probable that
only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit truly know the Father as an
infinity; to all other personalities such a concept represents the exercise
of faith.
IV. UNIVERSE REALITY
6§6 0:4.1
Reality differentially actualizes on diverse
universe levels; reality originates in and by the infinite volition of the
Universal Father and is realizable in three primal phases on many different
levels of universe actualization:
| 6§7 0:4.2
|
1. |
Undeified reality ranges from the energy domains of the nonpersonal
to the reality realms of the nonpersonalizable values of universal
existence, even to the presence of the Unqualified Absolute. |
| 7§1 0:4.3
|
2. |
Deified reality embraces all of infinite Deity potential
ranging upward through all realms of personality from the lowest finite
to the highest infinite, thus encompassing the domain of all that
which is personalizable and more—even to the presence of the Deity
Absolute. |
| 7§ 2 0:4.4
|
3. |
Interassociated reality. Universe reality is supposedly either
deified or undeified, but to subdeified beings there exists a vast
domain of interassociated reality, potential and actualizing, which
is difficult of identification. Much of this co-ordinate reality is
embraced within the realms of the Universal Absolute. |
7§3 0:4.5
This is the primal concept of original reality:
The Father initiates and maintains Reality. The primal differentials
of reality are the deified and the undeified—the Deity Absolute and the
Unqualified Absolute. The primal relationship is the tension between
them. This Father-initiated divinity-tension is perfectly resolved by, and
eternalizes as, the Universal Absolute.
7§4 0:4.6
From the viewpoint of time and space, reality
is further divisible as:
| 7§5 0:4.7
|
1. |
Actual and Potential. Realities existing in fullness of expression
in contrast to those which carry undisclosed capacity for growth.
The Eternal Son is an absolute spiritual actuality; mortal man is
very largely an unrealized spiritual potentiality. |
| 7§6 0:4.8
|
2. |
Absolute and Subabsolute. Absolute realities are eternity
existences. Subabsolute realities are projected on two levels: Absonites—realities
which are relative with respect to both time and eternity. Finites—realities
which are projected in space and are actualized in time. |
| 7§7 0:4.9
|
3. |
Existential and Experiential. Paradise Deity is existential,
but the emerging Supreme and Ultimate are experiential. |
| 7§8 0:4.10
|
4. |
Personal and Impersonal. Deity expansion, personality expression,
and universe evolution are forever conditioned by the Father's freewill
act which forever separated the mind-spirit-personal meanings and
values of actuality and potentiality centering in the Eternal Son
from those things which center and inhere in the eternal Isle of Paradise. |
7§9 0:4.11
PARADISE is a term inclusive of the personal
and the nonpersonal focal Absolutes of all phases of universe reality. Paradise,
properly qualified, may connote any and all forms of reality, Deity, divinity,
personality, and energy—spiritual, mindal, or material. All share Paradise
as the place of origin, function, and destiny, as regards values, meanings,
and factual existence.
7§10 0:4.12
The Isle of Paradise —Paradise not
otherwise qualified—is the Absolute of the material-gravity control of the
First Source and Center. Paradise is motionless, being the only stationary
thing in the universe of universes. The Isle of Paradise has a universe
location but no position in space. This eternal Isle is the actual source
of the physical universes—past, present, and future. The nuclear Isle of
Light is a Deity derivative, but it is hardly Deity; neither are the material
creations a part of Deity; they are a consequence.
7§11 0:4.13
Paradise is not a creator; it is a unique
controller of many universe activities, far more of a controller than a
reactor. Throughout the material universes Paradise influences the reactions
and conduct of all beings having to do with force, energy, and power, but
Paradise itself is unique, exclusive, and isolated in the universes. Paradise
represents nothing and nothing represents Paradise. It is neither a force
nor a presence; it is just Paradise.
