711 lines
42 KiB
Plaintext
711 lines
42 KiB
Plaintext
Urantia Book Paper 1 The Universal Father
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SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super
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Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's
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Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son
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Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The
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Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of
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Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central
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And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven
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Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate
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Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The
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Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The
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Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central
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Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The
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Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe
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The Corps Of The Finality
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Paper 1 The Universal Father
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Introduction
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THE Universal Father is the God of all creation, the First Source and Center of
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all things and beings. First think of God as a creator, then as a controller,
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and lastly as an infinite upholder. The truth about the Universal Father had
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begun to dawn upon mankind when the prophet said: "You, God, are alone; there
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is none beside you. You have created the heaven and the heaven of heavens, with
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all their hosts; you preserve and control them. By the Sons of God were the
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universes made. The Creator covers himself with light as with a garment and
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stretches out the heavens as a curtain." Only the concept of the Universal
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Father--one God in the place of many gods--enabled mortal man to comprehend the
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Father as divine creator and infinite controller.
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The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually inhabited by
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many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could know God,
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receive the divine affection, and love him in return. The universe of universes
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is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. "God
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created the heavens and formed the earth; he established the universe and
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created this world not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited."
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The enlightened worlds all recognize and worship the Universal Father, the
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eternal maker and infinite upholder of all creation. The will creatures of
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universe upon universe have embarked upon the long, long Paradise journey, the
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fascinating struggle of the eternal adventure of attaining God the Father. The
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transcendent goal of the children of time is to find the eternal God, to
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comprehend the divine nature, to recognize the Universal Father. God-knowing
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creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire, and that
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is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradise
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perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy.
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From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the
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supreme mandate, "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect." In love and mercy the
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messengers of Paradise have carried this divine exhortation down through the
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ages and out through the universes, even to such lowly animal-origin creatures
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as the human races of Urantia.
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top of page - 22
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This magnificent and universal injunction to strive for the attainment of the
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perfection of divinity is the first duty, and should be the highest ambition,
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of all the struggling creature creation of the God of perfection. This
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possibility of the attainment of divine perfection is the final and certain
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destiny of all man's eternal spiritual progress.
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Urantia mortals can hardly hope to be perfect in the infinite sense, but it is
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entirely possible for human beings, starting out as they do on this planet, to
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attain the supernal and divine goal which the infinite God has set for mortal
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man; and when they do achieve this destiny, they will, in all that pertains to
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self-realization and mind attainment, be just as replete in their sphere of
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divine perfection as God himself is in his sphere of infinity and eternity.
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Such perfection may not be universal in the material sense, unlimited in
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intellectual grasp, or final in spiritual experience, but it is final and
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complete in all finite aspects of divinity of will, perfection of personality
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motivation, and God-consciousness.
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This is the true meaning of that divine command, "Be you perfect, even as I am
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perfect," which ever urges mortal man onward and beckons him inward in that
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long and fascinating struggle for the attainment of higher and higher levels of
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spiritual values and true universe meanings. This sublime search for the God of
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universes is the supreme adventure of the inhabitants of all the worlds of time
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and space.
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1. THE FATHER'S NAME
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Of all the names by which God the Father is known throughout the universes,
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those which designate him as the First Source and the Universe Center are most
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often encountered. The First Father is known by various names in different
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universes and in different sectors of the same universe. The names which the
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creature assigns to the Creator are much dependent on the creature's concept of
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the Creator. The First Source and Universe Center has never revealed himself by
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name, only by nature. If we believe that we are the children of this Creator,
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it is only natural that we should eventually call him Father. But this is the
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name of our own choosing, and it grows out of the recognition of our personal
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relationship with the First Source and Center.
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The Universal Father never imposes any form of arbitrary recognition, formal
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worship, or slavish service upon the intelligent will creatures of the
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universes. The evolutionary inhabitants of the worlds of time and space must of
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themselves--in their own hearts--recognize, love, and voluntarily worship him.
