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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 39
THE SERAPHIC HOSTS
39:0.1
AS FAR as we are cognizant, the Infinite Spirit, as
personalized on the local universe headquarters, intends
to produce uniformly perfect seraphim, but for some
unknown reason these seraphic offspring are very
diverse. This diversity may be a result of the unknown
interposition of evolving experiential Deity; if so, we
cannot prove it. But we do observe that, when seraphim
have been subjected to educational tests and training
discipline, they unfailingly and distinctly classify
into the following seven groups:
1. Supreme Seraphim.
2. Superior Seraphim.
3. Supervisor Seraphim.
4. Administrator Seraphim.
5. Planetary Helpers.
6. Transition Ministers.
7. Seraphim of the Future.
39:0.2
To say that any one seraphim is inferior to an angel of
any other group would hardly be true. Nevertheless every
angel is at first service-limited to the group of
original and inherent classification. My seraphic
associate in the preparation of this statement, Manotia,
is a supreme seraphim and onetime functioned only as a
supreme seraphim. By application and devoted service she
has, one by one, achieved all seven of the seraphic
services, having functioned in well-nigh every avenue of
activity open to a seraphim, and now holds the
commission of associate chief of seraphim on Urantia.
39:0.3
Human beings sometimes find it hard to understand that a
created capacity for higher-level ministry does not
necessarily imply ability to function on relatively
lower service levels. Man begins life as a helpless
infant; hence every mortal attainment must embrace all
experiential prerequisites; seraphim have no such
preadult life -- no childhood. They are, however,
experiential creatures, and by experience and through
additional education they can augment their divine and
inherent endowment of ability by the experiential
acquirement of functional skill in one or more of the
seraphic services.
39:0.4
After being commissioned, seraphim are assigned to the
reserves of their inherent group. Those of planetary and
administrator status often serve for long periods as
originally classified, but the higher the inherent
function level, the more persistently do the angelic
ministers seek assignment to the lower orders of
universe service. Especially do they desire assignment
to the reserves of the planetary helpers, and if
successful they enroll in the celestial schools attached
to the headquarters of the Planetary Prince of some
evolutionary world. Here they begin the study of the
languages, history, and local habits of the races of
mankind. Seraphim must acquire knowledge and gain
experience much as do human beings. They are not far
removed from you in certain personality attributes. And
they all crave to start at the bottom, on the lowest
possible level of ministry; thus may they hope to
achieve the highest possible level of experiential
destiny.
1. SUPREME SERAPHIM
39:1.1
These seraphim are the highest of the seven revealed
orders of local universe angels. They function in seven
groups, each of which is closely associated with the
angelic ministers of the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
39:1.2
1. Son-Spirit
Ministers. The first group of the supreme seraphim
are assigned to the service of the high Sons and
Spirit-origin beings resident and functioning in the
local universe. This group of angelic ministers also
serve the Universe Son and the Universe Spirit and are
closely affiliated with the intelligence corps of the
Bright and Morning Star, the universe chief executive of
the united wills of the Creator Son and the Creative
Spirit.
39:1.3
Being of assignment to the high Sons and Spirits, these
seraphim are naturally associated with the far-flung
services of the Paradise Avonals, the divine offspring
of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. The Paradise
Avonals are always attended on all magisterial and
bestowal missions by this high and experienced order of
seraphim, who are at such times devoted to organizing
and administering the special work connected with the
termination of one planetary dispensation and the
inauguration of a new age. But they are not concerned in
the work of adjudication which might be incidental to
such a change in dispensations.
39:1.4
Bestowal
Attendants. Paradise Avonals, but not Creator Sons,
when on a bestowal mission are always accompanied by a
corps of 144 bestowal attendants. These 144 angels are
the chiefs of all other Son-Spirit ministers who may be
associated with a bestowal mission. There might possibly
be legions of angels subject to the command of an
incarnated Son of God on a planetary bestowal, but all
these seraphim would be organized and directed by the
144 bestowal attendants. Higher orders of angels,
supernaphim and seconaphim, might also form a part of
the attending host, and though their missions are
distinct from those of the seraphim, all these
activities would be co-ordinated by the bestowal
attendants.
39:1.5
These bestowal attendants are completion seraphim; they
have all traversed the circles of Seraphington and have
attained the Seraphic Corps of Completion. And they have
been further especially trained to meet the difficulties
and to cope with the emergencies associated with the
bestowals of the Sons of God for the advancement of the
children of time. Such seraphim have all achieved
Paradise and the personal embrace of the Second Source
and Center, the Eternal Son.
39:1.6
Seraphim equally crave assignment to the missions of the
incarnated Sons and attachment as destiny guardians to
the mortals of the realms; the latter is the surest
seraphic passport to Paradise, while the bestowal
attendants have achieved the highest local universe
service of the completion seraphim of Paradise
attainment.
39:1.7
2. Court Advisers.
These are the seraphic advisers and helpers attached to
all orders of adjudication, from the conciliators up to
the highest tribunals of the realm. It is not the
purpose of such tribunals to determine punitive
sentences but rather to adjudicate honest differences of
opinion and to decree the everlasting survival of
ascending mortals. Herein lies the duty of the court
advisers: to see that all charges against mortal
creatures are stated in justice and adjudicated in
mercy. In this work they are closely associated with the
High Commissioners, Spirit-fused ascendant mortals
serving in the local universe.
39:1.8
The seraphic court advisers serve extensively as
defenders of mortals. Not that there ever exists any
disposition to be unfair to the lowly creatures of the
realms, but while justice demands the adjudication of
every default in the climb towards divine perfection,
mercy requires that every such misstep be fairly
adjudged in accordance with the creature nature and the
divine purpose. These angels are the exponents and
exemplification of the element of mercy inherent in
divine justice -- of fairness based on the knowledge of
the underlying facts of personal motives and racial
tendencies.