V. PERSONALITY REALITIES
8§1 0:5.1
Personality is a level of deified reality
and ranges from the mortal and midwayer level of the higher mind activation
of worship and wisdom up through the morontial and spiritual to the attainment
of finality of personality status. That is the evolutionary ascent of mortal-
and kindred-creature personality, but there are numerous other orders of
universe personalities.
8§2 0:5.2
Reality is subject to universal expansion,
personality to infinite diversification, and both are capable of well-nigh
unlimited Deity co-ordination and eternal stabilization. While the metamorphic
range of nonpersonal reality is definitely limited, we know of no limitations
to the progressive evolution of personality realities.
8§3 0:5.3
On attained experiential levels all personality
orders or values are associable and even cocreational. Even God and man
can coexist in a unified personality, as is so exquisitely demonstrated
in the present status of Christ Michael—Son of Man and Son of God.
8§4 0:5.4
All subinfinite orders and phases of personality
are associative attainables and are potentially cocreational. The prepersonal,
the personal, and the superpersonal are all linked together by mutual potential
of co-ordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and cocreational capacity.
But never does the impersonal directly transmute to the personal. Personality
is never spontaneous; it is the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality
is superimposed upon energy, and it is associated only with living energy
systems; identity can be associated with nonliving energy patterns.
8§5 0:5.5
The Universal Father is the secret of the
reality of personality, the bestowal of personality, and the destiny of
personality. The Eternal Son is the absolute personality, the secret of
spiritual energy, morontia spirits, and perfected spirits. The Conjoint
Actor is the spirit-mind personality, the source of intelligence, reason,
and the universal mind. But the Isle of Paradise is nonpersonal and extraspiritual,
being the essence of the universal body, the source and center of physical
matter, and the absolute master pattern of universal material reality.
8§6 0:5.6
These qualities of universal reality are manifest
in Urantian human experience on the following levels:
| 8§7 0:5.7
|
1. |
Body. The material or physical organism of man. The living
electrochemical mechanism of animal nature and origin. |
| 8§8 0:5.8
|
2. |
Mind. The thinking, perceiving, and feeling mechanism of
the human organism. The total conscious and unconscious experience.
The intelligence associated with the emotional life reaching upward
through worship and wisdom to the spirit level. |
| 8§9 0:5.9
|
3. |
Spirit. The divine spirit that indwells the mind of man—the
Thought Adjuster. This immortal spirit is prepersonal—not a personality,
though destined to become a part of the personality of the surviving
mortal creature. |
| 8§10 0:5.10
|
4. |
Soul. The soul of man is an experiential acquirement. As
a mortal creature chooses to "do the will of the Father in heaven,"
so the indwelling spirit becomes the father of a new reality
in human experience. The mortal and material mind is the mother of
this same emerging reality. The substance of this new reality is neither
material nor spiritual—it is morontial. This is the emerging
and immortal soul which is destined to survive mortal death and begin
the Paradise ascension. |
9§1 0:5.11
Personality. The personality of mortal
man is neither body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the soul. Personality
is the one changeless reality in an otherwise ever-changing creature experience;
and it unifies all other associated factors of individuality. The personality
is the unique bestowal which the Universal Father makes upon the living
and associated energies of matter, mind, and spirit, and which survives
with the survival of the morontial soul.
9§2 0:5.12
Morontia is a term designating a vast
level intervening between the material and the spiritual. It may designate
personal or impersonal realities, living or nonliving energies. The warp
of morontia is spiritual; its woof is physical.
VI. ENERGY AND PATTERN
9§3 0:6.1
Any and all things responding to the personality
circuit of the Father, we call personal. Any and all things responding to
the spirit circuit of the Son, we call spirit. Any and all that responds
to the mind circuit of the Conjoint Actor, we call mind, mind as an attribute
of the Infinite Spirit—mind in all its phases. Any and all that responds
to the material-gravity circuit centering in nether Paradise, we call matter—energy-matter
in all its metamorphic states.
