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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 27
MINISTRY OF THE PRIMARY SUPERNAPHIM
27:0.1
PRIMARY supernaphim are the supernal servants of the
Deities on the eternal Isle of Paradise. Never have they
been known to depart from the paths of light and
righteousness. The roll calls are complete; from
eternity not one of this magnificent host has been lost.
These high supernaphim are perfect beings, supreme in
perfection, but they are not absonite, neither are they
absolute. Being of the essence of perfection, these
children of the Infinite Spirit work interchangeably and
at will in all phases of their manifold duties. They do
not function extensively outside Paradise, though they
do participate in the various millennial gatherings and
group reunions of the central universe. They also go
forth as special messengers of the Deities, and in large
numbers they ascend to become Technical Advisers.
27:0.2
Primary supernaphim are also placed in command of the
seraphic hosts ministering on worlds isolated because of
rebellion. When a Paradise Son is bestowed upon such a
world, completes his mission, ascends to the Universal
Father, is accepted, and returns as the accredited
deliverer of this isolated world, a primary supernaphim
is always designated by the chiefs of assignment to
assume command of the ministering spirits on duty in the
newly reclaimed sphere. Supernaphim in this special
service are periodically rotated. On Urantia the present
"chief of seraphim" is the second of this order to be on
duty since the times of the bestowal of Christ Michael.
27:0.3
From eternity the primary supernaphim have served on the
Isle of Light and have gone forth on missions of
leadership to the worlds of space, but they have
functioned as now classified only since the arrival on
Paradise of the Havona pilgrims of time. These high
angels now minister chiefly in the following seven
orders of service:
1. Conductors of Worship.
2. Masters of Philosophy.
3. Custodians of Knowledge.
4. Directors of Conduct.
5. Interpreters of Ethics.
6. Chiefs of Assignment.
7. Instigators of Rest.
27:0.4
Not until the ascending pilgrims actually attain
Paradise residence do they come under the direct
influence of these supernaphim, and then they pass
through a training experience under the direction of
these angels in the reverse order of their naming. That
is, you enter upon your Paradise career under the
tutelage of the instigators of rest and, after
successive seasons with the intervening orders, finish
this training period with the conductors of worship.
Thereupon are you ready to begin the endless career of a
finaliter.
1. INSTIGATORS OF REST
27:1.1
The instigators of rest are the inspectors of Paradise
who go forth from the central Isle to the inner circuit
of Havona, there to collaborate with their colleagues,
the complements of rest of the secondary order of
supernaphim. The one essential to the enjoyment of
Paradise is rest, divine rest; and these instigators of
rest are the final instructors who make ready the
pilgrims of time for their introduction to eternity.
They begin their work on the final attainment circle of
the central universe and continue it when the pilgrim
awakes from the last transition sleep, the slumber which
graduates a creature of space into the realm of the
eternal.
27:1.2
Rest is of a sevenfold nature: There is the rest of
sleep and of play in the lower life orders, discovery in
the higher beings, and worship in the highest type of
spirit personality. There is also the normal rest of
energy intake, the recharging of beings with physical or
with spiritual energy. And then there is the transit
sleep, the unconscious slumber when enseraphimed, when
in passage from one sphere to another. Entirely
different from all of these is the deep sleep of
metamorphosis, the transition rest from one stage of
being to another, from one life to another, from one
state of existence to another, the sleep which ever
attends transition from actual universe
status in
contrast to evolution through various
stages of any
one status.
27:1.3
But the last metamorphic sleep is something more than
those previous transition slumbers which have marked the
successive status attainments of the ascendant career;
thereby do the creatures of time and space traverse the
innermost margins of the temporal and the spatial to
attain residential status in the timeless and spaceless
abodes of Paradise. The instigators and the complements
of rest are just as essential to this transcending
metamorphosis as are the seraphim and associated beings
to the mortal creature's survival of death.
27:1.4
You enter the rest on the final Havona circuit and are
eternally resurrected on Paradise. And as you there
spiritually repersonalize, you will immediately
recognize the instigator of rest who welcomes you to the
eternal shores as the very primary supernaphim who
produced the final sleep on the innermost circuit of
Havona; and you will recall the last grand stretch of
faith as you once again made ready to commend the
keeping of your identity into the hands of the Universal
Father.