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The Creator refuses to coerce or compel the submission of the spiritual free
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wills of his material creatures. The affectionate dedication of the human will
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to the doing of the Father's will is man's choicest gift to God; in fact, such
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a consecration of creature will constitutes man's only possible gift of true
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value to the Paradise Father. In God, man lives, moves, and has his being;
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there is nothing which man can give to God except this choosing to abide by the
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Father's will, and such decisions, effected by the intelligent will creatures
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of the universes, constitute the reality of that true worship which is so
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satisfying to the love-dominated nature of the Creator Father.
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When you have once become truly God-conscious, after you really discover the
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majestic Creator and begin to experience the realization of the indwelling
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presence of the divine controller, then, in accordance with your enlightenment
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and in accordance with the manner and method by which the divine Sons reveal
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top of page - 23
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God, you will find a name for the Universal Father which will be adequately
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expressive of your concept of the First Great Source and Center. And so, on
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different worlds and in various universes, the Creator becomes known by
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numerous appellations, in spirit of relationship all meaning the same but, in
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words and symbols, each name standing for the degree, the depth, of his
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enthronement in the hearts of his creatures of any given realm.
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Near the center of the universe of universes, the Universal Father is generally
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known by names which may be regarded as meaning the First Source. Farther out
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in the universes of space, the terms employed to designate the Universal Father
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more often mean the Universal Center. Still farther out in the starry creation,
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he is known, as on the headquarters world of your local universe, as the First
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Creative Source and Divine Center. In one near-by constellation God is called
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the Father of Universes. In another, the Infinite Upholder, and to the east,
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the Divine Controller. He has also been designated the Father of Lights, the
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Gift of Life, and the All-powerful One.
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On those worlds where a Paradise Son has lived a bestowal life, God is
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generally known by some name indicative of personal relationship, tender
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affection, and fatherly devotion. On your constellation headquarters God is
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referred to as the Universal Father, and on different planets in your local
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system of inhabited worlds he is variously known as the Father of Fathers, the
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Paradise Father, the Havona Father, and the Spirit Father. Those who know God
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through the revelations of the bestowals of the Paradise Sons, eventually yield
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to the sentimental appeal of the touching relationship of the creature-Creator
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association and refer to God as "our Father."
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On a planet of sex creatures, in a world where the impulses of parental emotion
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are inherent in the hearts of its intelligent beings, the term Father becomes a
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very expressive and appropriate name for the eternal God. He is best known,
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most universally acknowledged, on your planet, Urantia, by the name God. The
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name he is given is of little importance; the significant thing is that you
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should know him and aspire to be like him. Your prophets of old truly called
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him "the everlasting God" and referred to him as the one who "inhabits
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eternity."
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2. THE REALITY OF GOD
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God is primal reality in the spirit world; God is the source of truth in the
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mind spheres; God overshadows all throughout the material realms. To all
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created intelligences God is a personality, and to the universe of universes he
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is the First Source and Center of eternal reality. God is neither manlike nor
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machinelike. The First Father is universal spirit, eternal truth, infinite
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reality, and father personality.
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The eternal God is infinitely more than reality idealized or the universe
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personalized. God is not simply the supreme desire of man, the mortal quest
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objectified. Neither is God merely a concept, the power-potential of
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righteousness. The Universal Father is not a synonym for nature, neither is he
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natural law personified. God is a transcendent reality, not merely man's
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traditional concept of supreme values. God is not a psychological focalization
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of spiritual meanings, neither is he "the noblest work of man." God may be any
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or all of these concepts
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top of page - 24
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in the minds of men, but he is more. He is a saving person and a loving Father
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to all who enjoy spiritual peace on earth, and who crave to experience
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personality survival in death.
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The actuality of the existence of God is demonstrated in human experience by
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the indwelling of the divine presence, the spirit Monitor sent from Paradise to
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live in the mortal mind of man and there to assist in evolving the immortal
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soul of eternal survival. The presence of this divine Adjuster in the human
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mind is disclosed by three experiential phenomena:
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1. The intellectual capacity for knowing God--God-consciousness.
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2. The spiritual urge to find God--God-seeking.
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3. The personality craving to be like God--the wholehearted desire to do the
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Father's will.