9§4 0:6.2
ENERGY we use as an all-inclusive term applied
to spiritual, mindal, and material realms. Force is also thus broadly
used. Power is ordinarily limited to the designation of the electronic
level of material or linear-gravity-responsive matter in the grand universe.
Power is also employed to designate sovereignty. We cannot follow your generally
accepted definitions of force, energy, and power. There is such paucity
of language that we must assign multiple meanings to these terms.
9§5 0:6.3
Physical energy is a term denoting
all phases and forms of phenomenal motion, action, and potential.
9§6 0:6.4
In discussing physical-energy manifestations,
we generally use the terms cosmic force, emergent energy, and universe power.
These are often employed as follows:
| 9§7 0:6.5
|
1. |
Cosmic force embraces all energies deriving from the Unqualified
Absolute but which are as yet unresponsive to Paradise gravity. |
| 9§8 0:6.6
|
2. |
Emergent energy embraces those energies which are responsive
to Paradise gravity but are as yet unresponsive to local or linear
gravity. This is the pre-electronic level of energy-matter. |
| 9§9 0:6.7
|
3. |
Universe power includes all forms of energy which, while
still responding to Paradise gravity, are directly responsive to linear
gravity. This is the electronic level of energy-matter and all subsequent
evolutions thereof. |
9§10 0:6.8
Mind is a phenomenon connoting the
presence-activity of living ministry in addition to varied energy
systems; and this is true on all levels of intelligence. In personality,
mind ever intervenes between spirit and matter; therefore is the universe
illuminated by three kinds of light: material light, intellectual insight,
and spirit luminosity.
10§1 0:6.9
Light—spirit luminosity—is a word symbol,
a figure of speech, which connotes the personality manifestation characteristic
of spirit beings of diverse orders. This luminous emanation is in no respect
related either to intellectual insight or to physical-light manifestations.
10§2 0:6.10
PATTERN can be projected as material, spiritual,
or mindal, or any combination of these energies. It can pervade personalities,
identities, entities, or nonliving matter. But pattern is pattern and remains
pattern; only copies are multiplied.
10§3 0:6.11
Pattern may configure energy, but it does
not control it. Gravity is the sole control of energy-matter. Neither space
nor pattern are gravity responsive, but there is no relationship between
space and pattern; space is neither pattern nor potential pattern. Pattern
is a configuration of reality which has already paid all gravity debt; the
reality of any pattern consists of its energies, its mind, spirit,
or material components.
10§4 0:6.12
In contrast to the aspect of the total, pattern
discloses the individual aspect of energy and of personality. Personality
or identity forms are patterns resultant from energy (physical, spiritual,
or mindal) but are not inherent therein. That quality of energy or of personality
by virtue of which pattern is caused to appear may be attributed to God—Deity—to
Paradise force endowment, to the coexistence of personality and power.
10§5 0:6.13
Pattern is a master design from which copies
are made. Eternal Paradise is the absolute of patterns; the Eternal Son
is the pattern personality; the Universal Father is the direct ancestor-source
of both. But Paradise does not bestow pattern, and the Son cannot bestow
personality.
VII. THE SUPREME BEING
10§6 0:7.1
The Deity mechanism of the master universe
is twofold as concerns eternity relationships. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit are eternal—are existential beings—while God the Supreme,
God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute are actualizing Deity personalities
of the post-Havona epochs in the time-space and the time-space-transcended
spheres of master universe evolutionary expansion. These actualizing Deity
personalities are future eternals from the time when, and as, they power-personalize
in the growing universes by the technique of the experiential actualization
of the associative-creative potentials of the eternal Paradise Deities.
