|
The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
Part II: The Local Universe: Papers 32-56
*
PART II
The Local Universe
PAPER 32
THE EVOLUTION OF LOCAL UNIVERSES
32:0.1
A LOCAL universe is the handiwork of a Creator Son of
the Paradise order of Michael. It comprises one hundred
constellations, each embracing one hundred systems of
inhabited worlds. Each system will eventually contain
approximately one thousand inhabited spheres.
32:0.2
These universes of time and space are all evolutionary.
The creative plan of the Paradise Michaels always
proceeds along the path of gradual evolvement and
progressive development of the physical, intellectual,
and spiritual natures and capacities of the manifold
creatures who inhabit the varied orders of spheres
comprising such a local universe.
32:0.3
Urantia belongs to a local universe whose sovereign is
the God-man of Nebadon, Jesus of Nazareth and Michael of
Salvington. And all of Michael's plans for this local
universe were fully approved by the Paradise Trinity
before he ever embarked upon the supreme adventure of
space.
32:0.4
The Sons of God may choose the realms of their creator
activities, but these material creations were originally
projected and planned by the Paradise Architects of the
Master Universe.
1. PHYSICAL EMERGENCE OF UNIVERSES
32:1.1
The preuniverse manipulations of space-force and the
primordial energies are the work of the Paradise Master
Force Organizers; but in the superuniverse domains, when
emergent energy becomes responsive to local or linear
gravity, they retire in favor of the power directors of
the superuniverse concerned.
32:1.2
These power directors function alone in the prematerial
and postforce phases of a local universe creation. There
is no opportunity for a Creator Son to begin universe
organization until the power directors have effected the
mobilization of the space-energies sufficiently to
provide a material foundation -- literal suns and
material spheres -- for the emerging universe.
32:1.3
The local universes are all approximately of the same
energy potential, though they differ greatly in physical
dimensions and may vary in visible-matter content from
time to time. The power charge and potential-matter
endowment of a local universe are determined by the
manipulations of the power directors and their
predecessors as well as by the Creator Son's activities
and by the endowment of the inherent physical control
possessed by his creative associate.
32:1.4
The energy charge of a local universe is approximately
one one-hundred-thousandth of the force endowment of its
superuniverse. In the case of Nebadon, your local
universe, the mass materialization is a trifle less.
Physically speaking, Nebadon possesses all of the
physical endowment of energy and matter that may be
found in any of the Orvonton local creations. The only
physical limitation upon the developmental expansion of
the Nebadon universe consists in the quantitative charge
of space-energy held captive by the gravity control of
the associated powers and personalities of the combined
universe mechanism.
32:1.5
When energy-matter has attained a certain stage in mass
materialization, a Paradise Creator Son appears upon the
scene, accompanied by a Creative Daughter of the
Infinite Spirit. Simultaneously with the arrival of the
Creator Son, work is begun upon the architectural sphere
which is to become the headquarters world of the
projected local universe. For long ages such a local
creation evolves, suns become stabilized, planets form
and swing into their orbits, while the work of creating
the architectural worlds which are to serve as
constellation headquarters and system capitals
continues.
2. UNIVERSE ORGANIZATION
32:2.1
The Creator Sons are preceded in universe organization
by the power directors and other beings originating in
the Third Source and Center. From the energies of space,
thus previously organized, Michael, your Creator Son,
established the inhabited realms of the universe of
Nebadon and ever since has been painstakingly devoted to
their administration. From pre-existent energy these
divine Sons materialize visible matter, project living
creatures, and with the co-operation of the universe
presence of the Infinite Spirit, create a diverse
retinue of spirit personalities.
32:2.2
These power directors and energy controllers who long
preceded the Creator Son in the preliminary physical
work of universe organization later serve in magnificent
liaison with this Universe Son, forever remaining in
associated control of those energies which they
originally organized and circuitized. On Salvington
there now function the same one hundred power centers
who co-operated with your Creator Son in the original
formation of this local universe.