39:1.9
This order of angels serves from the councils of the
Planetary Princes to the highest tribunals of the local
universe, while their associates of the Seraphic Corps
of Completion function in the higher realms of Orvonton,
even to the courts of the Ancients of Days on Uversa.
39:1.10
3. Universe
Orientators. These are the true friends and
postgraduate counselors of all those ascending creatures
who are pausing for the last time on Salvington, in
their universe of origin, as they stand on the brink of
the spirit adventure stretching out before them in the
vast superuniverse of Orvonton. And at such a time many
an ascender has a feeling which mortals could understand
only by comparison with the human emotion of nostalgia.
Behind lie the realms of achievement, realms grown
familiar by long service and morontia attainment; ahead
lies the challenging mystery of a greater and vaster
universe.
39:1.11
It is the task of the universe orientators to facilitate
the passage of the ascending pilgrims from the attained
to the unattained level of universe service, to help
these pilgrims in making those kaleidoscopic adjustments
in the comprehension of meanings and values inherent in
the realization that a first-stage spirit being stands,
not at the end and climax of the local universe morontia
ascent, but rather at the very bottom of the long ladder
of spiritual ascent to the Universal Father on Paradise.
39:1.12
Many of the Seraphington graduates, members of the
Seraphic Corps of Completion who are associated with
these seraphim, engage in extensive teaching in certain
Salvington schools concerned with the preparation of the
creatures of Nebadon for the relationships of the next
universe age.
39:1.13
4. The Teaching
Counselors. These angels are the invaluable
assistants of the spiritual teaching corps of the local
universe. Teaching counselors are secretaries to all
orders of teachers, from the Melchizedeks and the
Trinity Teacher Sons down to the morontia mortals who
are assigned as helpers to those of their kind who are
just behind them in the scale of ascendant life. You
will first see these associate teaching seraphim on some
one of the seven mansion worlds surrounding Jerusem.
39:1.14
These seraphim become associates of the division chiefs
of the numerous educational and training institutions of
the local universes, and they are attached in large
numbers to the faculties of the seven training worlds of
the local systems and of the seventy educational spheres
of the constellations. These ministrations extend on
down to the individual worlds. Even the true and
consecrated teachers of time are assisted, and often
attended, by these counselors of the supreme seraphim.
39:1.15
The fourth creature bestowal of the Creator Son was in
the likeness of a teaching counselor of the supreme
seraphim of Nebadon.
39:1.16
5. Directors of
Assignment. A body of 144 supreme seraphim is
elected from time to time by the angels serving on the
evolutionary and on the architectural spheres of
creature habitation. This is the highest angelic council
on any sphere, and it co-ordinates the self-directed
phases of seraphic service and assignment. These angels
preside over all seraphic assemblies pertaining to the
line of duty or the call to worship.
39:1.17
6. The Recorders.
These are the official recorders for the supreme
seraphim. Many of these high angels were born with their
gifts fully developed; others have qualified for their
positions of trust and responsibility by diligent
application to study and faithful performance of similar
duties while attached to lower or less responsible
orders.
39:1.18
7. Unattached
Ministers. Large numbers of unattached seraphim of
the supreme order are self-directed servers on the
architectural spheres and on the inhabited planets. Such
ministers voluntarily meet the differential of demand
for the service of the supreme seraphim, thus
constituting the general reserve of this order.
2. SUPERIOR SERAPHIM
39:2.1
Superior seraphim receive their name, not because they
are in any sense qualitatively superior to other orders
of angels, but because they are in charge of the higher
activities of a local universe. Very many of the first
two groups of this seraphic corps are attainment
seraphim, angels who have served in all phases of
training and have returned to a glorified assignment as
directors of their kind in the spheres of their earlier
activities. Being a young universe, Nebadon does not
have many of this order.
39:2.2
The superior seraphim function in the following seven
groups:
39:2.3
1. The
Intelligence Corps. These seraphim belong to the
personal staff of Gabriel, the Bright and Morning Star.
They range the local universe gathering the information
of the realms for his guidance in the councils of
Nebadon. They are the intelligence corps of the mighty
hosts over which Gabriel presides as vicegerent of the
Master Son. These seraphim are not directly affiliated
with either the systems or the constellations, and their
information pours in direct to Salvington upon a
continuous, direct, and independent circuit.
39:2.4
The intelligence corps of the various local universes
can and do intercommunicate but only within a given
superuniverse. There is a differential of energy which
effectively segregates the business and transactions of
the various supergovernments. One superuniverse can
ordinarily communicate with another superuniverse only
through the provisions and facilities of the Paradise
clearinghouse.
39:2.5
2. The Voice of
Mercy. Mercy is the keynote of seraphic service and
angelic ministry. It is therefore fitting that there
should be a corps of angels who, in a special manner,
portray mercy. These seraphim are the real mercy
ministers of the local universes. They are the inspired
leaders who foster the higher impulses and holier
emotions of men and angels. The directors of these
legions are now always completion seraphim who are also
graduate guardians of mortal destiny; that is, each
angelic pair has guided at least one soul of animal
origin during the life in the flesh and has subsequently
traversed the circles of Seraphington and has been
mustered into the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
39:2.6
3. Spirit
Co-ordinators. The third group of superior seraphim
are based on Salvington but function in the local
universe anywhere they can be of fruitful service. While
their tasks are essentially spiritual and therefore
beyond the real understanding of human minds, you will
perhaps grasp something of their ministry to mortals if
it is explained that these angels are intrusted with the
task of preparing the ascendant sojourners on Salvington
for their last transition in the local universe -- from
the highest morontia level to the status of newborn
spirit beings. As the mind planners on the mansion
worlds help the surviving creature to adjust to, and
make effective use of, the potentials of morontia mind,
so do these seraphim instruct the morontia graduates on
Salvington regarding the newly attained capacities of
the mind of the spirit. And they serve the ascendant
mortals in many other ways.
