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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 8
THE INFINITE SPIRIT
8:0.1
BACK in eternity, when the Universal Father's "first"
infinite and absolute thought finds in the Eternal Son
such a perfect and adequate word for its divine
expression, there ensues the supreme desire of both the
Thought-God and the Word-God for a universal and
infinite agent of mutual expression and combined action.
8:0.2
In the dawn of eternity both the Father and the Son
become infinitely cognizant of their mutual
interdependence, their eternal and absolute oneness; and
therefore do they enter into an infinite and everlasting
covenant of divine partnership. This never-ending
compact is made for the execution of their united
concepts throughout all of the circle of eternity; and
ever since this eternity event the Father and the Son
continue in this divine union.
8:0.3
We are now face to face with the eternity origin of the
Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity. The very
instant that God the Father and God the Son conjointly
conceive an identical and infinite action -- the
execution of an absolute thought-plan -- that very
moment, the Infinite Spirit springs full-fledgedly into
existence.
8:0.4
In thus reciting the order of the origin of the Deities,
I do so merely to enable you to think of their
relationship. In reality they are all three existent
from eternity; they are existential. They are without
beginning or ending of days; they are co-ordinate,
supreme, ultimate, absolute, and infinite. They are and
always have been and ever shall be. And they are three
distinctly individualized but eternally associated
persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Spirit.
1. THE GOD OF ACTION
8:1.1
In the eternity of the past, upon the personalization of
the Infinite Spirit the divine personality cycle becomes
perfect and complete. The God of Action is existent, and
the vast stage of space is set for the stupendous drama
of creation -- the universal adventure -- the divine
panorama of the eternal ages.
8:1.2
The first act of the Infinite Spirit is the inspection
and recognition of his divine parents, the Father-Father
and the Mother-Son. He, the Spirit, unqualifiedly
identifies both of them. He is fully cognizant of their
separate personalities and infinite attributes as well
as of their combined nature and united function. Next,
voluntarily, with transcendent willingness and inspiring
spontaneity, the Third Person of Deity, notwithstanding
his equality with the First and Second Persons, pledges
eternal loyalty to God the Father and acknowledges
everlasting dependence upon God the Son.
8:1.3
Inherent in the nature of this transaction and in mutual
recognition of the personality independence of each and
the executive union of all three, the cycle of eternity
is established. The Paradise Trinity is existent. The
stage of universal space is set for the manifold and
never-ending panorama of the creative unfolding of the
purpose of the Universal Father through the personality
of the Eternal Son and by the execution of the God of
Action, the executive agency for the reality
performances of the Father-Son creator partnership.
8:1.4
The God of Action functions and the dead vaults of space
are astir. One billion perfect spheres flash into
existence. Prior to this hypothetical eternity moment
the space-energies inherent in Paradise are existent and
potentially operative, but they have no actuality of
being; neither can physical gravity be measured except
by the reaction of material realities to its incessant
pull. There is no material universe at this (assumed)
eternally distant moment, but the very instant that one
billion worlds materialize, there is in evidence gravity
sufficient and adequate to hold them in the everlasting
grasp of Paradise.
8:1.5
There now flashes through the creation of the Gods the
second form of energy, and this outflowing spirit is
instantly grasped by the spiritual gravity of the
Eternal Son. Thus the twofold gravity-embraced universe
is touched with the energy of infinity and immersed in
the spirit of divinity. In this way is the soil of life
prepared for the consciousness of mind made manifest in
the associated intelligence circuits of the Infinite
Spirit.
8:1.6
Upon these seeds of potential existence, diffused
throughout the central creation of the Gods, the Father
acts, and creature personality appears. Then does the
presence of the Paradise Deities fill all organized
space and begin effectively to draw all things and
beings Paradiseward.
8:1.7
The Infinite Spirit eternalizes concurrently with the
birth of the Havona worlds, this central universe being
created by him and with him and in him in obedience to
the combined concepts and united wills of the Father and
the Son. The Third Person deitizes by this very act of
conjoint creation, and he thus forever becomes the
Conjoint Creator.