32:2.3
The first completed act of physical creation in Nebadon
consisted in the organization of the headquarters world,
the architectural sphere of Salvington, with its
satellites. From the time of the initial moves of the
power centers and physical controllers to the arrival of
the living staff on the completed spheres of Salvington,
there intervened a little over one billion years of your
present planetary time. The construction of Salvington
was immediately followed by the creation of the one
hundred headquarters worlds of the projected
constellations and the ten thousand headquarters spheres
of the projected local systems of planetary control and
administration, together with their architectural
satellites. Such architectural worlds are designed to
accommodate both physical and spiritual personalities as
well as the intervening morontia or transition stages of
being.
32:2.4
Salvington, the headquarters of Nebadon, is situated at
the exact energy-mass center of the local universe. But
your local universe is not a single astronomic system,
though a large system does exist at its physical center.
32:2.5
Salvington is the personal headquarters of Michael of
Nebadon, but he will not always be found there. While
the smooth functioning of your local universe no longer
requires the fixed presence of the Creator Son at the
capital sphere, this was not true of the earlier epochs
of physical organization. A Creator Son is unable to
leave his headquarters world until such a time as
gravity stabilization of the realm has been effected
through the materialization of sufficient energy to
enable the various circuits and systems to
counterbalance one another by mutual material
attraction.
32:2.6
Presently, the physical plan of a universe is completed,
and the Creator Son, in association with the Creative
Spirit, projects his plan of life creation; whereupon
does this representation of the Infinite Spirit begin
her universe function as a distinct creative
personality. When this first creative act is formulated
and executed, there springs into being the Bright and
Morning Star, the personification of this initial
creative concept of identity and ideal of divinity. This
is the chief executive of the universe, the personal
associate of the Creator Son, one like him in all
aspects of character, though markedly limited in the
attributes of divinity.
32:2.7
And now that the right-hand helper and chief executive
of the Creator Son has been provided, there ensues the
bringing into existence of a vast and wonderful array of
diverse creatures. The sons and daughters of the local
universe are forthcoming, and soon thereafter the
government of such a creation is provided, extending
from the supreme councils of the universe to the fathers
of the constellations and the sovereigns of the local
systems -- the aggregations of those worlds which are
designed subsequently to become the homes of the varied
mortal races of will creatures; and each of these worlds
will be presided over by a Planetary Prince.
32:2.8
And then, when such a universe has been so completely
organized and so repletely manned, does the Creator Son
enter into the Father's proposal to create mortal man in
their divine image.
32:2.9
The organization of planetary abodes is still
progressing in Nebadon, for this universe is, indeed, a
young cluster in the starry and planetary realms of
Orvonton. At the last registry there were 3,840,101
inhabited planets in Nebadon, and Satania, the local
system of your world, is fairly typical of other
systems.
32:2.10
Satania is not a uniform physical system, a single
astronomic unit or organization. Its 619 inhabited
worlds are located in over five hundred different
physical systems. Only five have more than two inhabited
worlds, and of these only one has four peopled planets,
while there are forty-six having two inhabited worlds.
32:2.11
The Satania system of inhabited worlds is far removed
from Uversa and that great sun cluster which functions
as the physical or astronomic center of the seventh
superuniverse. From Jerusem, the headquarters of
Satania, it is over two hundred thousand light-years to
the physical center of the superuniverse of Orvonton,
far, far away in the dense diameter of the Milky Way.
Satania is on the periphery of the local universe, and
Nebadon is now well out towards the edge of Orvonton.
From the outermost system of inhabited worlds to the
center of the superuniverse is a trifle less than two
hundred and fifty thousand light-years.
32:2.12
The universe of Nebadon now swings far to the south and
east in the superuniverse circuit of Orvonton. The
nearest neighboring universes are: Avalon, Henselon,
Sanselon, Portalon, Wolvering, Fanoving, and Alvoring.