27:1.5
The last rest of time has been enjoyed; the last
transition sleep has been experienced; now you awake to
life everlasting on the shores of the eternal abode.
"And there shall be no more sleep. The presence of God
and his Son are before you, and you are eternally his
servants; you have seen his face, and his name is your
spirit. There shall be no night there; and they need no
light of the sun, for the Great Source and Center gives
them light; they shall live forever and ever. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain, for the former things have
passed away."
2. CHIEFS OF ASSIGNMENT
27:2.1
This is the group designated from time to time by the
chief supernaphim, "the original pattern angel," to
preside over the organization of all three orders of
these angels -- primary, secondary, and tertiary. The
supernaphim, as a body, are wholly self-governing and
self-regulatory except for the functions of their mutual
chief, the first angel of Paradise, who ever presides
over all these spirit personalities.
27:2.2
The angels of assignment have much to do with glorified
mortal residents of Paradise before they are admitted to
the Corps of the Finality. Study and instruction are not
the exclusive occupations of Paradise arrivals; service
also plays its essential part in the prefinaliter
educational experiences of Paradise. And I have observed
that, when the ascendant mortals have periods of
leisure, they evince a predilection to fraternize with
the reserve corps of the superaphic chiefs of
assignment.
27:2.3
When you mortal ascenders attain Paradise, your societal
relationships involve a great deal more than contact
with a host of exalted and divine beings and with a
familiar multitude of glorified fellow mortals. You must
also fraternize with upwards of three thousand different
orders of Paradise Citizens, with the various groups of
the Transcendentalers, and with numerous other types of
Paradise inhabitants, permanent and transient, who have
not been revealed on Urantia. After sustained contact
with these mighty intellects of Paradise, it is very
restful to visit with the angelic types of mind; they
remind the mortals of time of the seraphim with whom
they have had such long contact and such refreshing
association.
3. INTERPRETERS OF ETHICS
27:3.1
The higher you ascend in the scale of life, the more
attention must be paid to universe ethics. Ethical
awareness is simply the recognition by any individual of
the rights inherent in the existence of any and all
other individuals. But spiritual ethics far transcends
the mortal and even the morontia concept of personal and
group relations.
27:3.2
Ethics has been duly taught and adequately learned by
the pilgrims of time in their long ascent to the glories
of Paradise. As this inward-ascending career has
unfolded from the nativity worlds of space, the
ascenders have continued to add group after group to
their ever-widening circle of universe associates. Every
new group of colleagues met with adds one more level of
ethics to be recognized and complied with until, by the
time the mortals of ascent reach Paradise, they really
need someone to provide helpful and friendly counsel
regarding ethical interpretations. They do not need to
be taught ethics, but they do need to have what they
have so laboriously learned properly
interpreted
to them as they are brought face to face with the
extraordinary task of contacting with so much that is
new.
27:3.3
The interpreters of ethics are of inestimable assistance
to the Paradise arrivals in helping them to adjust to
numerous groups of majestic beings during that eventful
period extending from the attainment of residential
status to formal induction into the Corps of Mortal
Finaliters. Many of the numerous types of Paradise
Citizens the ascendant pilgrims have already met on the
seven circuits of Havona. The glorified mortals have
also enjoyed intimate contact with the
creature-trinitized sons of the conjoint corps on the
inner Havona circuit, where these beings are receiving
much of their education. And on the other circuits the
ascending pilgrims have met numerous unrevealed
residents of the Paradise-Havona system who are there
pursuing group training in preparation for the
unrevealed assignments of the future.
27:3.4
All these celestial companionships are invariably
mutual. As ascending mortals you not only derive benefit
from these successive universe companions and such
numerous orders of increasingly divine associates, but
you also impart to each of these fraternal beings
something from your own personality and experience which
forever makes every one of them different and better for
having been associated with an ascending mortal from the
evolutionary worlds of time and space.