10§7 0:7.2
Deity is, therefore, dual in presence:
| 10§8 |
1. |
Existential—beings of eternal existence, past, present, and
future. |
| 10§9 |
2. |
Experiential—beings actualizing in the post-Havona present
but of unending existence throughout all future eternity. |
10§10 0:7.3
The Father, Son, and Spirit are existential—existential
in actuality (though all potentials are supposedly experiential). The Supreme
and the Ultimate are wholly experiential. The Deity Absolute is experiential
in actualization but existential in potentiality. The essence of Deity is
eternal, but only the three original persons of Deity are unqualifiedly
eternal. All other Deity personalities have an origin, but they are eternal
in destiny.
10§11 0:7.4
Having achieved existential Deity expression
of himself in the Son and the Spirit, the Father is now achieving experiential
expression on hitherto impersonal and unrevealed deity levels as God the
Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute; but these experiential
Deities are not now fully existent; they are in process of actualization.
11§1 0:7.5
God the Supreme in Havona is the personal
spirit reflection of the triune Paradise Deity. This associative Deity relationship
is now creatively expanding outward in God the Sevenfold and is synthesizing
in the experiential power of the Almighty Supreme in the grand universe.
Paradise Deity, existential as three persons, is thus experientially evolving
in two phases of Supremacy, while these dual phases are power-personality
unifying as one Lord, the Supreme Being.
11§2 0:7.6
The Universal Father achieves freewill liberation
from the bonds of infinity and the fetters of eternity by the technique
of trinitization, threefold Deity personalization. The Supreme Being is
even now evolving as a subeternal personality unification of the sevenfold
manifestation of Deity in the time-space segments of the grand universe.
11§3 0:7.7
The Supreme Being is not a direct creator,
except that he is the father of Majeston, but he is a synthetic co-ordinator
of all creature-Creator universe activities. The Supreme Being, now actualizing
in the evolutionary universes, is the Deity correlator and synthesizer of
time-space divinity, of triune Paradise Deity in experiential association
with the Supreme Creators of time and space. When finally actualized, this
evolutionary Deity will constitute the eternal fusion of the finite and
the infinite—the everlasting and indissoluble union of experiential power
and spirit personality.
11§4 0:7.8
All time-space finite reality, under the directive
urge of the evolving Supreme Being, is engaged in an ever-ascending mobilization
and perfecting unification (power-personality synthesis) of all phases and
values of finite reality, in association with varied phases of Paradise
reality, to the end and for the purpose of subsequently embarking upon the
attempt to reach absonite levels of supercreature attainment.
VIII. GOD THE SEVENFOLD
11§5 0:8.1
To atone for finity of status and to compensate
for creature limitations of concept, the Universal Father has established
the evolutionary creature's sevenfold approach to Deity:
| 11§6 |
1. |
The Paradise Creator Sons. |
| 11§7 |
2. |
The Ancients of Days |
| 11§8 |
3. |
The Seven Master Spirits. |
| 11§9 |
4. |
The Supreme Being. |
| 11§10 |
5. |
God the Spirit. |
| 11§11 |
6. |
God the Son. |
| 11§12 |
7. |
God the Father. |
11§13 0:8.2
This sevenfold Deity personalization in time
and space and to the seven superuniverses enables mortal man to attain the
presence of God, who is spirit. This sevenfold Deity, to finite time-space
creatures sometime power-personalizing in the Supreme Being, is the functional
Deity of the mortal evolutionary creatures of the Paradise-ascension career.
Such an experiential discovery-career of the realization of God begins with
the recognition of the divinity of the Creator Son of the local universe
and ascends through the superuniverse Ancients of Days and by way of the
person of one of the Seven Master Spirits to the attainment of the discovery
and recognition of the divine personality of the Universal Father on Paradise.
12§1 0:8.3
The grand universe is the threefold Deity
domain of the Trinity of Supremacy, God the Sevenfold, and the Supreme Being.
God the Supreme is potential in the Paradise Trinity, from whom he derives
his personality and spirit attributes; but he is now actualizing in the
Creator Sons, Ancients of Days, and the Master Spirits, from whom he derives
his power as Almighty to the superuniverses of time and space. This power
manifestation of the immediate God of evolutionary creatures actually time-space
evolves concomitantly with them. The Almighty Supreme, evolving on the value-level
of nonpersonal activities, and the spirit person of God the Supreme are
one reality —the Supreme Being.