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The existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by the
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pure reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms of
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human experience; nevertheless, the true concept of the reality of God is
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reasonable to logic, plausible to philosophy, essential to religion, and
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indispensable to any hope of personality survival.
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Those who know God have experienced the fact of his presence; such God-knowing
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mortals hold in their personal experience the only positive proof of the
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existence of the living God which one human being can offer to another. The
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existence of God is utterly beyond all possibility of demonstration except for
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the contact between the God-consciousness of the human mind and the
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God-presence of the Thought Adjuster that indwells the mortal intellect and is
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bestowed upon man as the free gift of the Universal Father.
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In theory you may think of God as the Creator, and he is the personal creator
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of Paradise and the central universe of perfection, but the universes of time
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and space are all created and organized by the Paradise corps of the Creator
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Sons. The Universal Father is not the personal creator of the local universe of
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Nebadon; the universe in which you live is the creation of his Son Michael.
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Though the Father does not personally create the evolutionary universes, he
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does control them in many of their universal relationships and in certain of
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their manifestations of physical, mindal, and spiritual energies. God the
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Father is the personal creator of the Paradise universe and, in association
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with the Eternal Son, the creator of all other personal universe Creators.
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As a physical controller in the material universe of universes, the First
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Source and Center functions in the patterns of the eternal Isle of Paradise,
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and through this absolute gravity center the eternal God exercises cosmic
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overcontrol of the physical level equally in the central universe and
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throughout the universe of universes. As mind, God functions in the Deity of
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the Infinite Spirit; as spirit, God is manifest in the person of the Eternal
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Son and in the persons of the divine children of the Eternal Son. This
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interrelation of the First Source and Center with the co-ordinate Persons and
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Absolutes of Paradise does not in the least preclude the direct personal action
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of the Universal Father throughout all creation and on all levels thereof.
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Through the presence of his fragmentized spirit the Creator Father maintains
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immediate contact with his creature children and his created universes.
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top of page - 25
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3. GOD IS A UNIVERSAL SPIRIT
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"God is spirit." He is a universal spiritual presence. The Universal Father is
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an infinite spiritual reality; he is "the sovereign, eternal, immortal,
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invisible, and only true God." Even though you are "the offspring of God," you
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ought not to think that the Father is like yourselves in form and physique
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because you are said to be created "in his image"--indwelt by Mystery Monitors
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dispatched from the central abode of his eternal presence. Spirit beings are
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real, notwithstanding they are invisible to human eyes; even though they have
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not flesh and blood.
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Said the seer of old: "Lo, he goes by me, and I see him not; he passes on also,
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but I perceive him not." We may constantly observe the works of God, we may be
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highly conscious of the material evidences of his majestic conduct, but rarely
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may we gaze upon the visible manifestation of his divinity, not even to behold
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the presence of his delegated spirit of human indwelling.
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The Universal Father is not invisible because he is hiding himself away from
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the lowly creatures of materialistic handicaps and limited spiritual
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endowments. The situation rather is: "You cannot see my face, for no mortal can
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see me and live." No material man could behold the spirit God and preserve his
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mortal existence. The glory and the spiritual brilliance of the divine
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personality presence is impossible of approach by the lower groups of spirit
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beings or by any order of material personalities. The spiritual luminosity of
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the Father's personal presence is a "light which no mortal man can approach;
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which no material creature has seen or can see." But it is not necessary to see
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God with the eyes of the flesh in order to discern him by the faith-vision of
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the spiritualized mind.
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The spirit nature of the Universal Father is shared fully with his coexistent
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self, the Eternal Son of Paradise. Both the Father and the Son in like manner
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share the universal and eternal spirit fully and unreservedly with their
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conjoint personality co-ordinate, the Infinite Spirit. God's spirit is, in and
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of himself, absolute; in the Son it is unqualified, in the Spirit, universal,
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and in and by all of them, infinite.
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God is a universal spirit; God is the universal person. The supreme personal
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reality of the finite creation is spirit; the ultimate reality of the personal
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cosmos is absonite spirit. Only the levels of infinity are absolute, and only
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on such levels is there finality of oneness between matter, mind, and spirit.