4. DIRECTORS OF CONDUCT
27:4.1
Having already been fully instructed in the ethics of
Paradise relationships -- neither meaningless
formalities nor the dictations of artificial castes but
rather the inherent proprieties -- the ascendant mortals
find it helpful to receive the counsel of the superaphic
directors of conduct, who instruct the new members of
Paradise society in the usages of the perfect conduct of
the high beings who sojourn on the central Isle of Light
and Life.
27:4.2
Harmony is the keynote of the central universe, and
detectable order prevails on Paradise. Proper conduct is
essential to progress by way of knowledge, through
philosophy, to the spiritual heights of spontaneous
worship. There is a divine technique in the approach to
Divinity; and the acquirement of this technique must
await the pilgrims' arrival on Paradise. The spirit of
it has been imparted on the circles of Havona, but the
final touches of the training of the pilgrims of time
can be applied only after they actually attain the Isle
of Light.
27:4.3
All Paradise conduct is wholly spontaneous, in every
sense natural and free. But there still is a proper and
perfect way of doing things on the eternal Isle, and the
directors of conduct are ever by the side of the
"strangers within the gates" to instruct them and so
guide their steps as to put them at perfect ease and at
the same time to enable the pilgrims to avoid that
confusion and uncertainty which would otherwise be
inevitable. Only by such an arrangement could endless
confusion be avoided; and confusion never appears on
Paradise.
27:4.4
These directors of conduct really serve as glorified
teachers and guides. They are chiefly concerned with
instructing the new mortal residents regarding the
almost endless array of new situations and unfamiliar
usages. Notwithstanding all the long preparation
therefor and the long journey thereto, Paradise is still
inexpressibly strange and unexpectedly new to those who
finally attain residential status.
5. THE CUSTODIANS OF KNOWLEDGE
27:5.1
The superaphic custodians of knowledge are the higher
"living epistles" known and read by all who dwell on
Paradise. They are the divine records of truth, the
living books of real knowledge. You have heard about
records in the "book of life." The custodians of
knowledge are just such living books, records of
perfection imprinted upon the eternal tablets of divine
life and supreme surety. They are in reality living,
automatic libraries. The facts of the universes are
inherent in these primary supernaphim, actually recorded
in these angels; and it is also inherently impossible
for an untruth to gain lodgment in the minds of these
perfect and replete repositories of the truth of
eternity and the intelligence of time.
27:5.2
These custodians conduct informal courses of instruction
for the residents of the eternal Isle, but their chief
function is that of reference and verification. Any
sojourner on Paradise may at will have by his side the
living repository of the particular fact or truth he may
wish to know. At the northern extremity of the Isle
there are available the living finders of knowledge, who
will designate the director of the group holding the
information sought, and forthwith will appear the
brilliant beings who
are the very
thing you wish to know. No longer must you seek
enlightenment from engrossed pages; you now commune with
living intelligence face to face. Supreme knowledge you
thus obtain from the living beings who are its final
custodians.
27:5.3
When you locate that supernaphim who is exactly what you
desire to verify, you will find available
all the known
facts of all universes, for these custodians of
knowledge are the final and living summaries of the vast
network of the recording angels, ranging from the
seraphim and seconaphim of the local and superuniverses
to the chief recorders of the tertiary supernaphim in
Havona. And this living accumulation of knowledge is
distinct from the formal records of Paradise, the
cumulative summary of universal history.
27:5.4
The wisdom of truth takes origin in the divinity of the
central universe, but knowledge, experiential knowledge,
largely has its beginnings in the domains of time and
space -- therefore the necessity for the maintenance of
the far-flung superuniverse organizations of the
recording seraphim and supernaphim sponsored by the
Celestial Recorders.
27:5.5
These primary supernaphim who are inherently in
possession of universe knowledge are also responsible
for its organization and classification. In constituting
themselves the living reference library of the universe
of universes, they have classified knowledge into seven
grand orders, each having about one million
subdivisions. The facility with which the residents of
Paradise can consult this vast store of knowledge is
solely due to the voluntary and wise efforts of the
custodians of knowledge. The custodians are also the
exalted teachers of the central universe, freely giving
out their living treasures to all beings on any of the
Havona circuits, and they are extensively, though
indirectly, utilized by the courts of the Ancients of
Days. But this living library, which is available to the
central and superuniverses, is not accessible to the
local creations. Only by indirection and reflectively
are the benefits of Paradise knowledge secured in the
local universes.