12§2 0:8.4
The Creator Sons in the Deity association
of God the Sevenfold provide the mechanism whereby the mortal becomes immortal
and the finite attains the embrace of the infinite. The Supreme Being provides
the technique for the power-personality mobilization, the divine synthesis,
of all these manifold transactions, thus enabling the finite to attain the
absonite and, through other possible future actualizations, to attempt the
attainment of the Ultimate. The Creator Sons and their associated Divine
Ministers are participants in this supreme mobilization, but the Ancients
of Days and the Seven Master Spirits are probably eternally fixed as permanent
administrators in the grand universe.
12§3 0:8.5
The function of God the Sevenfold dates from
the organization of the seven superuniverses, and it will probably expand
in connection with the future evolution of the creations of outer space.
The organization of these future universes of the primary, secondary, tertiary,
and quartan space levels of progressive evolution will undoubtedly witness
the inauguration of the transcendent and absonite approach to Deity.
IX. GOD THE ULTIMATE
12§4 0:9.1
Just as the Supreme Being progressively evolves
from the antecedent divinity endowment of the encompassed grand universe
potential of energy and personality, so does God the Ultimate eventuate
from the potentials of divinity residing in the transcended time-space domains
of the master universe. The actualization of Ultimate Deity signalizes absonite
unification of the first experiential Trinity and signifies unifying Deity
expansion on the second level of creative self-realization. This constitutes
the personality-power equivalent of the universe experiential-Deity actualization
of Paradise absonite realities on the eventuating levels of transcended
time-space values. The completion of such an experiential unfoldment is
designed to afford ultimate service-destiny for all time-space creatures
who have attained absonite levels through the completed realization of the
Supreme Being and by the ministry of God the Sevenfold.
12§5 0:9.2
God the Ultimate is designative of
personal Deity functioning on the divinity levels of the absonite and on
the universe spheres of supertime and transcended space. The Ultimate is
a supersupreme eventuation of Deity. The Supreme is the Trinity unification
comprehended by finite beings; the Ultimate is the unification of the Paradise
Trinity comprehended by absonite beings.
13§1 0:9.3
The Universal Father, through the mechanism
of evolutionary Deity, is actually engaged in the stupendous and amazing
act of personality focalization and power mobilization, on their
respective universe meaning-levels, of the divine reality values of the
finite, the absonite, and even of the absolute.
13§2 0:9.4
The first three and past-eternal Deities of
Paradise—the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit—are,
in the eternal future, to be personality-complemented by the experiential
actualization of associate evolutionary Deities—God the Supreme, God the
Ultimate, and possibly God the Absolute.
13§3 0:9.5
God the Supreme and God the Ultimate, now
evolving in the experiential universes, are not existential—not past eternals,
only future eternals, time-space-conditioned and transcendental-conditioned
eternals. They are Deities of supreme, ultimate, and possibly supreme-ultimate
endowments, but they have experienced historic universe origins. They will
never have an end, but they do have personality beginnings. They are indeed
actualizations of eternal and infinite Deity potentials, but they themselves
are neither unqualifiedly eternal nor infinite.
X. GOD THE ABSOLUTE
13§4 0:10.1
There are many features of the eternal reality
of the Deity Absolute which cannot be fully explained to the time-space
finite mind, but the actualization of God the Absolute would be in
consequence of the unification of the second experiential Trinity, the Absolute
Trinity. This would constitute the experiential realization of absolute
divinity, the unification of absolute meanings on absolute levels; but we
are not certain regarding the encompassment of all absolute values since
we have at no time been informed that the Qualified Absolute is the equivalent
of the Infinite. Superultimate destinies are involved in absolute meanings
and infinite spirituality, and without both of these unachieved realities
we cannot establish absolute values.