8:1.8
These are the grand and awful times of the creative
expansion of the Father and the Son by, and in, the
action of their conjoint associate and exclusive
executive, the Third Source and Center. There exists no
record of these stirring times. We have only the meager
disclosures of the Infinite Spirit to substantiate these
mighty transactions, and he merely verifies the fact
that the central universe and all that pertains thereto
eternalized simultaneously with his attainment of
personality and conscious existence.
8:1.9
In brief, the Infinite Spirit testifies that, since he
is eternal, so also is the central universe eternal. And
this is the traditional starting point of the history of
the universe of universes. Absolutely nothing is known,
and no records are in existence, regarding any event or
transaction prior to this stupendous eruption of
creative energy and administrative wisdom that
crystallized the vast universe which exists, and so
exquisitely functions, at the center of all things.
Beyond this event lie the unsearchable transactions of
eternity and the depths of infinity -- absolute mystery.
8:1.10
And we thus portray the sequential origin of the Third
Source and Center as an interpretative condescension to
the time-bound and space-conditioned mind of mortal
creatures. The mind of man must have a starting point
for the visualization of universe history, and I have
been directed to provide this technique of approach to
the historic concept of eternity. In the material mind,
consistency demands a First Cause; therefore do we
postulate the Universal Father as the First Source and
the Absolute Center of all creation, at the same time
instructing all creature minds that the Son and the
Spirit are coeternal with the Father in all phases of
universe history and in all realms of creative activity.
And we do this without in any sense being disregardful
of the reality and eternity of the Isle of Paradise and
of the Unqualified, Universal, and Deity Absolutes.
8:1.11
It is enough of a reach of the material mind of the
children of time to conceive of the Father in eternity.
We know that any child can best relate himself to
reality by first mastering the relationships of the
child-parent situation and then by enlarging this
concept to embrace the family as a whole. Subsequently
the growing mind of the child will be able to adjust to
the concept of family relations, to relationships of the
community, the race, and the world, and then to those of
the universe, the superuniverse, even the universe of
universes.
2. NATURE OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT
8:2.1
The Conjoint Creator is from eternity and is wholly and
without qualification one with the Universal Father and
the Eternal Son. The Infinite Spirit reflects in
perfection not only the nature of the Paradise Father
but also the nature of the Original Son.
8:2.2
The Third Source and Center is known by numerous titles:
the Universal Spirit, the Supreme Guide, the Conjoint
Creator, the Divine Executive, the Infinite Mind, the
Spirit of Spirits, the Paradise Mother Spirit, the
Conjoint Actor, the Final Co-ordinator, the Omnipresent
Spirit, the Absolute Intelligence, the Divine Action;
and on Urantia he is sometimes confused with the cosmic
mind.
8:2.3
It is altogether proper to denominate the Third Person
of Deity the Infinite Spirit, for God is spirit. But
material creatures who tend towards the error of viewing
matter as basic reality and mind, together with spirit,
as postulates rooted in matter, would better comprehend
the Third Source and Center if he were called the
Infinite Reality, the Universal Organizer, or the
Personality Co-ordinator.
8:2.4
The Infinite Spirit, as a universe revelation of
divinity, is unsearchable and utterly beyond human
comprehension. To sense the absoluteness of the Spirit,
you need only contemplate the infinity of the Universal
Father and stand in awe of the eternity of the Original
Son.
8:2.5
There is mystery indeed in the person of the Infinite
Spirit but not so much as in the Father and the Son. Of
all aspects of the Father's nature, the Conjoint Creator
most strikingly discloses his infinity. Even if the
master universe eventually expands to infinity, the
spirit presence, energy control, and mind potential of
the Conjoint Actor will be found adequate to meet the
demands of such a limitless creation.
8:2.6
Though in every way sharing the perfection, the
righteousness, and the love of the Universal Father, the
Infinite Spirit inclines towards the mercy attributes of
the Eternal Son, thus becoming the mercy minister of the
Paradise Deities to the grand universe. Ever and always
-- universally and eternally -- the Spirit is a mercy
minister, for, as the divine Sons reveal the love of
God, so the divine Spirit depicts the mercy of God.