6. MASTERS OF PHILOSOPHY
27:6.1
Next to the supreme satisfaction of worship is the
exhilaration of philosophy. Never do you climb so high
or advance so far that there do not remain a thousand
mysteries which demand the employment of philosophy in
an attempted solution.
27:6.2
The master philosophers of Paradise delight to lead the
minds of its inhabitants, both native and ascendant, in
the exhilarating pursuit of attempting to solve universe
problems. These superaphic masters of philosophy are the
"wise men of heaven," the beings of wisdom who make use
of the truth of knowledge and the facts of experience in
their efforts to master the unknown. With them knowledge
attains to truth and experience ascends to wisdom. On
Paradise the ascendant personalities of space experience
the heights of being: They have knowledge; they know the
truth; they may philosophize -- think the truth; they
may even seek to encompass the concepts of the Ultimate
and attempt to grasp the techniques of the Absolutes.
27:6.3
At the southern extremity of the vast Paradise domain
the masters of philosophy conduct elaborate courses in
the seventy functional divisions of wisdom. Here they
discourse upon the plans and purposes of Infinity and
seek to co-ordinate the experiences, and to compose the
knowledge, of all who have access to their wisdom. They
have developed a highly specialized attitude toward
various universe problems, but their final conclusions
are always in uniform agreement.
27:6.4
These Paradise philosophers teach by every possible
method of instruction, including the higher graph
technique of Havona and certain Paradise methods of
communicating information. All of these higher
techniques of imparting knowledge and conveying ideas
are utterly beyond the comprehension capacity of even
the most highly developed human mind. One hour's
instruction on Paradise would be the equivalent of ten
thousand years of the word-memory methods of Urantia.
You cannot grasp such communication techniques, and
there is simply nothing in mortal experience with which
they may be compared, nothing to which they can be
likened.
27:6.5
The masters of philosophy take supreme pleasure in
imparting their interpretation of the universe of
universes to those beings who have ascended from the
worlds of space. And while philosophy can never be as
settled in its conclusions as the facts of knowledge and
the truths of experience, yet, when you have listened to
these primary supernaphim discourse upon the unsolved
problems of eternity and the performances of the
Absolutes, you will feel a certain and lasting
satisfaction concerning these unmastered questions.
27:6.6
These intellectual pursuits of Paradise are not
broadcast; the philosophy of perfection is available
only to those who are personally present. The encircling
creations know of these teachings only from those who
have passed through this experience, and who have
subsequently carried this wisdom out to the universes of
space.
7. CONDUCTORS OF WORSHIP
27:7.1
Worship is the highest privilege and the first duty of
all created intelligences. Worship is the conscious and
joyous act of recognizing and acknowledging the truth
and fact of the intimate and personal relationships of
the Creators with their creatures. The quality of
worship is determined by the depth of creature
perception; and as the knowledge of the infinite
character of the Gods progresses, the act of worship
becomes increasingly all-encompassing until it
eventually attains the glory of the highest experiential
delight and the most exquisite pleasure known to created
beings.
27:7.2
While the Isle of Paradise contains certain places of
worship, it is more nearly one vast sanctuary of divine
service. Worship is the first and dominant passion of
all who climb to its blissful shores -- the spontaneous
ebullition of the beings who have learned enough of God
to attain his presence. Circle by circle, during the
inward journey through Havona, worship is a growing
passion until on Paradise it becomes necessary to direct
and otherwise control its expression.
27:7.3
The periodic, spontaneous, group, and other special
outbursts of supreme adoration and spiritual praise
enjoyed on Paradise are conducted under the leadership
of a special corps of primary supernaphim. Under the
direction of these conductors of worship, such homage
achieves the creature goal of supreme pleasure and
attains the heights of the perfection of sublime
self-expression and personal enjoyment. All primary
supernaphim crave to be conductors of worship; and all
ascendant beings would enjoy forever remaining in the
attitude of worship did not the chiefs of assignment
periodically disperse these assemblages. But no
ascendant being is ever required to enter upon the
assignments of eternal service until he has attained
full satisfaction in worship.