13§5 0:10.2
God the Absolute is the realization-attainment
goal of all superabsonite beings, but the power and personality potential
of the Deity Absolute transcends our concept, and we hesitate to discuss
those realities which are so far removed from experiential actualization.
XI. THE THREE ABSOLUTES
13§6 0:11.1
When the combined thought of the Universal
Father and the Eternal Son, functioning in the God of Action, constituted
the creation of the divine and central universe, the Father followed the
expression of his thought into the word of his Son and the act of their
Conjoint Executive by differentiating his Havona presence from the potentials
of infinity. And these undisclosed infinity potentials remain space concealed
in the Unqualified Absolute and divinely enshrouded in the Deity Absolute,
while these two become one in the functioning of the Universal Absolute,
the unrevealed infinity-unity of the Paradise Father.
13§7 0:11.2
Both potency of cosmic force and potency of
spirit force are in process of progressive revelation-realization as the
enrichment of all reality is effected by experiential growth and through
the correlation of the experiential with the existential by the Universal
Absolute. By virtue of the equipoising presence of the Universal Absolute,
the First Source and Center realizes extension of experiential power, enjoys
identification with his evolutionary creatures, and achieves expansion of
experiential Deity on the levels of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.
14§1 0:11.3
When it is not possible fully to distinguish
the Deity Absolute from the Unqualified Absolute, their supposedly combined
function or co-ordinated presence is designated the action of the Universal
Absolute.
14§2 0:11.4
1. The Deity Absolute seems to be the
all-powerful activator, while the Unqualified Absolute appears to be the
all-efficient mechanizer of the supremely unified and ultimately co-ordinated
universe of universes, even universes upon universes, made, making, and
yet to be made.
14§3 0:11.5
The Deity Absolute cannot, or at least does
not, react to any universe situation in a subabsolute manner. Every response
of this Absolute to any given situation appears to be made in terms of the
welfare of the whole creation of things and beings, not only in its present
state of existence, but also in view of the infinite possibilities of all
future eternity.
14§4 0:11.6
The Deity Absolute is that potential which
was segregated from total, infinite reality by the freewill choice of the
Universal Father, and within which all divinity activities—existential and
experiential—take place. This is the Qualified Absolute in contradistinction
to the Unqualified Absolute; but the Universal Absolute is superadditive
to both in the encompassment of all absolute potential.
14§5 0:11.7
2. The Unqualified Absolute is nonpersonal,
extradivine, and undeified. The Unqualified Absolute is therefore devoid
of personality, divinity, and all creator prerogatives. Neither fact nor
truth, experience nor revelation, philosophy nor absonity are able to penetrate
the nature and character of this Absolute without universe qualification.
14§6 0:11.8
Let it be made clear that the Unqualified
Absolute is a positive reality pervading the grand universe and,
apparently, extending with equal space presence on out into the force activities
and prematerial evolutions of the staggering stretches of the space regions
beyond the seven superuniverses. The Unqualified Absolute is not a mere
negativism of philosophic concept predicated on the assumptions of metaphysical
sophistries concerning the universality, dominance, and primacy of the unconditioned
and the unqualified. The Unqualified Absolute is a positive universe overcontrol
in infinity; this overcontrol is space-force unlimited but is definitely
conditioned by the presence of life, mind, spirit, and personality, and
is further conditioned by the will-reactions and purposeful mandates of
the Paradise Trinity.
14§7 0:11.9
We are convinced that the Unqualified Absolute
is not an undifferentiated and all-pervading influence comparable either
to the pantheistic concepts of metaphysics or to the sometime ether hypothesis
of science. The Unqualified Absolute is force unlimited and Deity conditioned,
but we do not fully perceive the relation of this Absolute to the spirit
realities of the universes.