8:2.7
It is not possible that the Spirit could have more of
goodness than the Father since all goodness takes origin
in the Father, but in the acts of the Spirit we can the
better comprehend such goodness. The Father's
faithfulness and the Son's constancy are made very real
to the spirit beings and the material creatures of the
spheres by the loving ministry and ceaseless service of
the personalities of the Infinite Spirit.
8:2.8
The Conjoint Creator inherits all the Father's beauty of
thought and character of truth. And these sublime traits
of divinity are co-ordinated in the near-supreme levels
of the cosmic mind in subordination to the infinite and
eternal wisdom of the unconditioned and limitless mind
of the Third Source and Center.
3. RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER AND THE SON
8:3.1
As the Eternal Son is the word expression of the "first"
absolute and infinite thought of the Universal Father,
so the Conjoint Actor is the perfect execution of the
"first" completed creative concept or plan for combined
action by the Father-Son personality partnership of
absolute thought-word union. The Third Source and Center
eternalizes concurrently with the central or fiat
creation, and only this central creation is eternal in
existence among universes.
8:3.2
Since the personalization of the Third Source, the First
Source no more personally participates in universe
creation. The Universal Father delegates everything
possible to his Eternal Son; likewise does the Eternal
Son bestow all possible authority and power upon the
Conjoint Creator.
8:3.3
The Eternal Son and the Conjoint Creator have, as
partners and through their co-ordinate personalities,
planned and fashioned every post-Havona universe which
has been brought into existence. The Spirit sustains the
same personal relation to the Son in all subsequent
creation that the Son sustains to the Father in the
first and central creation.
8:3.4
A Creator Son of the Eternal Son and a Creative Spirit
of the Infinite Spirit created you and your universe;
and while the Father in faithfulness upholds that which
they have organized, it devolves upon this Universe Son
and this Universe Spirit to foster and sustain their
work as well as to minister to the creatures of their
own making.
8:3.5
The Infinite Spirit is the effective agent of the
all-loving Father and the all-merciful Son for the
execution of their conjoint project of drawing to
themselves all truth-loving souls on all the worlds of
time and space. The very instant the Eternal Son
accepted his Father's plan of perfection attainment for
the creatures of the universes, the moment the ascension
project became a Father-Son plan, that instant the
Infinite Spirit became the conjoint administrator of the
Father and the Son for the execution of their united and
eternal purpose. And in so doing the Infinite Spirit
pledged all his resources of divine presence and of
spirit personalities to the Father and the Son; he has
dedicated all to the stupendous plan of exalting
surviving will creatures to the divine heights of
Paradise perfection.
8:3.6
The Infinite Spirit is a complete, exclusive, and
universal revelation of the Universal Father and his
Eternal Son. All knowledge of the Father-Son partnership
must be had through the Infinite Spirit, the conjoint
representative of the divine thought-word union.
8:3.7
The Eternal Son is the only avenue of approach to the
Universal Father, and the Infinite Spirit is the only
means of attaining the Eternal Son. Only by the patient
ministry of the Spirit are the ascendant beings of time
able to discover the Son.
8:3.8
At the center of all things the Infinite Spirit is the
first of the Paradise Deities to be attained by the
ascending pilgrims. The Third Person enshrouds the
Second and the First Persons and therefore must always
be first recognized by all who are candidates for
presentation to the Son and his Father.
8:3.9
And in many other ways does the Spirit equally represent
and similarly serve the Father and the Son.
4. THE SPIRIT OF DIVINE MINISTRY
8:4.1
Paralleling the physical universe wherein Paradise
gravity holds all things together is the spiritual
universe wherein the word of the Son interprets the
thought of God and, when "made flesh," demonstrates the
loving mercy of the combined nature of the associated
Creators. But in and through all this material and
spiritual creation there is a vast stage whereon the
Infinite Spirit and his spirit offspring show forth the
combined mercy, patience, and everlasting affection of
the divine parents towards the intelligent children of
their co-operative devising and making. Everlasting
ministry to mind is the essence of the Spirit's divine
character. And all the spirit offspring of the Conjoint
Actor partake of this desire to minister, this divine
urge to service.