32:2.13
But the evolution of a local universe is a long
narrative. Papers dealing with the superuniverse
introduce this subject, those of this section, treating
of the local creations, continue it, while those to
follow, touching upon the history and destiny of
Urantia, complete the story. But you can adequately
comprehend the destiny of the mortals of such a local
creation only by a perusal of the narratives of the life
and teachings of your Creator Son as he once lived the
life of man, in the likeness of mortal flesh, on your
own evolutionary world.
3. THE EVOLUTIONARY IDEA
32:3.1
The only creation that is perfectly settled is Havona,
the central universe, which was made directly by the
thought of the Universal Father and the word of the
Eternal Son. Havona is an existential, perfect, and
replete universe, surrounding the home of the eternal
Deities, the center of all things. The creations of the
seven superuniverses are finite, evolutionary, and
consistently progressive.
32:3.2
The physical systems of time and space are all
evolutionary in origin. They are not even physically
stabilized until they are swung into the settled
circuits of their superuniverses. Neither is a local
universe settled in light and life until its physical
possibilities of expansion and development have been
exhausted, and until the spiritual status of all its
inhabited worlds has been forever settled and
stabilized.
32:3.3
Except in the central universe, perfection is a
progressive attainment. In the central creation we have
a pattern of perfection, but all other realms must
attain that perfection by the methods established for
the advancement of those particular worlds or universes.
And an almost infinite variety characterizes the plans
of the Creator Sons for organizing, evolving,
disciplining, and settling their respective local
universes.
32:3.4
With the exception of the deity presence of the Father,
every local universe is, in a certain sense, a
duplication of the administrative organization of the
central or pattern creation. Although the Universal
Father is personally present in the residential
universe, he does not indwell the minds of the beings
originating in that universe as he does literally dwell
with the souls of the mortals of time and space. There
seems to be an all-wise compensation in the adjustment
and regulation of the spiritual affairs of the far-flung
creation. In the central universe the Father is
personally present as such but absent in the minds of
the children of that perfect creation; in the universes
of space the Father is absent in person, being
represented by his Sovereign Sons, while he is
intimately present in the minds of his mortal children,
being spiritually represented by the prepersonal
presence of the Mystery Monitors that reside in the
minds of these will creatures.
32:3.5
On the headquarters of a local universe there reside all
those creator and creative personalities who represent
self-contained authority and administrative autonomy
except the personal presence of the Universal Father. In
the local universe there are to be found something of
everyone and someone of almost every class of
intelligent beings existing in the central universe
except the Universal Father. Although the Universal
Father is not personally present in a local universe, he
is personally represented by its Creator Son, sometime
vicegerent of God and subsequently supreme and sovereign
ruler in his own right.
32:3.6
The farther down the scale of life we go, the more
difficult it becomes to locate, with the eye of faith,
the invisible Father. The lower creatures -- and
sometimes even the higher personalities -- find it
difficult always to envisage the Universal Father in his
Creator Sons. And so, pending the time of their
spiritual exaltation, when perfection of development
will enable them to see God in person, they grow weary
in progression, entertain spiritual doubts, stumble into
confusion, and thus isolate themselves from the
progressive spiritual aims of their time and universe.
In this way they lose the ability to see the Father when
beholding the Creator Son. The surest safeguard for the
creature throughout the long struggle to attain the
Father, during this time when inherent conditions make
such attainment impossible, is tenaciously to hold on to
the truth-fact of the Father's presence in his Sons.
Literally and figuratively, spiritually and personally,
the Father and the Sons are one. It is a fact: He who
has seen a Creator Son has seen the Father.
32:3.7
The personalities of a given universe are settled and
dependable, at the start, only in accordance with their
degree of kinship to Deity. When creature origin departs
sufficiently far from the original and divine Sources,
whether we are dealing with the Sons of God or the
creatures of ministry belonging to the Infinite Spirit,
there is an increase in the possibility of disharmony,
confusion, and sometimes rebellion -- sin.