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In the universes God the Father is, in potential, the overcontroller of matter,
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mind, and spirit. Only by means of his far-flung personality circuit does God
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deal directly with the personalities of his vast creation of will creatures,
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but he is contactable (outside of Paradise) only in the presences of his
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fragmented entities, the will of God abroad in the universes. This Paradise
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spirit that indwells the minds of the mortals of time and there fosters the
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evolution of the immortal soul of the surviving creature is of the nature and
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divinity of the Universal Father. But the minds of such evolutionary creatures
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originate in the local universes and must gain divine perfection by achieving
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those experiential transformations of spiritual attainment which are the
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inevitable result of a creature's choosing to do the will of the Father in
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heaven.
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top of page - 26
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In the inner experience of man, mind is joined to matter. Such material-linked
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minds cannot survive mortal death. The technique of survival is embraced in
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those adjustments of the human will and those transformations in the mortal
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mind whereby such a God-conscious intellect gradually becomes spirit taught and
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eventually spirit led. This evolution of the human mind from matter association
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to spirit union results in the transmutation of the potentially spirit phases
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of the mortal mind into the morontia realities of the immortal soul. Mortal
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mind subservient to matter is destined to become increasingly material and
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consequently to suffer eventual personality extinction; mind yielded to spirit
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is destined to become increasingly spiritual and ultimately to achieve oneness
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with the surviving and guiding divine spirit and in this way to attain survival
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and eternity of personality existence.
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I come forth from the Eternal, and I have repeatedly returned to the presence
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of the Universal Father. I know of the actuality and personality of the First
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Source and Center, the Eternal and Universal Father. I know that, while the
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great God is absolute, eternal, and infinite, he is also good, divine, and
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gracious. I know the truth of the great declarations: "God is spirit" and "God
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is love," and these two attributes are most completely revealed to the universe
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in the Eternal Son.
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4. THE MYSTERY OF GOD
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The infinity of the perfection of God is such that it eternally constitutes him
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mystery. And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the
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phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the
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Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of
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all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery
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of mysteries.
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The physical bodies of mortals are "the temples of God." Notwithstanding that
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the Sovereign Creator Sons come near the creatures of their inhabited worlds
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and "draw all men to themselves"; though they "stand at the door" of
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consciousness "and knock" and delight to come in to all who will "open the
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doors of their hearts"; although there does exist this intimate personal
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communion between the Creator Sons and their mortal creatures, nevertheless,
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mortal men have something from God himself which actually dwells within them;
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their bodies are the temples thereof.
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When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form
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on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that
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composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it
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is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There
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sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and
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parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is
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designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
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We are constantly confronted with this mystery of God; we are nonplused by the
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increasing unfolding of the endless panorama of the truth of his infinite
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goodness, endless mercy, matchless wisdom, and superb character.
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The divine mystery consists in the inherent difference which exists between the
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finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal, the time-space creature
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top of page - 27
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and the Universal Creator, the material and the spiritual, the imperfection of
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man and the perfection of Paradise Deity. The God of universal love unfailingly
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manifests himself to every one of his creatures up to the fullness of that
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creature's capacity to spiritually grasp the qualities of divine truth, beauty,
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and goodness.
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To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every
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world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his
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gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit
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beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either
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spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe
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enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature
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to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
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As a reality in human spiritual experience God is not a mystery. But when an
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attempt is made to make plain the realities of the spirit world to the physical
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minds of the material order, mystery appears: mysteries so subtle and so
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profound that only the faith-grasp of the God-knowing mortal can achieve the
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philosophic miracle of the recognition of the Infinite by the finite, the
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discernment of the eternal God by the evolving mortals of the material worlds
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of time and space.
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5. PERSONALITY OF THE UNIVERSAL FATHER
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Do not permit the magnitude of God, his infinity, either to obscure or eclipse
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his personality. "He who planned the ear, shall he not hear? He who formed the
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eye, shall he not see?" The Universal Father is the acme of divine personality;
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he is the origin and destiny of personality throughout all creation. God is
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both infinite and personal; he is an infinite personality. The Father is truly
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a personality, notwithstanding that the infinity of his person places him
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forever beyond the full comprehension of material and finite beings.