39:2.7
4. Assistant
Teachers. The assistant teachers are the helpers and
associates of their fellow seraphim, the teaching
counselors. They are also individually connected with
the extensive educational enterprises of the local
universe, especially with the sevenfold scheme of
training operative on the mansion worlds of the local
systems. A marvelous corps of this order of seraphim
functions on Urantia for the purpose of fostering and
furthering the cause of truth and righteousness.
39:2.8
5. The
Transporters. All groups of ministering spirits have
their transport corps, angelic orders dedicated to the
ministry of transporting those personalities who are
unable, of themselves, to journey from one sphere to
another. The fifth group of the superior seraphim are
headquartered on Salvington and serve as space
traversers to and from the headquarters of the local
universe. Like other subdivisions of the superior
seraphim, some were created as such while others have
risen from the lower or less endowed groups.
39:2.9
The "energy range" of seraphim is wholly adequate for
local universe and even for superuniverse requirements,
but they could never withstand the energy demands
entailed by such a long journey as that from Uversa to
Havona. Such an exhaustive journey requires the special
powers of a primary seconaphim of transport endowments.
Transporters take on energy for flight while in transit
and recuperate personal power at the end of the journey.
39:2.10
Even on Salvington ascending mortals do not possess
personal transit forms. Ascenders must depend upon
seraphic transport in advancing from world to world
until after the last rest of sleep on the inner circle
of Havona and the eternal awakening on Paradise.
Subsequently you will not be dependent on angels for
transport from universe to universe.
39:2.11
The process of being enseraphimed is not unlike the
experience of death or sleep except that there is an
automatic time element in the transit slumber. You are
consciously unconscious during seraphic rest. But the
Thought Adjuster is wholly and fully conscious, in fact,
exceptionally efficient since you are unable to oppose,
resist, or otherwise hinder creative and transforming
work.
39:2.12
When enseraphimed, you go to sleep for a specified time,
and you will awake at the designated moment. The length
of a journey when in transit sleep is immaterial. You
are not directly aware of the passing of time. It is as
if you went to sleep on a transport vehicle in one city
and, after resting in peaceful slumber all night,
awakened in another and distant metropolis. You
journeyed while you slumbered. And so you take flight
through space, enseraphimed, while you rest -- sleep.
The transit sleep is induced by the liaison between the
Adjusters and the seraphic transporters.
39:2.13
The angels cannot transport combustion bodies -- flesh
and blood -- such as you now have, but they can
transport all others, from the lowest morontia to the
higher spirit forms. They do not function in the event
of natural death. When you finish your earthly career,
your body remains on this planet. Your Thought Adjuster
proceeds to the bosom of the Father, and these angels
are not directly concerned in your subsequent
personality reassembly on the identification mansion
world. There your new body is a morontia form, one that
can enseraphim. You "sow a mortal body" in the grave;
you "reap a morontia form" on the mansion worlds.
39:2.14
6. The Recorders.
These personalities are especially concerned with the
reception, filing, and redispatch of the records of
Salvington and its associated worlds. They also serve as
special recorders for resident groups of superuniverse
and higher personalities and as clerks of the courts of
Salvington and secretaries to the rulers thereof.
39:2.15
Broadcasters
-- receivers and dispatchers -- are a specialized
subdivision of the seraphic recorders, being concerned
with the dispatch of records and with the dissemination
of essential information. Their work is of a high order,
being so multicircuited that 144,000 messages can
simultaneously traverse the same lines of energy. They
adapt the higher ideographic techniques of the
superaphic chief recorders and with these common symbols
maintain reciprocal contact with both the intelligence
co-ordinators of the tertiary supernaphim and the
glorified intelligence co-ordinators of the Seraphic
Corps of Completion.
39:2.16
Seraphic recorders of the superior order thus effect a
close liaison with the intelligence corps of their own
order and with all subordinate recorders, while the
broadcasts enable them to maintain constant
communication with the higher recorders of the
superuniverse and, through this channel, with the
recorders of Havona and the custodians of knowledge on
Paradise. Many of the superior order of recorders are
seraphim ascended from similar duties in lower sections
of the universe.
39:2.17
7. The Reserves.
Large reserves of all types of the superior seraphim are
held on Salvington, instantly available for dispatch to
the farthermost worlds of Nebadon as they are
requisitioned by the directors of assignment or upon the
request of the universe administrators. The reserves of
superior seraphim also furnish messenger aids upon
requisition by the chief of the Brilliant Evening Stars,
who is intrusted with the custody and dispatch of all
personal communications. A local universe is fully
provided with adequate means of intercommunication, but
there is always a residue of messages which requires
dispatch by personal messengers.
39:2.18
The basic reserves for the entire local universe are
held on the seraphic worlds of Salvington. This corps
includes all types of all groups of angels.
3. SUPERVISOR SERAPHIM
39:3.1
This versatile order of universe angels is assigned to
the exclusive service of the constellations. These able
ministers make their headquarters on the constellation
capitals but function throughout all Nebadon in the
interests of their assigned realms.
39:3.2
1. Supervising
Assistants. The first order of the supervising
seraphim are assigned to the collective work of the
Constellation Fathers, and they are the ever-efficient
helpers of the Most Highs. These seraphim are primarily
concerned with the unification and stabilization of a
whole constellation.