32:3.8
Excepting perfect beings of Deity origin, all will
creatures in the superuniverses are of evolutionary
nature, beginning in lowly estate and climbing ever
upward, in reality inward. Even highly spiritual
personalities continue to ascend the scale of life by
progressive translations from life to life and from
sphere to sphere. And in the case of those who entertain
the Mystery Monitors, there is indeed no limit to the
possible heights of their spiritual ascent and universe
attainment.
32:3.9
The perfection of the creatures of time, when finally
achieved, is wholly an acquirement, a bona fide
personality possession. While the elements of grace are
freely admixed, nevertheless, the creature attainments
are the result of individual effort and actual living,
personality reaction to the existing environment.
32:3.10
The fact of animal evolutionary origin does not attach
stigma to any personality in the sight of the universe
as that is the exclusive method of producing one of the
two basic types of finite intelligent will creatures.
When the heights of perfection and eternity are
attained, all the more honor to those who began at the
bottom and joyfully climbed the ladder of life, round by
round, and who, when they do reach the heights of glory,
will have gained a personal experience which embodies an
actual knowledge of every phase of life from the bottom
to the top.
32:3.11
In all this is shown the wisdom of the Creators. It
would be just as easy for the Universal Father to make
all mortals perfect beings, to impart perfection by his
divine word. But that would deprive them of the
wonderful experience of the adventure and training
associated with the long and gradual inward climb, an
experience to be had only by those who are so fortunate
as to begin at the very bottom of living existence.
32:3.12
In the universes encircling Havona there are provided
only a sufficient number of perfect creatures to meet
the need for pattern teacher guides for those who are
ascending the evolutionary scale of life. The
experiential nature of the evolutionary type of
personality is the natural cosmic complement of the
ever-perfect natures of the Paradise-Havona creatures.
In reality, both perfect and perfected creatures are
incomplete as regards finite totality. But in the
complemental association of the existentially perfect
creatures of the Paradise-Havona system with the
experientially perfected finaliters ascending from the
evolutionary universes, both types find release from
inherent limitations and thus may conjointly attempt to
reach the sublime heights of the ultimate of creature
status.
32:3.13
These creature transactions are the universe
repercussions of actions and reactions within the
Sevenfold Deity, wherein the eternal divinity of the
Paradise Trinity is conjoined with the evolving divinity
of the Supreme Creators of the time-space universes in,
by, and through the power-actualizing Deity of the
Supreme Being.
32:3.14
The divinely perfect creature and the evolutionary
perfected creature are equal in degree of divinity
potential, but they differ in kind. Each must depend on
the other to attain supremacy of service. The
evolutionary superuniverses depend on perfect Havona to
provide the final training for their ascending citizens,
but so does the perfect central universe require the
existence of the perfecting superuniverses to provide
for the full development of its descending inhabitants.
32:3.15
The two prime manifestations of finite reality, innate
perfection and evolved perfection, be they personalities
or universes, are co-ordinate, dependent, and
integrated. Each requires the other to achieve
completion of function, service, and destiny.
4. GOD'S RELATION TO A LOCAL UNIVERSE
32:4.1
Do not entertain the idea that, since the Universal
Father has delegated so much of himself and his power to
others, he is a silent or inactive member of the Deity
partnership. Aside from personality domains and Adjuster
bestowal, he is apparently the least active of the
Paradise Deities in that he allows his Deity
co-ordinates, his Sons, and numerous created
intelligences to perform so much in the carrying out of
his eternal purpose. He is the silent member of the
creative trio only in that he never does aught which any
of his co-ordinate or subordinate associates can do.
32:4.2
God has full understanding of the need of every
intelligent creature for function and experience, and
therefore, in every situation, be it concerned with the
destiny of a universe or the welfare of the humblest of
his creatures, God retires from activity in favor of the
galaxy of creature and Creator personalities who
inherently intervene between himself and any given
universe situation or creative event. But
notwithstanding this retirement, this exhibition of
infinite co-ordination, there is on God's part an
actual, literal, and personal participation in these
events by and through these ordained agencies and
personalities. The Father is working in and through all
these channels for the welfare of all his far-flung
creation.