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God is much more than a personality as personality is understood by the human
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mind; he is even far more than any possible concept of a superpersonality. But
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it is utterly futile to discuss such incomprehensible concepts of divine
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personality with the minds of material creatures whose maximum concept of the
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reality of being consists in the idea and ideal of personality. The material
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creature's highest possible concept of the Universal Creator is embraced within
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the spiritual ideals of the exalted idea of divine personality. Therefore,
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although you may know that God must be much more than the human conception of
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personality, you equally well know that the Universal Father cannot possibly be
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anything less than an eternal, infinite, true, good, and beautiful personality.
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God is not hiding from any of his creatures. He is unapproachable to so many
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orders of beings only because he "dwells in a light which no material creature
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can approach." The immensity and grandeur of the divine personality is beyond
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the grasp of the unperfected mind of evolutionary mortals. He "measures the
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waters in the hollow of his hand, measures a universe with the span of his
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hand. It is he who sits on the circle of the earth, who stretches out the
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heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a universe to dwell in." "Lift up
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your eyes on high and behold who has created all these things, who brings out
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their worlds by number and calls them all by their names"; and so it is true
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that "the invisible things of God are partially understood by the things which
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are made." Today, and as you are, you must discern the invisible Maker through
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his manifold and
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top of page - 28
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diverse creation, as well as through the revelation and ministration of his
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Sons and their numerous subordinates.
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Even though material mortals cannot see the person of God, they should rejoice
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in the assurance that he is a person; by faith accept the truth which portrays
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that the Universal Father so loved the world as to provide for the eternal
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spiritual progression of its lowly inhabitants; that he "delights in his
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|
children." God is lacking in none of those superhuman and divine attributes
|
|
which constitute a perfect, eternal, loving, and infinite Creator personality.
|
|
|
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In the local creations (excepting the personnel of the superuniverses) God has
|
|
no personal or residential manifestation aside from the Paradise Creator Sons
|
|
who are the fathers of the inhabited worlds and the sovereigns of the local
|
|
universes. If the faith of the creature were perfect, he would assuredly know
|
|
that when he had seen a Creator Son he had seen the Universal Father; in
|
|
seeking for the Father, he would not ask nor expect to see other than the Son.
|
|
Mortal man simply cannot see God until he achieves completed spirit
|
|
transformation and actually attains Paradise.
|
|
|
|
The natures of the Paradise Creator Sons do not encompass all the unqualified
|
|
potentials of the universal absoluteness of the infinite nature of the First
|
|
Great Source and Center, but the Universal Father is in every way divinely
|
|
present in the Creator Sons. The Father and his Sons are one. These Paradise
|
|
Sons of the order of Michael are perfect personalities, even the pattern for
|
|
all local universe personality from that of the Bright and Morning Star down to
|
|
the lowest human creature of progressing animal evolution.
|
|
|
|
Without God and except for his great and central person, there would be no
|
|
personality throughout all the vast universe of universes. God is personality.
|
|
|
|
Notwithstanding that God is an eternal power, a majestic presence, a
|
|
transcendent ideal, and a glorious spirit, though he is all these and
|
|
infinitely more, nonetheless, he is truly and everlastingly a perfect Creator
|
|
personality, a person who can "know and be known," who can "love and be loved,"
|
|
and one who can befriend us; while you can be known, as other humans have been
|
|
known, as the friend of God. He is a real spirit and a spiritual reality.
|
|
|
|
As we see the Universal Father revealed throughout his universe; as we discern
|
|
him indwelling his myriads of creatures; as we behold him in the persons of his
|
|
Sovereign Sons; as we continue to sense his divine presence here and there,
|
|
near and afar, let us not doubt nor question his personality primacy.
|
|
Notwithstanding all these far-flung distributions, he remains a true person and
|
|
everlastingly maintains personal connection with the countless hosts of his
|
|
creatures scattered throughout the universe of universes.