39:3.3
2. Law
Forecasters. The intellectual foundation of justice
is law, and in a local universe law originates in the
legislative assemblies of the constellations. These
deliberative bodies codify and formally promulgate the
basic laws of Nebadon, laws designed to afford the
greatest possible co-ordination of a whole constellation
consistent with the fixed policy of noninfringement of
the moral free will of personal creatures. It is the
duty of the second order of supervisor seraphim to place
before the constellation lawmakers a forecast of how any
proposed enactment would affect the lives of freewill
creatures. This service they are well qualified to
perform by virtue of long experience in the local
systems and on the inhabited worlds. These seraphim seek
no special favors for one group or another, but they do
appear before the celestial lawmakers to speak for those
who cannot be present to speak for themselves. Even
mortal man may contribute to the evolution of universe
law, for these very seraphim do faithfully and fully
portray, not necessarily man's transient and conscious
desires, but rather the true longings of the inner man,
the evolving morontia soul of the material mortal on the
worlds of space.
39:3.4
3. Social
Architects. From the individual planets up through
the morontia training worlds, these seraphim labor to
enhance all sincere social contacts and to further the
social evolution of universe creatures. These are the
angels who seek to divest the associations of
intelligent beings of all artificiality while
endeavoring to facilitate the interassociation of will
creatures on a basis of real self-understanding and
genuine mutual appreciation.
39:3.5
Social architects do everything within their province
and power to bring together suitable individuals that
they may constitute efficient and agreeable working
groups on earth; and sometimes such groups have found
themselves reassociated on the mansion worlds for
continued fruitful service. But not always do these
seraphim attain their ends; not always are they able to
bring together those who would form the most ideal group
to achieve a given purpose or to accomplish a certain
task; under these conditions they must utilize the best
of the material available.
39:3.6
These angels continue their ministry on the mansion and
higher morontia worlds. They are concerned with any
undertaking having to do with progress on the morontia
worlds and which concerns three or more persons. Two
beings are regarded as operating on the mating,
complemental, or partnership basis, but when three or
more are grouped for service, they constitute a social
problem and therefore fall within the jurisdiction of
the social architects. These efficient seraphim are
organized in seventy divisions on Edentia, and these
divisions minister on the seventy morontia progress
worlds encircling the headquarters sphere.
39:3.7
4. Ethical
Sensitizers. It is the mission of these seraphim to
foster and to promote the growth of creature
appreciation of the morality of interpersonal
relationships, for such is the seed and secret of the
continued and purposeful growth of society and
government, human or superhuman. These enhancers of
ethical appreciation function anywhere and everywhere
they may be of service, as volunteer counselors to the
planetary rulers and as exchange teachers on the system
training worlds. You will not, however, come under their
full guidance until you reach the brotherhood schools on
Edentia, where they will quicken your appreciation of
those very truths of fraternity which you will even then
be so earnestly exploring by the actual experience of
living with the univitatia in the social laboratories of
Edentia, the seventy satellites of the Norlatiadek
capital.
39:3.8
5. The
Transporters. The fifth group of supervisor seraphim
operate as personality transporters, carrying beings to
and from the headquarters of the constellations. Such
transport seraphim, while in flight from one sphere to
another, are fully conscious of their velocity,
direction, and astronomic whereabouts. They are not
traversing space as would an inanimate projectile. They
may pass near one another during space flight without
the least danger of collision. They are fully able to
vary speed of progression and to alter direction of
flight, even to change destinations if their directors
should so instruct them at any space junction of the
universe intelligence circuits.
39:3.9
These transit personalities are so organized that they
can simultaneously utilize all three of the universally
distributed lines of energy, each having a clear space
velocity of 186,280 miles per second. These transporters
are thus able to superimpose velocity of energy upon
velocity of power until they attain an average speed on
their long journeys varying anywhere from 555,000 to
almost 559,000 of your miles per second of your time.
The velocity is affected by the mass and proximity of
neighboring matter and by the strength and direction of
the near-by main circuits of universe power. There are
numerous types of beings, similar to the seraphim, who
are able to traverse space, and who also are able to
transport other beings who have been properly prepared.
39:3.10
6. The Recorders.
The sixth order of supervising seraphim act as the
special recorders of constellation affairs. A large and
efficient corps functions on Edentia, the headquarters
of the constellation of Norlatiadek, to which your
system and planet belong.
39:3.11
7. The Reserves.
General reserves of the supervisor seraphim are held on
the headquarters of the constellations. Such angelic
reservists are in no sense inactive; many serve as
messenger aids to the constellation rulers; others are
attached to the Salvington reserves of unassigned
Vorondadeks; still others may be attached to Vorondadek
Sons on special assignment, such as the Vorondadek
observer, and sometimes Most High regent, of Urantia.
4. ADMINISTRATOR SERAPHIM
39:4.1
The fourth order of seraphim are assigned to the
administrative duties of the local systems. They are
indigenous to the system capitals but are stationed in
large numbers on the mansion and morontia spheres and on
the inhabited worlds. Fourth-order seraphim are by
nature endowed with unusual administrative ability. They
are the able assistants of the directors of the lower
divisions of the universe government of a Creator Son
and are mainly occupied with the affairs of the local
systems and their component worlds. They are organized
for service as follows:
39:4.2
1. Administrative
Assistants. These able seraphim are the immediate
assistants of a System Sovereign, a primary Lanonandek
Son. They are invaluable aids in the execution of the
intricate details of the executive work of the system
headquarters. They also serve as the personal agents of
the system rulers, journeying back and forth in large
numbers to the various transition worlds and to the
inhabited planets, executing many commissions for the
welfare of the system and in the physical and biologic
interests of its inhabited worlds.