8:4.2
God is love, the Son is mercy, the Spirit is ministry --
the ministry of divine love and endless mercy to all
intelligent creation. The Spirit is the personification
of the Father's love and the Son's mercy; in him are
they eternally united for universal service. The Spirit
is love applied
to the creature creation, the combined love of the
Father and the Son.
8:4.3
On Urantia the Infinite Spirit is known as an
omnipresent influence, a universal presence, but in
Havona you shall know him as a personal presence of
actual ministry. Here the ministry of the Paradise
Spirit is the exemplary and inspiring pattern for each
of his co-ordinate Spirits and subordinate personalities
ministering to the created beings on the worlds of time
and space. In this divine universe the Infinite Spirit
fully participated in the seven transcendental
appearances of the Eternal Son; likewise did he
participate with the original Michael Son in the seven
bestowals upon the circuits of Havona, thereby becoming
the sympathetic and understanding spirit minister to
every pilgrim of time traversing these perfect circles
on high.
8:4.4
When a Creator Son of God accepts the creatorship charge
of responsibility for a projected local universe, the
personalities of the Infinite Spirit pledge themselves
as the tireless ministers of this Michael Son when he
goes forth on his mission of creative adventure.
Especially in the persons of the Creative Daughters, the
local universe Mother Spirits, do we find the Infinite
Spirit devoted to the task of fostering the ascension of
the material creatures to higher and higher levels of
spiritual attainment. And all this work of creature
ministry is done in perfect harmony with the purposes,
and in close association with the personalities, of the
Creator Sons of these local universes.
8:4.5
As the Sons of God are engaged in the gigantic task of
revealing the Father's personality of love to a
universe, so is the Infinite Spirit dedicated to the
unending ministry of revealing the combined love of the
Father and the Son to the individual minds of all the
children of each universe. In these local creations the
Spirit does not come down to the material races in the
likeness of mortal flesh as do certain of the Sons of
God, but the Infinite Spirit and his co-ordinate Spirits
do downstep themselves, do joyfully undergo an amazing
series of divinity attenuations, until they appear as
angels to stand by your side and guide you through the
lowly paths of earthly existence.
8:4.6
By this very diminishing series the Infinite Spirit does
actually, and as a person, draw very near to every being
of the animal-origin spheres. And all this the Spirit
does without in the least invalidating his existence as
the Third Person of Deity at the center of all things.
8:4.7
The Conjoint Creator is truly and forever the great
ministering personality, the universal mercy minister.
To comprehend the ministry of the Spirit, ponder the
truth that he is the combined portrayal of the Father's
unending love and of the Son's eternal mercy. The
Spirit's ministry is not, however, restricted solely to
the representation of the Eternal Son and the Universal
Father. The Infinite Spirit also possesses the power to
minister to the creatures of the realm in his own name
and right; the Third Person is of divine dignity and
also bestows the universal ministry of mercy in his own
behalf.
8:4.8
As man learns more of the loving and tireless ministry
of the lower orders of the creature family of this
Infinite Spirit, he will all the more admire and adore
the transcendent nature and matchless character of this
combined Action of the Universal Father and the Eternal
Son. Indeed is this Spirit "the eyes of the Lord which
are ever over the righteous" and "the divine ears which
are ever open to their prayers."
5. THE PRESENCE OF GOD
8:5.1
The outstanding attribute of the Infinite Spirit is
omnipresence. Throughout all the universe of universes
there is everywhere present this all-pervading spirit,
which is so akin to the presence of a universal and
divine mind. Both the Second Person and the Third Person
of Deity are represented on all worlds by their
ever-present spirits.
8:5.2
The Father is
infinite and is therefore limited only by volition.
In the bestowal of Adjusters and in the encircuitment of
personality, the Father acts alone, but in the contact
of spirit forces with intelligent beings, he utilizes
the spirits and personalities of the Eternal Son and the
Infinite Spirit. He is at will spiritually present
equally with the Son or with the Conjoint Actor; he is
present with
the Son and in
the Spirit. The Father is most certainly everywhere
present, and we discern his presence by and through any
and all of these diverse but associated forces,
influences, and presences.