14§8 0:11.10
The Universal Absolute, we logically
deduce, was inevitable in the Universal Father's absolute freewill act of
differentiating universe realities into deified and undeified—personalizable
and nonpersonalizable—values. The Universal Absolute is the Deity phenomenon
indicative of the resolution of the tension created by the freewill act
of thus differentiating universe reality, and functions as the associative
co-ordinator of these sum totals of existential potentialities.
15§1 0:11.11
The tension-presence of the Universal Absolute
signifies the adjustment of differential between deity reality and undeified
reality inherent in the separation of the dynamics of freewill divinity
from the statics of unqualified infinity.
15§2 0:11.12
Always remember: Potential infinity is absolute
and inseparable from eternity. Actual infinity in time can never be anything
but partial and must therefore be nonabsolute; neither can infinity of actual
personality be absolute except in unqualified Deity. And it is the differential
of infinity potential in the Unqualified Absolute and the Deity Absolute
that eternalizes the Universal Absolute, thereby making it cosmically possible
to have material universes in space and spiritually possible to have finite
personalities in time.
15§3 0:11.13
The finite can coexist in the cosmos along
with the Infinite only because the associative presence of the Universal
Absolute so perfectly equalizes the tensions between time and eternity,
finity and infinity, reality potential and reality actuality, Paradise and
space, man and God. Associatively the Universal Absolute constitutes the
identification of the zone of progressing evolutional reality existent in
the time-space, and in the transcended time-space, universes of subinfinite
Deity manifestation.
15§4 0:11.14
The Universal Absolute is the potential of
the static-dynamic Deity functionally realizable on time-eternity levels
as finite-absolute values and as possible of experiential-existential approach.
This incomprehensible aspect of Deity may be static, potential, and associative
but is not experientially creative or evolutional as concerns the intelligent
personalities now functioning in the master universe.
15§5 0:11.15
The Absolute. The two Absolutes—qualified
and unqualified—while so apparently divergent in function as they may be
observed by mind creatures, are perfectly and divinely unified in and by
the Universal Absolute. In the last analysis and in the final comprehension
all three are one Absolute. On subinfinite levels they are functionally
differentiated, but in infinity they are ONE.
15§6 0:11.16
We never use the term the Absolute as a negation
of aught or as a denial of anything. Neither do we regard the Universal
Absolute as self-determinative, a sort of pantheistic and impersonal Deity.
The Absolute, in all that pertains to universe personality, is strictly
Trinity limited and Deity dominated.
XII. THE TRINITIES
15§7 0:12.1
The original and eternal Paradise Trinity
is existential and was inevitable. This never-beginning Trinity was inherent
in the fact of the differentiation of the personal and the nonpersonal by
the Father's unfettered will and factualized when his personal will co-ordinated
these dual realities by mind. The post-Havona Trinities are experiential—are
inherent in the creation of two subabsolute and evolutional levels of power-personality
manifestation in the master universe.
15§8 0:12.2
The Paradise Trinity —the eternal Deity
union of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit—is
existential in actuality, but all potentials are experiential. Therefore
does this Trinity constitute the only Deity reality embracing infinity,
and therefore do there occur the universe phenomena of the actualization
of God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute.
15§9 0:12.3
The first and second experiential Trinities,
the post-Havona Trinities, cannot be infinite because they embrace derived
Deities, Deities evolved by the experiential actualization of realities
created or eventuated by the existential Paradise Trinity. Infinity of divinity
is being ever enriched, if not enlarged, by finity and absonity of creature
and Creator experience.
16§1 0:12.4
Trinities are truths of relationship and facts
of co-ordinate Deity manifestation. Trinity functions encompass Deity realities,
and Deity realities always seek realization and manifestation in personalization.
God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and even God the Absolute are therefore
divine inevitabilities. These three experiential Deities were potential
in the existential Trinity, the Paradise Trinity, but their universe emergence
as personalities of power is dependent in part on their own experiential
functioning in the universes of power and personality and in part on the
experiential achievements of the post-Havona Creators and Trinities.