27:7.4
It is the task of the conductors of worship so to teach
the ascendant creatures how to worship that they may be
enabled to gain this satisfaction of self-expression and
at the same time be able to give attention to the
essential activities of the Paradise regime. Without
improvement in the technique of worship it would require
hundreds of years for the average mortal who reaches
Paradise to give full and satisfactory expression to his
emotions of intelligent appreciation and ascendant
gratitude. The conductors of worship open up new and
hitherto unknown avenues of expression so that these
wonderful children of the womb of space and the travail
of time are enabled to gain the full satisfactions of
worship in much less time.
27:7.5
All the arts of all the beings of the entire universe
which are capable of intensifying and exalting the
abilities of self-expression and the conveyance of
appreciation, are employed to their highest capacity in
the worship of the Paradise Deities.
Worship is the
highest joy of Paradise existence; it is the
refreshing play of Paradise. What play does for your
jaded minds on earth, worship will do for your perfected
souls on Paradise. The mode of worship on Paradise is
utterly beyond mortal comprehension, but the spirit of
it you can begin to appreciate even down here on
Urantia, for the spirits of the Gods even now indwell
you, hover over you, and inspire you to true worship.
27:7.6
There are appointed times and places for worship on
Paradise, but these are not adequate to accommodate the
ever-increasing overflow of the spiritual emotions of
the growing intelligence and expanding divinity
recognition of the brilliant beings of experiential
ascension to the eternal Isle. Never since the times of
Grandfanda have the supernaphim been able fully to
accommodate the spirit of worship on Paradise. Always is
there an excess of worshipfulness as gauged by the
preparation therefor. And this is because personalities
of inherent perfection never can fully appreciate the
tremendous reactions of the spiritual emotions of beings
who have slowly and laboriously made their way upward to
Paradise glory from the depths of the spiritual darkness
of the lower worlds of time and space. When such angels
and mortals of time attain the presence of the Powers of
Paradise, there occurs the expression of the accumulated
emotions of the ages, a spectacle astounding to the
angels of Paradise and productive of the supreme joy of
divine satisfaction in the Paradise Deities.
27:7.7
Sometimes all Paradise becomes engulfed in a dominating
tide of spiritual and worshipful expression. Often the
conductors of worship cannot control such phenomena
until the appearance of the threefold fluctuation of the
light of the Deity abode, signifying that the divine
heart of the Gods has been fully and completely
satisfied by the sincere worship of the residents of
Paradise, the perfect citizens of glory and the
ascendant creatures of time. What a triumph of
technique! What a fruition of the eternal plan and
purpose of the Gods that the intelligent love of the
creature child should give full satisfaction to the
infinite love of the Creator Father!
27:7.8
After the attainment of the supreme satisfaction of the
fullness of worship, you are qualified for admission to
the Corps of the Finality. The ascendant career is
well-nigh finished, and the seventh jubilee prepares for
celebration. The first jubilee marked the mortal
agreement with the Thought Adjuster when the purpose to
survive was sealed; the second was the awakening in the
morontia life; the third was the fusion with the Thought
Adjuster; the fourth was the awakening in Havona; the
fifth celebrated the finding of the Universal Father;
and the sixth jubilee was the occasion of the Paradise
awakening from the final transit slumber of time. The
seventh jubilee marks entrance into the mortal finaliter
corps and the beginning of the eternity service. The
attainment of the seventh stage of spirit realization by
a finaliter will probably signalize the celebration of
the first of the jubilees of eternity.
27:7.9
And thus ends the story of the Paradise supernaphim, the
highest order of all the ministering spirits, those
beings who, as a universal class, ever attend you from
the world of your origin until you are finally bidden
farewell by the conductors of worship as you take the
Trinity oath of eternity and are mustered into the
Mortal Corps of the Finality.
27:7.10
The endless service of the Paradise Trinity is about to
begin; and now the finaliter is face to face with the
challenge of God the Ultimate.
27:7.11
Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.
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