8:5.3
In your sacred writings the term
Spirit of God
seems to be used interchangeably to designate both the
Infinite Spirit on Paradise and the Creative Spirit of
your local universe. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual
circuit of this Creative Daughter of the Paradise
Infinite Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a circuit indigenous
to each local universe and is confined to the spiritual
realm of that creation; but the Infinite Spirit is
omnipresent.
8:5.4
There are many spiritual influences, and they are all as
one. Even the
work of the Thought Adjusters, though independent of all
other influences, unvaryingly coincides with the spirit
ministry of the combined influences of the Infinite
Spirit and a local universe Mother Spirit. As these
spiritual presences operate in the lives of Urantians,
they cannot be segregated. In your minds and upon your
souls they function as one spirit, notwithstanding their
diverse origins. And as this united spiritual
ministration is experienced, it becomes to you the
influence of the Supreme, "who is ever able to keep you
from failing and to present you blameless before your
Father on high."
8:5.5
Ever remember that the Infinite Spirit is the
Conjoint
Actor; both the Father and the Son are functioning in
and through him; he is present not only as himself but
also as the Father and as the Son and as the Father-Son.
In recognition of this and for many additional reasons
the spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit is often
referred to as "the spirit of God."
8:5.6
It would also be consistent to refer to the liaison of
all spiritual ministry as the spirit of God, for such a
liaison is truly the union of the spirits of God the
Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and God the
Sevenfold -- even the spirit of God the Supreme.
6. PERSONALITY OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT
8:6.1
Do not allow the widespread bestowal and the far-flung
distribution of the Third Source and Center to obscure
or otherwise detract from the fact of his personality.
The Infinite Spirit is a universe presence, an eternal
action, a cosmic power, a holy influence, and a
universal mind; he is all of these and infinitely more,
but he is also a true and divine personality.
8:6.2
The Infinite Spirit is a complete and perfect
personality, the divine equal and co-ordinate of the
Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Conjoint
Creator is just as real and visible to the higher
intelligences of the universes as are the Father and the
Son; indeed more so, for it is the Spirit whom all
ascenders must attain before they may approach the
Father through the Son.
8:6.3
The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity, is
possessed of all the attributes which you associate with
personality. The Spirit is endowed with absolute mind:
"The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of
God." The Spirit is endowed not only with mind but also
with will. In the bestowal of his gifts it is recorded:
"But all these works that one and the selfsame Spirit,
dividing to every man severally and as he wills."
8:6.4
"The love of the Spirit" is real, as also are his
sorrows; therefore "Grieve not the Spirit of God."
Whether we observe the Infinite Spirit as Paradise Deity
or as a local universe Creative Spirit, we find that the
Conjoint Creator is not only the Third Source and Center
but also a divine person. This divine personality also
reacts to the universe as a person. The Spirit speaks to
you, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
says." "The Spirit himself makes intercession for you."
The Spirit exerts a direct and personal influence upon
created beings, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God."
8:6.5
Even though we behold the phenomenon of the ministry of
the Infinite Spirit to the remote worlds of the universe
of universes, even though we envisage this same
co-ordinating Deity acting in and through the untold
legions of the manifold beings who take origin in the
Third Source and Center, even though we recognize the
omnipresence of the Spirit, nonetheless, we still affirm
that this same Third Source and Center is a person, the
Conjoint Creator of all things and all beings and all
universes.
8:6.6
In the administration of universes the Father, Son, and
Spirit are perfectly and eternally interassociated.
Though each is engaged in a personal ministry to all
creation, all three are divinely and absolutely
interlocked in a service of creation and control which
forever makes them
one.
8:6.7
In the person of the Infinite Spirit the Father and the
Son are mutually present, always and in unqualified
perfection, for the Spirit is like the Father and like
the Son, and also like the Father and the Son as they
two are forever one.
8:6.8
Presented on Urantia by a Divine Counselor of Uversa
commissioned by the Ancients of Days to portray the
nature and work of the Infinite Spirit.
*
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