39:4.3
These same seraphic administrators are also attached to
the governments of the world rulers, the Planetary
Princes. The majority of planets in a given universe are
under the jurisdiction of a secondary Lanonandek Son,
but on certain worlds, such as Urantia, there has been a
miscarriage of the divine plan. In the event of the
defection of a Planetary Prince, these seraphim become
attached to the Melchizedek receivers and their
successors in planetary authority. The present acting
ruler of Urantia is assisted by a corps of one thousand
of this versatile order of seraphim.
39:4.4
2. Justice Guides.
These are the angels who present the summary of evidence
concerning the eternal welfare of men and angels when
such matters come up for adjudication in the tribunals
of a system or a planet. They prepare the statements for
all preliminary hearings involving mortal survival,
statements which are subsequently carried with the
records of such cases to the higher tribunals of the
universe and the superuniverse. The defense of all cases
of doubtful survival is prepared by these seraphim, who
have a perfect understanding of all the details of every
feature of every count in the indictments drawn by the
administrators of universe justice.
39:4.5
It is not the mission of these angels to defeat or to
delay justice but rather to insure that unerring justice
is dealt out with generous mercy in fairness to all
creatures. These seraphim often function on the local
worlds, commonly appearing before the referee trios of
the conciliating commissions -- the courts for minor
misunderstandings. Many who at one time served as
justice guides in the lower realms later appear as
Voices of Mercy in the higher spheres and on Salvington.
39:4.6
In the Lucifer rebellion in Satania very few of the
justice guides were lost, but more than one quarter of
the other administrator seraphim and of the lower orders
of seraphic ministers were misled and deluded by the
sophistries of unbridled personal liberty.
39:4.7
3. Interpreters
of Cosmic Citizenship. When ascending mortals have
completed the mansion world training, the first student
apprenticeship in the universe career, they are
permitted to enjoy the transient satisfactions of
relative maturity -- citizenship on the system capital.
While the attainment of each ascendant goal is a factual
achievement, in the larger sense such goals are simply
milestones on the long ascending path to Paradise. But
however relative such successes may be, no evolutionary
creature is ever denied the full though transient
satisfaction of goal attainment. Ever and anon there is
a pause in the Paradise ascent, a short breathing spell,
during which universe horizons stand still, creature
status is stationary, and the personality tastes the
sweetness of goal fulfillment.
39:4.8
The first of such periods in the career of a mortal
ascender occurs on the capital of a local system. During
this pause you will, as a citizen of Jerusem, attempt to
express in creature life those things which you have
acquired during the eight preceding life experiences --
embracing Urantia and the seven mansion worlds.
39:4.9
The seraphic interpreters of cosmic citizenship guide
the new citizens of the system capitals and quicken
their appreciation of the responsibilities of universe
government. These seraphim are also closely associated
with the Material Sons in the system administration,
while they portray the responsibility and morality of
cosmic citizenship to the material mortals on the
inhabited worlds.
39:4.10
4. Quickeners of
Morality. On the mansion worlds you begin to learn
self-government for the benefit of all concerned. Your
mind learns co-operation, learns how to plan with other
and wiser beings. On the system headquarters the
seraphic teachers will further quicken your appreciation
of cosmic morality -- of the interactions of liberty and
loyalty.
39:4.11
What is loyalty? It is the fruit of an intelligent
appreciation of universe brotherhood; one could not take
so much and give nothing. As you ascend the personality
scale, first you learn to be loyal, then to love, then
to be filial, and then may you be free; but not until
you are a finaliter, not until you have attained
perfection of loyalty, can you self-realize finality of
liberty.
39:4.12
These seraphim teach the fruitfulness of patience: That
stagnation is certain death, but that overrapid growth
is equally suicidal; that as a drop of water from a
higher level falls to a lower and, flowing onward,
passes ever downward through a succession of short
falls, so ever upward is progress in the morontia and
spirit worlds -- and just as slowly and by just such
gradual stages.
39:4.13
To the inhabited worlds the quickeners of morality
portray mortal life as an unbroken chain of many links.
Your short sojourn on Urantia, on this sphere of mortal
infancy, is only a single link, the very first in the
long chain that is to stretch across universes and
through the eternal ages. It is not so much what you
learn in this first life; it is the experience of living
this life that is important. Even the work of this
world, paramount though it is, is not nearly so
important as the way in which you do this work. There is
no material reward for righteous living, but there is
profound satisfaction -- consciousness of achievement --
and this transcends any conceivable material reward.
39:4.14
The keys of the kingdom of heaven are: sincerity, more
sincerity, and more sincerity. All men have these keys.
Men use them -- advance in spirit status -- by
decisions, by more decisions, and by more decisions. The
highest moral choice is the choice of the highest
possible value, and always -- in any sphere, in all of
them -- this is to choose to do the will of God. If man
thus chooses, he is great, though he be the humblest
citizen of Jerusem or even the least of mortals on
Urantia.
39:4.15
5. The
Transporters. These are the transport seraphim who
function in the local systems. In Satania, your system,
they carry passengers back and forth from Jerusem and
otherwise serve as interplanetary transporters. Seldom
does a day pass in which a transport seraphim of Satania
does not deposit some student visitor or some other
traveler of spirit or semispirit nature on the shores of
Urantia. These very space traversers will sometime carry
you to and from the various worlds of the system
headquarters group, and when you have finished the
Jerusem assignment, they will carry you forward to
Edentia. But under no circumstances will they carry you
backward to the world of human origin. A mortal never
returns to his native planet during the dispensation of
his temporal existence, and if he should return during a
subsequent dispensation, he would be escorted by a
transport seraphim of the universe headquarters group.