32:4.3
As regards the policies, conduct, and administration of
a local universe, the Universal Father acts in the
person of his Creator Son. In the interrelationships of
the Sons of God, in the group associations of the
personalities of origin in the Third Source and Center,
or in the relationship between any other creatures, such
as human beings -- as concerns such associations the
Universal Father never intervenes. The law of the
Creator Son, the rule of the Constellation Fathers, the
System Sovereigns, and the Planetary Princes -- the
ordained policies and procedures for that universe --
always prevail. There is no division of authority; never
is there a cross working of divine power and purpose.
The Deities are in perfect and eternal unanimity.
32:4.4
The Creator Son rules supreme in all matters of ethical
associations, the relations of any division of creatures
to any other class of creatures or of two or more
individuals within any given group; but such a plan does
not mean that the Universal Father may not in his own
way intervene and do aught that pleases the divine mind
with any
individual creature throughout all creation, as
pertains to that individual's present status or future
prospects and as concerns the Father's eternal plan and
infinite purpose.
32:4.5
In the mortal will creatures the Father is actually
present in the indwelling Adjuster, a fragment of his
prepersonal spirit; and the Father is also the source of
the personality of such a mortal will creature.
32:4.6
These Thought Adjusters, the bestowals of the Universal
Father, are comparatively isolated; they indwell human
minds but have no discernible connection with the
ethical affairs of a local creation. They are not
directly co-ordinated with the seraphic service nor with
the administration of systems, constellations, or a
local universe, not even with the rule of a Creator Son,
whose will is the supreme law of his universe.
32:4.7
The indwelling Adjusters are one of God's separate but
unified modes of contact with the creatures of his all
but infinite creation. Thus does he who is invisible to
mortal man manifest his presence, and could he do so, he
would show himself to us in still other ways, but such
further revelation is not divinely possible.
32:4.8
We can see and understand the mechanism whereby the Sons
enjoy intimate and complete knowledge regarding the
universes of their jurisdiction; but we cannot fully
comprehend the methods whereby God is so fully and
personally conversant with the details of the universe
of universes, although we at least can recognize the
avenue whereby the Universal Father can receive
information regarding, and manifest his presence to, the
beings of his immense creation. Through the personality
circuit the Father is cognizant -- has personal
knowledge -- of all the thoughts and acts of all the
beings in all the systems of all the universes of all
creation. Though we cannot fully grasp this technique of
God's communion with his children, we can be
strengthened in the assurance that the "Lord knows his
children," and that of each one of us "he takes note
where we were born."
32:4.9
In your universe and in your heart the Universal Father
is present, spiritually speaking, by one of the Seven
Master Spirits of central abode and, specifically, by
the divine Adjuster who lives and works and waits in the
depths of the mortal mind.
32:4.10
God is not a self-centered personality; the Father
freely distributes himself to his creation and to his
creatures. He lives and acts, not only in the Deities,
but also in his Sons, whom he intrusts with the doing of
everything that it is divinely possible for them to do.
The Universal Father has truly divested himself of every
function which it is possible for another being to
perform. And this is just as true of mortal man as of
the Creator Son who rules in God's stead at the
headquarters of a local universe. Thus we behold the
outworking of the ideal and infinite love of the
Universal Father.
32:4.11
In this universal bestowal of himself we have abundant
proof of both the magnitude and the magnanimity of the
Father's divine nature. If God has withheld aught of
himself from the universal creation, then of that
residue he is in lavish generosity bestowing the Thought
Adjusters upon the mortals of the realms, the Mystery
Monitors of time, who so patiently indwell the mortal
candidates for life everlasting.
32:4.12
The Universal Father has poured out himself, as it were,
to make all creation rich in personality possession and
potential spiritual attainment. God has given us himself
that we may be like him, and he has reserved for himself
of power and glory only that which is necessary for the
maintenance of those things for the love of which he has
thus divested himself of all things else.