16§2 0:12.5
The two post-Havona Trinities, the Ultimate
and the Absolute experiential Trinities, are not now fully manifest; they
are in process of universe realization. These Deity associations may be
described as follows:
| 16§3 0:12.6
|
1. |
The Ultimate Trinity, now evolving, will eventually consist
of the Supreme Being, the Supreme Creator Personalities, and the absonite
Architects of the Master Universe, those unique universe planners
who are neither creators nor creatures. God the Ultimate will eventually
and inevitably powerize and personalize as the Deity consequence of
the unification of this experiential Ultimate Trinity in the expanding
arena of the well-nigh limitless master universe. |
| 16§4 0:12.7
|
2. |
The Absolute Trinity —the second experiential Trinity—now
in process of actualization, will consist of God the Supreme, God
the Ultimate, and the unrevealed Consummator of Universe Destiny.
This Trinity functions on both personal and superpersonal levels,
even to the borders of the nonpersonal, and its unification in universality
would experientialize Absolute Deity. |
16§5 0:12.8
The Ultimate Trinity is experientially unifying
in completion, but we truly doubt the possibility of such full unification
of the Absolute Trinity. Our concept, however, of the eternal Paradise Trinity
is an ever-present reminder that Deity trinitization may accomplish what
is otherwise nonattainable; hence do we postulate the sometime appearance
of the Supreme-Ultimate and the possible trinitization-factualization
of God the Absolute.
16§6 0:12.9
The philosophers of the universes postulate
a Trinity of Trinities, an existential-experiential Trinity Infinite,
but they are not able to envisage its personalization; possibly it would
equivalate to the person of the Universal Father on the conceptual level
of the I AM. But irrespective of all this, the original Paradise Trinity
is potentially infinite since the Universal Father actually is infinite.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
| 16§7 0:12.10 |
In formulating the succeeding presentations
having to do with the portrayal of the character of the Universal
Father and the nature of his Paradise associates, together with an
attempted description of the perfect central universe and the encircling
seven superuniverses, we are to be guided by the mandate of the superuniverse
rulers which directs that we shall, in all our efforts to reveal truth
and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give preference to the highest
existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects to be presented.
We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of presentation
has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind. |
| 17§1 0:12.11 |
Successive planetary revelations of
divine truth invariably embrace the highest existing concepts of spiritual
values as a part of the new and enhanced co-ordination of planetary
knowledge. Accordingly, in making these presentations about God and
his universe associates, we have selected as the basis of these papers
more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and
most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe
meanings. Wherein these human concepts, assembled from the God-knowing
mortals of the past and the present, are inadequate to portray the
truth as we are directed to reveal it, we will unhesitatingly supplement
them, for this purpose drawing upon our own superior knowledge of
the reality and divinity of the Paradise Deities and their transcendent
residential universe. |
| 17§2 0:12.12 |
We are fully cognizant of the difficulties
of our assignment; we recognize the impossibility of fully translating
the language of the concepts of divinity and eternity into the symbols
of the language of the finite concepts of the mortal mind. But we
know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and
that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we
further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material
man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the
philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that
these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the
spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement
of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.
|
| 17§3 0:12.13
|
[Indited by an Orvonton Divine Counselor,
chief of the corps of superuniverse personalities assigned to portray
on Urantia the truth concerning the Paradise Deities and the universe
of universes.] |
N
THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia—that being the name of your world—there
exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity,
and deity. Human beings are still more confused and uncertain about the
relationships of the divine personalities designated by these numerous appellations.
Because of this conceptual poverty associated with so much ideational confusion,
I have been directed to formulate this introductory statement in explanation
of the meanings which should be attached to certain word symbols as they
may be hereinafter used in those papers which the Orvonton corps of truth
revealers have been authorized to translate into the English language of
Urantia.