39:4.16
6. The Recorders.
These seraphim are the keepers of the threefold records
of the local systems. The temple of records on a system
capital is a unique structure, one third material,
constructed of luminous metals and crystals; one third
morontial, fabricated of the liaison of spiritual and
material energy but beyond the range of mortal vision;
and one third spiritual. The recorders of this order
preside over and maintain this threefold system of
records. Ascending mortals will at first consult the
material archives, Material Sons and the higher
transition beings consult those of the morontia halls,
while seraphim and the higher spirit personalities of
the realm peruse the records of the spirit section.
39:4.17
7. The Reserves.
The reserve corps of administrator seraphim on Jerusem
spend much of their waiting time in visiting, as spirit
companions, with the newly arrived ascending mortals
from the various worlds of the system -- the accredited
graduates of the mansion worlds. One of the delights of
your sojourn on Jerusem will be to talk and visit,
during recess periods, with these much-traveled and
many-experienced seraphim of the waiting reserve corps.
39:4.18
It is just such friendly relationships as these that so
endear a system capital to the ascending mortals. On
Jerusem you will find the first intermingling of
Material Sons, angels, and ascending pilgrims. Here
fraternize beings who are wholly spiritual and
semispiritual and individuals just emerging from
material existence. Mortal forms are there so modified
and human ranges of light reaction so extended that all
are able to enjoy mutual recognition and sympathetic
personality understanding.
5. PLANETARY HELPERS
39:5.1
These seraphim maintain headquarters on the system
capitals and, though closely associated with the
resident Adamic citizens, are primarily assigned to the
service of the Planetary Adams, the biologic or physical
uplifters of the material races on the evolutionary
worlds. The ministering work of angels becomes of
increasing interest as it nears the inhabited worlds, as
it nears the actual problems faced by the men and women
of time who are preparing themselves for the attempt to
attain the goal of eternity.
39:5.2
On Urantia the majority of the planetary helpers were
removed upon the collapse of the Adamic regime, and the
seraphic supervision of your world devolved to a greater
extent upon the administrators, the transition
ministers, and the guardians of destiny. But these
seraphic aids of your defaulting Material Sons still
serve Urantia in the following groups:
39:5.3
1. The Voices of
the Garden. When the planetary course of human
evolution is attaining its highest biologic level, there
always appear the Material Sons and Daughters, the Adams
and Eves, to augment the further evolution of the races
by an actual contribution of their superior life plasm.
The planetary headquarters of such an Adam and Eve is
usually denominated the Garden of Eden, and their
personal seraphim are often known as the "voices of the
Garden." These seraphim are of invaluable service to the
Planetary Adams in all their projects for the physical
and intellectual upstepping of the evolutionary races.
After the Adamic default on Urantia, some of these
seraphim were left on the planet and were assigned to
Adam's successors in authority.
39:5.4
2. The Spirits of
Brotherhood. It should be apparent that, when an
Adam and Eve arrive on an evolutionary world, the task
of achieving racial harmony and social co-operation
among its diverse races is one of considerable
proportions. Seldom do these races of different colors
and varied natures take kindly to the plan of human
brotherhood. These primitive men only come to realize
the wisdom of peaceful interassociation as a result of
ripened human experience and through the faithful
ministry of the seraphic spirits of brotherhood. Without
the work of these seraphim the efforts of the Material
Sons to harmonize and advance the races of an evolving
world would be greatly delayed. And had your Adam
adhered to the original plan for the advancement of
Urantia, by this time these spirits of brotherhood would
have worked unbelievable transformations in the human
race. In view of the Adamic default, it is indeed
remarkable that these seraphic orders have been able to
foster and bring to realization even as much of
brotherhood as you now have on Urantia.
39:5.5
3. The Souls of
Peace. The early millenniums of the upward strivings
of evolutionary men are marked by many a struggle. Peace
is not the natural state of the material realms. The
worlds first realize "peace on earth and good will among
men" through the ministry of the seraphic souls of
peace. Although these angels were largely thwarted in
their early efforts on Urantia, Vevona, chief of the
souls of peace in Adam's day, was left on Urantia and is
now attached to the staff of the resident governor
general. And it was this same Vevona who, when Michael
was born, heralded to the worlds, as the leader of the
angelic host, "Glory to God in Havona and on earth peace
and good will among men."
39:5.6
In the more advanced epochs of planetary evolution these
seraphim are instrumental in supplanting the atonement
idea by the concept of divine attunement as a philosophy
of mortal survival.
39:5.7
4. The Spirits of
Trust. Suspicion is the inherent reaction of
primitive men; the survival struggles of the early ages
do not naturally breed trust. Trust is a new human
acquisition brought about by the ministry of these
planetary seraphim of the Adamic regime. It is their
mission to inculcate trust into the minds of evolving
men. The Gods are very trustful; the Universal Father is
willing freely to trust himself -- the Adjuster -- to
man's association.
39:5.8
This entire group of seraphim was transferred to the new
regime after the Adamic miscarriage, and they have ever
since continued their labors on Urantia. And they have
not been wholly unsuccessful since a civilization is now
evolving which embodies much of their ideals of
confidence and trust.
39:5.9
In the more advanced planetary ages these seraphim
enhance man's appreciation of the truth that uncertainty
is the secret of contented continuity. They help the
mortal philosophers to realize that, when ignorance is
essential to success, it would be a colossal blunder for
the creature to know the future. They heighten man's
taste for the sweetness of uncertainty, for the romance
and charm of the indefinite and unknown future.
39:5.10
5. The
Transporters. The planetary transporters serve the
individual worlds. The majority of enseraphimed beings
brought to this planet are in transit; they merely stop
over; they are in custody of their own special seraphic
transporters; but there are a large number of such
seraphim stationed on Urantia. These are the transport
personalities operating from the local planets, as from
Urantia to Jerusem.