5. THE ETERNAL AND DIVINE PURPOSE
32:5.1
There is a great and glorious purpose in the march of
the universes through space. All of your mortal
struggling is not in vain. We are all part of an immense
plan, a gigantic enterprise, and it is the vastness of
the undertaking that renders it impossible to see very
much of it at any one time and during any one life. We
are all a part of an eternal project which the Gods are
supervising and outworking. The whole marvelous and
universal mechanism moves on majestically through space
to the music of the meter of the infinite thought and
the eternal purpose of the First Great Source and
Center.
32:5.2
The eternal purpose of the eternal God is a high
spiritual ideal. The events of time and the struggles of
material existence are but the transient scaffolding
which bridges over to the other side, to the promised
land of spiritual reality and supernal existence. Of
course, you mortals find it difficult to grasp the idea
of an eternal purpose; you are virtually unable to
comprehend the thought of eternity, something never
beginning and never ending. Everything familiar to you
has an end.
32:5.3
As regards an individual life, the duration of a realm,
or the chronology of any connected series of events, it
would seem that we are dealing with an isolated stretch
of time; everything seems to have a beginning and an
end. And it would appear that a series of such
experiences, lives, ages, or epochs, when successively
arranged, constitutes a straightaway drive, an isolated
event of time flashing momentarily across the infinite
face of eternity. But when we look at all this from
behind the scenes, a more comprehensive view and a more
complete understanding suggest that such an explanation
is inadequate, disconnected, and wholly unsuited
properly to account for, and otherwise to correlate, the
transactions of time with the underlying purposes and
basic reactions of eternity.
32:5.4
To me it seems more fitting, for purposes of explanation
to the mortal mind, to conceive of eternity as a cycle
and the eternal purpose as an endless circle, a cycle of
eternity in some way synchronized with the transient
material cycles of time. As regards the sectors of time
connected with, and forming a part of, the cycle of
eternity, we are forced to recognize that such temporary
epochs are born, live, and die just as the temporary
beings of time are born, live, and die. Most human
beings die because, having failed to achieve the spirit
level of Adjuster fusion, the metamorphosis of death
constitutes the only possible procedure whereby they may
escape the fetters of time and the bonds of material
creation, thereby being enabled to strike spiritual step
with the progressive procession of eternity. Having
survived the trial life of time and material existence,
it becomes possible for you to continue on in touch
with, even as a part of, eternity, swinging on forever
with the worlds of space around the circle of the
eternal ages.
32:5.5
The sectors of time are like the flashes of personality
in temporal form; they appear for a season, and then
they are lost to human sight, only to reappear as new
actors and continuing factors in the higher life of the
endless swing around the eternal circle. Eternity can
hardly be conceived as a straightaway drive, in view of
our belief in a delimited universe moving over a vast,
elongated circle around the central dwelling place of
the Universal Father.
32:5.6
Frankly, eternity is incomprehensible to the finite mind
of time. You simply cannot grasp it; you cannot
comprehend it. I do not completely visualize it, and
even if I did, it would be impossible for me to convey
my concept to the human mind. Nevertheless, I have done
my best to portray something of our viewpoint, to tell
you somewhat of our understanding of things eternal. I
am endeavoring to aid you in the crystallization of your
thoughts about these values which are of infinite nature
and eternal import.
32:5.7
There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every
creature of all his vast domains, and this plan is an
eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited
progress, and endless life. And the infinite treasures
of such a matchless career are yours for the striving!
32:5.8
The goal of eternity is ahead! The adventure of divinity
attainment lies before you! The race for perfection is
on! whosoever will may enter, and certain victory will
crown the efforts of every human being who will run the
race of faith and trust, depending every step of the way
on the leading of the indwelling Adjuster and on the
guidance of that good spirit of the Universe Son, which
so freely has been poured out upon all flesh.
32:5.9
Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily attached to
the Supreme Council of Nebadon and assigned to this
mission by Gabriel of Salvington.
*
|
.jpg)