|
|
|
|
The idea of the personality of the Universal Father is an enlarged and truer
|
|
concept of God which has come to mankind chiefly through revelation. Reason,
|
|
wisdom, and religious experience all infer and imply the personality of God,
|
|
but they do not altogether validate it. Even the indwelling Thought Adjuster is
|
|
prepersonal. The truth and maturity of any religion is directly proportional to
|
|
its concept of the infinite personality of God and to its grasp of the absolute
|
|
unity of Deity. The idea of a personal Deity becomes, then, the measure of
|
|
religious maturity after religion has first formulated the concept of the unity
|
|
of God.
|
|
|
|
top of page - 29
|
|
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|
Primitive religion had many personal gods, and they were fashioned in the image
|
|
of man. Revelation affirms the validity of the personality concept of God which
|
|
is merely possible in the scientific postulate of a First Cause and is only
|
|
provisionally suggested in the philosophic idea of Universal Unity. Only by
|
|
personality approach can any person begin to comprehend the unity of God. To
|
|
deny the personality of the First Source and Center leaves one only the choice
|
|
of two philosophic dilemmas: materialism or pantheism.
|
|
|
|
In the contemplation of Deity, the concept of personality must be divested of
|
|
the idea of corporeality. A material body is not indispensable to personality
|
|
in either man or God. The corporeality error is shown in both extremes of human
|
|
philosophy. In materialism, since man loses his body at death, he ceases to
|
|
exist as a personality; in pantheism, since God has no body, he is not,
|
|
therefore, a person. The superhuman type of progressing personality functions
|
|
in a union of mind and spirit.
|
|
|
|
Personality is not simply an attribute of God; it rather stands for the
|
|
totality of the co-ordinated infinite nature and the unified divine will which
|
|
is exhibited in eternity and universality of perfect expression. Personality,
|
|
in the supreme sense, is the revelation of God to the universe of universes.
|
|
|
|
God, being eternal, universal, absolute, and infinite, does not grow in
|
|
knowledge nor increase in wisdom. God does not acquire experience, as finite
|
|
man might conjecture or comprehend, but he does, within the realms of his own
|
|
eternal personality, enjoy those continuous expansions of self-realization
|
|
which are in certain ways comparable to, and analogous with, the acquirement of
|
|
new experience by the finite creatures of the evolutionary worlds.
|
|
|
|
The absolute perfection of the infinite God would cause him to suffer the awful
|
|
limitations of unqualified finality of perfectness were it not a fact that the
|
|
Universal Father directly participates in the personality struggle of every
|
|
imperfect soul in the wide universe who seeks, by divine aid, to ascend to the
|
|
spiritually perfect worlds on high. This progressive experience of every spirit
|
|
being and every mortal creature throughout the universe of universes is a part
|
|
of the Father's ever-expanding Deity-consciousness of the never-ending divine
|
|
circle of ceaseless self-realization.
|
|
|
|
It is literally true: "In all your afflictions he is afflicted." "In all your
|
|
triumphs he triumphs in and with you." His prepersonal divine spirit is a real
|
|
part of you. The Isle of Paradise responds to all the physical metamorphoses of
|
|
the universe of universes; the Eternal Son includes all the spirit impulses of
|
|
all creation; the Conjoint Actor encompasses all the mind expression of the
|
|
expanding cosmos. The Universal Father realizes in the fullness of the divine
|
|
consciousness all the individual experience of the progressive struggles of the
|
|
expanding minds and the ascending spirits of every entity, being, and
|
|
personality of the whole evolutionary creation of time and space. And all this
|
|
is literally true, for "in Him we all live and move and have our being."
|
|
|
|
6. PERSONALITY IN THE UNIVERSE
|
|
|
|
Human personality is the time-space image-shadow cast by the divine Creator
|
|
personality. And no actuality can ever be adequately comprehended by an
|
|
examination of its shadow. Shadows should be interpreted in terms of the true
|
|
substance.
|
|
|
|
top of page - 30
|
|
|
|
God is to science a cause, to philosophy an idea, to religion a person, even
|
|
the loving heavenly Father. God is to the scientist a primal force, to the
|
|
philosopher a hypothesis of unity, to the religionist a living spiritual
|
|
experience. Man's inadequate concept of the personality of the Universal Father
|
|
can be improved only by man's spiritual progress in the universe and will
|
|
become truly adequate only when the pilgrims of time and space finally attain
|
|
the divine embrace of the living God on Paradise.