39:5.11
Your conventional idea of angels has been derived in the
following way: During moments just prior to physical
death a reflective phenomenon sometimes occurs in the
human mind, and this dimming consciousness seems to
visualize something of the form of the attending angel,
and this is immediately translated into terms of the
habitual concept of angels held in that individual's
mind.
39:5.12
The erroneous idea that angels possess wings is not
wholly due to olden notions that they must have wings to
fly through the air. Human beings have sometimes been
permitted to observe seraphim that were being prepared
for transport service, and the traditions of these
experiences have largely determined the Urantian concept
of angels. In observing a transport seraphim being made
ready to receive a passenger for interplanetary transit,
there may be seen what are apparently double sets of
wings extending from the head to the foot of the angel.
In reality these wings are energy insulators -- friction
shields.
39:5.13
When celestial beings are to be enseraphimed for
transfer from one world to another, they are brought to
the headquarters of the sphere and, after due registry,
are inducted into the transit sleep. Meantime, the
transport seraphim moves into a horizontal position
immediately above the universe energy pole of the
planet. While the energy shields are wide open, the
sleeping personality is skillfully deposited, by the
officiating seraphic assistants, directly on top of the
transport angel. Then both the upper and lower pairs of
shields are carefully closed and adjusted.
39:5.14
And now, under the influence of the transformers and the
transmitters, a strange metamorphosis begins as the
seraphim is made ready to swing into the energy currents
of the universe circuits. To outward appearance the
seraphim grows pointed at both extremities and becomes
so enshrouded in a queer light of amber hue that very
soon it is impossible to distinguish the enseraphimed
personality. When all is in readiness for departure, the
chief of transport makes the proper inspection of the
carriage of life, carries out the routine tests to
ascertain whether or not the angel is properly
encircuited, and then announces that the traveler is
properly enseraphimed, that the energies are adjusted,
that the angel is insulated, and that everything is in
readiness for the departing flash. The mechanical
controllers, two of them, next take their positions. By
this time the transport seraphim has become an almost
transparent, vibrating, torpedo-shaped outline of
glistening luminosity. Now the transport dispatcher of
the realm summons the auxiliary batteries of the living
energy transmitters, usually one thousand in number; as
he announces the destination of the transport, he
reaches out and touches the near point of the seraphic
carriage, which shoots forward with lightninglike speed,
leaving a trail of celestial luminosity as far as the
planetary atmospheric investment extends. In less than
ten minutes the marvelous spectacle will be lost even to
reinforced seraphic vision.
39:5.15
While planetary space reports are received at noon at
the meridian of the designated spiritual headquarters,
the transporters are dispatched from this same place at
midnight. That is the most favorable time for departure
and is the standard hour when not otherwise specified.
39:5.16
6. The Recorders.
These are the custodians of the major affairs of the
planet as it functions as a part of the system, and as
it is related to, and concerned in, the universe
government. They function in the recording of planetary
affairs but are not concerned with matters of individual
life and existence.
39:5.17
7. The Reserves.
The Satania reserve corps of the planetary seraphim is
maintained on Jerusem in close association with the
reserves of the Material Sons. These abundant reserves
repletely provide for every phase of the manifold
activities of this seraphic order. These angels are also
the personal message bearers of the local systems. They
serve transition mortals, angels, and the Material Sons
as well as others domiciled on the system headquarters.
While Urantia is, at present, outside the spiritual
circuits of Satania and Norlatiadek, you are otherwise
in intimate touch with interplanetary affairs, for these
messengers from Jerusem frequently come to this world as
to all the other spheres of the system.
6. TRANSITION MINISTERS
39:6.1
As their name might suggest, seraphim of transitional
ministry serve wherever they can contribute to creature
transition from the material to the spiritual estate.
These angels serve from the inhabited worlds to the
system capitals, but those in Satania at present direct
their greatest efforts toward the education of the
surviving mortals on the seven mansion worlds. This
ministry is diversified in accordance with the following
seven orders of assignment:
1. Seraphic Evangels.
2. Racial Interpreters.
3. Mind Planners.
4. Morontia Counselors.
5. Technicians.
6. Recorder-Teachers.
7. Ministering Reserves.
39:6.2
More about these seraphic ministers to transitional
ascenders you will learn in connection with the
narratives dealing with the mansion worlds and the
morontia life.
7. SERAPHIM OF THE FUTURE
39:7.1
These angels do not minister extensively except in older
realms and on the more advanced planets of Nebadon.
Large numbers of them are held in reserve on the
seraphic worlds near Salvington, where they are engaged
in pursuits relevant to the sometime dawning of the age
of light and life in Nebadon. These seraphim do function
in connection with the ascendant-mortal career but
minister almost exclusively to those mortals who survive
by some one of the modified orders of ascension.
39:7.2
Inasmuch as these angels are not now directly concerned
with either Urantia or Urantians, it is deemed best to
withhold the description of their fascinating
activities.
8. SERAPHIC DESTINY
39:8.1
Seraphim are of origin in the local universes, and in
these very realms of their nativity some achieve service
destiny. With the help and counsel of the senior
archangels some seraphim may be elevated to the exalted
duties of Brilliant Evening Stars, while others attain
the status and service of the unrevealed co-ordinates of
the Evening Stars. Still other adventures in local
universe destiny may be attempted, but Seraphington ever
remains the eternal goal of all angels. Seraphington is
the angelic threshold to Paradise and Deity attainment,
the transition sphere from the ministry of time to the
exalted service of eternity.
