Urantia Book Paper 117 God The Supreme
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... God The Supreme
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Paper 117 God The Supreme
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Introduction
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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2. THE SOURCE OF EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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sovereignty of the Almighty Supreme, hence excluding creature participation in
the power-personality synthesis of the present universe age.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
During the present universe age the Supreme Being is apparently unable to
function directly as a creator except in those instances where the finite pos-
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sibilities 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.
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.
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
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.
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 co-creating
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.
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.
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 par-
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ticular person; the unique personality of a nonascender returns to the Supreme
as a drop of water returns to the sea.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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,
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enriches, spiritualizes, and unifies his evolving self to the very threshold of
supremacy.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.)
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.
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:
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"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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. Unrecog-
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nizable 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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
top of page - 1289
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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
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.
While this is an entirely proper concept of the future of the Supreme, we would
call attention to certain problems inherent in this concept:
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.
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.
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.
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
top of page - 1292
by Thought Adjusters that are veritable predictions of man's future universe
attainments throughout all eternity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
top of page - 1293
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.
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.
[Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on Urantia.]
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia
: The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On
Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The
Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color
The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary
Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution
Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet
The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden
The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In
The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization
The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The
Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes,
Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And
Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa
Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings
In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The
Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of
Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The
Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of
The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And
Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation
Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals
The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny
Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The
Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael
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