|
|
|
|
Never lose sight of the antipodal viewpoints of personality as it is conceived
|
|
by God and man. Man views and comprehends personality, looking from the finite
|
|
to the infinite; God looks from the infinite to the finite. Man possesses the
|
|
lowest type of personality; God, the highest, even supreme, ultimate, and
|
|
absolute. Therefore did the better concepts of the divine personality have
|
|
patiently to await the appearance of improved ideas of human personality,
|
|
especially the enhanced revelation of both human and divine personality in the
|
|
Urantian bestowal life of Michael, the Creator Son.
|
|
|
|
The prepersonal divine spirit which indwells the mortal mind carries, in its
|
|
very presence, the valid proof of its actual existence, but the concept of the
|
|
divine personality can be grasped only by the spiritual insight of genuine
|
|
personal religious experience. Any person, human or divine, may be known and
|
|
comprehended quite apart from the external reactions or the material presence
|
|
of that person.
|
|
|
|
Some degree of moral affinity and spiritual harmony is essential to friendship
|
|
between two persons; a loving personality can hardly reveal himself to a
|
|
loveless person. Even to approach the knowing of a divine personality, all of
|
|
man's personality endowments must be wholly consecrated to the effort;
|
|
halfhearted, partial devotion will be unavailing.
|
|
|
|
The more completely man understands himself and appreciates the personality
|
|
values of his fellows, the more he will crave to know the Original Personality,
|
|
and the more earnestly such a God-knowing human will strive to become like the
|
|
Original Personality. You can argue over opinions about God, but experience
|
|
with him and in him exists above and beyond all human controversy and mere
|
|
intellectual logic. The God-knowing man describes his spiritual experiences,
|
|
not to convince unbelievers, but for the edification and mutual satisfaction of
|
|
believers.
|
|
|
|
To assume that the universe can be known, that it is intelligible, is to assume
|
|
that the universe is mind made and personality managed. Man's mind can only
|
|
perceive the mind phenomena of other minds, be they human or superhuman. If
|
|
man's personality can experience the universe, there is a divine mind and an
|
|
actual personality somewhere concealed in that universe.
|
|
|
|
God is spirit--spirit personality; man is also a spirit--potential spirit
|
|
personality. Jesus of Nazareth attained the full realization of this potential
|
|
of spirit personality in human experience; therefore his life of achieving the
|
|
Father's will becomes man's most real and ideal revelation of the personality
|
|
of God. Even though the personality of the Universal Father can be grasped only
|
|
in actual religious experience, in Jesus' earth life we are inspired by the
|
|
perfect demonstration of such a realization and revelation of the personality
|
|
of God in a truly human experience.
|
|
|
|
top of page - 31
|
|
|
|
7. SPIRITUAL VALUE OF THE PERSONALITY CONCEPT
|
|
|
|
When Jesus talked about "the living God," he referred to a personal Deity--the
|
|
Father in heaven. The concept of the personality of Deity facilitates
|
|
fellowship; it favors intelligent worship; it promotes refreshing trustfulness.
|
|
Interactions can be had between nonpersonal things, but not fellowship. The
|
|
fellowship relation of father and son, as between God and man, cannot be
|
|
enjoyed unless both are persons. Only personalities can commune with each
|
|
other, albeit this personal communion may be greatly facilitated by the
|
|
presence of just such an impersonal entity as the Thought Adjuster.
|
|
|
|
Man does not achieve union with God as a drop of water might find unity with
|
|
the ocean. Man attains divine union by progressive reciprocal spiritual
|
|
communion, by personality intercourse with the personal God, by increasingly
|
|
attaining the divine nature through wholehearted and intelligent conformity to
|
|
the divine will. Such a sublime relationship can exist only between
|
|
personalities.
|
|
|
|
The concept of truth might possibly be entertained apart from personality, the
|
|
concept of beauty may exist without personality, but the concept of divine
|
|
goodness is understandable only in relation to personality. Only a person can
|
|
love and be loved. Even beauty and truth would be divorced from survival hope
|
|
if they were not attributes of a personal God, a loving Father.