39:8.2
Seraphim may attain Paradise in scores -- hundreds -- of
ways, but the most important as elaborated in these
narratives are the following:
39:8.3
1. To gain admission to the Paradise seraphic abode in a
personal capacity by achieving perfection of specialized
service as a celestial artisan, a Technical Adviser, or
a Celestial Recorder. To become a Paradise Companion
and, having thus attained the center of all things,
perhaps then to become an eternal minister and adviser
to the seraphic orders and others.
39:8.4
2. To be summoned to Seraphington. Under certain
conditions seraphim are commanded on high; in other
circumstances angels sometimes achieve Paradise in a
much shorter time than mortals. But no matter how fitted
any seraphic pair may be, they cannot initiate departure
for Seraphington or elsewhere. None but successful
destiny guardians can be sure of proceeding to Paradise
by a progressive path of evolutionary ascent. All others
must patiently await the arrival of the Paradise
messengers of the tertiary supernaphim who come with the
summons commanding them to appear on high.
39:8.5
3. To attain Paradise by the evolutionary mortal
technique. The supreme choice of seraphim in the career
of time is the post of guardian angel in order that they
may attain the career of finality and be qualified for
assignment to the eternal spheres of seraphic service.
Such personal guides of the children of time are called
guardians of destiny, signifying that they guard mortal
creatures in the path of divine destiny, and that in so
doing they are determining their own high destiny.
39:8.6
Guardians of destiny are drawn from the ranks of the
more experienced angelic personalities of all orders of
seraphim who have qualified for this service. All
surviving mortals of Adjuster-fusion destiny have
temporary guardians assigned, and these associates may
become permanently attached when mortal survivors attain
the requisite intellectual and spiritual development.
Before mortal ascenders leave the mansion worlds, they
all have permanent seraphic associates. This group of
ministering spirits is discussed in connection with the
Urantia narratives.
39:8.7
It is not possible for angels to attain God from the
human level of origin, for they are created a "little
higher than you"; but it has been wisely arranged that,
while they cannot possibly start up from the very
bottom, the spiritual lowlands of mortal existence, they
may go down to those who do start from the bottom and
pilot such creatures, step by step, world by world, to
the portals of Havona. When mortal ascenders leave
Uversa to begin the circles of Havona, those guardians
of attachment subsequent to the life in the flesh will
bid their pilgrim associates a temporary farewell while
they journey to Seraphington, the angelic destination of
the grand universe. Here will these guardians attempt,
and undoubtedly achieve, the seven circles of seraphic
light.
39:8.8
Many, but not all, of those seraphim assigned as destiny
guardians during the material life accompany their
mortal associates through the Havona circles, and
certain other seraphim pass through the circuits of the
central universe in a way that is wholly different from
the mortal ascent. But irrespective of the route of
ascent, all evolutionary seraphim traverse Seraphington,
and the majority pass through this experience instead of
the Havona circuits.
39:8.9
Seraphington is the destiny sphere for angels, and their
attainment of this world is quite different from the
experiences of the mortal pilgrims on Ascendington.
Angels are not absolutely sure of their eternal future
until they have attained Seraphington. No angel
attaining Seraphington has ever been known to go astray;
sin will never find response in the heart of a seraphim
of completion.
39:8.10
The graduates of Seraphington are variously assigned:
Destiny guardians of Havona-circle experience usually
enter the Mortal Finaliter Corps. Other guardians,
having passed their Havona separation tests, frequently
rejoin their mortal associates on Paradise, and some
become the everlasting associates of the mortal
finaliters, while others enter the various nonmortal
finaliter corps, and many are mustered into the Corps of
Seraphic Completion.
9. THE CORPS OF SERAPHIC COMPLETION
39:9.1
After attainment of the Father of spirits and admission
to the seraphic service of completion, angels are
sometimes assigned to the ministry of worlds settled in
light and life. They gain attachment to the high
trinitized beings of the universes and to the exalted
services of Paradise and Havona. These seraphim of the
local universes have experientially compensated the
differential in divinity potential formerly setting them
apart from the ministering spirits of the central and
superuniverses. Angels of the Seraphic Corps of
Completion serve as associates of the superuniverse
seconaphim and as assistants to the high Paradise-Havona
orders of supernaphim. For such angels the career of
time is finished; henceforth and forever they are the
servants of God, the consorts of divine personalities,
and the peers of the Paradise finaliters.
39:9.2
Large numbers of the completion seraphim return to their
native universes, there to complement the ministry of
divine endowment by the ministry of experiential
perfection. Nebadon is, comparatively speaking, one of
the younger universes and therefore does not have so
many of these returned Seraphington graduates as would
be found in an older realm; nonetheless our local
universe is adequately supplied with the completion
seraphim, for it is significant that the evolutionary
realms disclose increasing need for their services as
they near the status of light and life. Completion
seraphim now serve more extensively with the supreme
orders of seraphim, but some serve with each of the
other angelic orders. Even your world enjoys the
extensive ministry of twelve specialized groups of the
Seraphic Corps of Completion; these master seraphim of
planetary supervision accompany each newly commissioned
Planetary Prince to the inhabited worlds.
39:9.3
Many fascinating avenues of ministry are open to the
completion seraphim, but just as they all craved
assignment as destiny guardians in the pre-Paradise
days, so in the post-Paradise experience they most
desire to serve as bestowal attendants of the incarnated
Paradise Sons. They are still supremely devoted to that
universal plan of starting the mortal creatures of the
evolutionary worlds out upon the long and enticing
journey towards the Paradise goal of divinity and
eternity. Throughout the whole mortal adventure of
finding God and of achieving divine perfection, these
spirit ministers of seraphic completion, together with
the faithful ministering spirits of time, are always and
forever your true friends and unfailing helpers.
39:9.4
Presented by a Melchizedek acting by request of the
Chief of the Seraphic Hosts of Nebadon.
*
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