|
|
|
|
We cannot fully understand how God can be primal, changeless, all-powerful, and
|
|
perfect, and at the same time be surrounded by an ever-changing and apparently
|
|
law-limited universe, an evolving universe of relative imperfections. But we
|
|
can know such a truth in our own personal experience since we all maintain
|
|
identity of personality and unity of will in spite of the constant changing of
|
|
both ourselves and our environment.
|
|
|
|
Ultimate universe reality cannot be grasped by mathematics, logic, or
|
|
philosophy, only by personal experience in progressive conformity to the divine
|
|
will of a personal God. Neither science, philosophy, nor theology can validate
|
|
the personality of God. Only the personal experience of the faith sons of the
|
|
heavenly Father can effect the actual spiritual realization of the personality
|
|
of God.
|
|
|
|
The higher concepts of universe personality imply: identity,
|
|
self-consciousness, self-will, and possibility for self-revelation. And these
|
|
characteristics further imply fellowship with other and equal personalities,
|
|
such as exists in the personality associations of the Paradise Deities. And the
|
|
absolute unity of these associations is so perfect that divinity becomes known
|
|
by indivisibility, by oneness. "The Lord God is one." Indivisibility of
|
|
personality does not interfere with God's bestowing his spirit to live in the
|
|
hearts of mortal men. Indivisibility of a human father's personality does not
|
|
prevent the reproduction of mortal sons and daughters.
|
|
|
|
This concept of indivisibility in association with the concept of unity implies
|
|
transcendence of both time and space by the Ultimacy of Deity; therefore
|
|
neither space nor time can be absolute or infinite. The First Source and Center
|
|
is that infinity who unqualifiedly transcends all mind, all matter, and all
|
|
spirit.
|
|
|
|
The fact of the Paradise Trinity in no manner violates the truth of the divine
|
|
unity. The three personalities of Paradise Deity are, in all universe reality
|
|
reactions and in all creature relations, as one. Neither does the existence of
|
|
these three
|
|
|
|
top of page - 32
|
|
|
|
eternal persons violate the truth of the indivisibility of Deity. I am fully
|
|
aware that I have at my command no language adequate to make clear to the
|
|
mortal mind how these universe problems appear to us. But you should not become
|
|
discouraged; not all of these things are wholly clear to even the high
|
|
personalities belonging to my group of Paradise beings. Ever bear in mind that
|
|
these profound truths pertaining to Deity will increasingly clarify as your
|
|
minds become progressively spiritualized during the successive epochs of the
|
|
long mortal ascent to Paradise.
|
|
|
|
[Presented by a Divine Counselor, a member of a group
|
|
|
|
of celestial personalities assigned by the Ancients of
|
|
|
|
Days on Uversa, the headquarters of the seventh
|
|
|
|
superuniverse, to supervise those portions of this
|
|
|
|
forthcoming revelation which have to do with affairs
|
|
|
|
beyond the borders of the local universe of Nebadon. I
|
|
|
|
am commissioned to sponsor those papers portraying the
|
|
|
|
nature and attributes of God because I represent the
|
|
|
|
highest source of information available for such a
|
|
|
|
purpose on any inhabited world. I have served as a
|
|
|
|
Divine Counselor in all seven of the superuniverses and
|
|
|
|
have long resided at the Paradise center of all things.
|
|
|
|
Many times have I enjoyed the supreme pleasure of a
|
|
|
|
sojourn in the immediate personal presence of the
|
|
|
|
Universal Father. I portray the reality and truth of
|
|
|
|
the Father's nature and attributes with unchallengeable
|
|
|
|
authority; I know whereof I speak.]
|
|
|
|
top of page - 33
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super
|
|
Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's
|
|
Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son
|
|
Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The
|
|
Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of
|
|
Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central
|
|
And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven
|
|
Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate
|
|
Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The
|
|
Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The
|
|
Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central
|
|
Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The
|
|
Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe
|
|
The Corps Of The Finality
|
|
|
|
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� // � � � �
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