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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 116
THE ALMIGHTY SUPREME
116:0.1
IF MAN recognized that his Creators -- his immediate
supervisors -- while being divine were also finite, and
that the God of time and space was an evolving and
nonabsolute Deity, then would the inconsistencies of
temporal inequalities cease to be profound religious
paradoxes. No longer would religious faith be
prostituted to the promotion of social smugness in the
fortunate while serving only to encourage stoical
resignation in the unfortunate victims of social
deprivation.
116:0.2
When viewing the exquisitely perfect spheres of Havona,
it is both reasonable and logical to believe they were
made by a perfect, infinite, and absolute Creator. But
that same reason and logic would compel any honest
being, when viewing the turmoil, imperfections, and
inequities of Urantia, to conclude that your world had
been made by, and was being managed by, Creators who
were subabsolute, preinfinite, and other than perfect.
116:0.3
Experiential growth implies creature-Creator partnership
-- God and man in association. Growth is the earmark of
experiential Deity: Havona did not grow; Havona is and
always has been; it is existential like the everlasting
Gods who are its source. But growth characterizes the
grand universe.
116:0.4
The Almighty Supreme is a living and evolving Deity of
power and personality. His present domain, the grand
universe, is also a growing realm of power and
personality. His destiny is perfection, but his present
experience encompasses the elements of growth and
incomplete status.
116:0.5
The Supreme Being functions primarily in the central
universe as a spirit personality; secondarily in the
grand universe as God the Almighty, a personality of
power. The tertiary function of the Supreme in the
master universe is now latent, existing only as an
unknown mind potential. No one knows just what this
third development of the Supreme Being will disclose.
Some believe that, when the superuniverses are settled
in light and life, the Supreme will become functional
from Uversa as the almighty and experiential sovereign
of the grand universe while expanding in power as the
superalmighty of the outer universes. Others speculate
that the third stage of Supremacy will involve the third
level of Deity manifestation. But none of us really
know.
1. THE SUPREME MIND
116:1.1
The experience of every evolving creature personality is
a phase of the experience of the Almighty Supreme. The
intelligent subjugation of every physical segment of the
superuniverses is a part of the growing control of the
Almighty Supreme. The creative synthesis of power and
personality is a part of the creative urge of the
Supreme Mind and is the very essence of the evolutionary
growth of unity in the Supreme Being.
116:1.2
The union of the power and personality attributes of
Supremacy is the function of Supreme Mind; and the
completed evolution of the Almighty Supreme will result
in one unified and personal Deity -- not in any loosely
co-ordinated association of divine attributes. From the
broader perspective, there will be no Almighty apart
from the Supreme, no Supreme apart from the Almighty.
116:1.3
Throughout the evolutionary ages the physical power
potential of the Supreme is vested in the Seven Supreme
Power Directors, and the mind potential reposes in the
Seven Master Spirits. The Infinite Mind is the function
of the Infinite Spirit; the cosmic mind, the ministry of
the Seven Master Spirits; the Supreme Mind is in process
of actualizing in the co-ordination of the grand
universe and in functional association with the
revelation and attainment of God the Sevenfold.
116:1.4
The time-space mind, the cosmic mind, is differently
functioning in the seven superuniverses, but it is
co-ordinated by some unknown associative technique in
the Supreme Being. The Almighty overcontrol of the grand
universe is not exclusively physical and spiritual. In
the seven superuniverses it is primarily material and
spiritual, but there are also present phenomena of the
Supreme which are both intellectual and spiritual.
116:1.5
We really know less about the mind of Supremacy than
about any other aspect of this evolving Deity. It is
unquestionably active throughout the grand universe and
is believed to have a potential destiny of master
universe function which is of vast extent. But this we
do know: Whereas physique may attain completed growth,
and whereas spirit may achieve perfection of
development, mind never ceases to progress -- it is the
experiential technique of endless progress. The Supreme
is an experiential Deity and therefore never achieves
completion of mind attainment.
2. THE ALMIGHTY AND GOD THE SEVENFOLD
116:2.1
The appearance of the universe power presence of the
Almighty is concomitant with the appearance on the stage
of cosmic action of the high creators and controllers of
the evolutionary superuniverses.
116:2.2
God the Supreme derives his spirit and personality
attributes from the Paradise Trinity, but he is
power-actualizing in the doings of the Creator Sons, the
Ancients of Days, and the Master Spirits, whose
collective acts are the source of his growing power as
almighty sovereign to and in the seven superuniverses.
116:2.3
Unqualified Paradise Deity is incomprehensible to the
evolving creatures of time and space. Eternity and
infinity connote a level of deity reality which
time-space creatures cannot comprehend. Infinity of
deity and absoluteness of sovereignty are inherent in
the Paradise Trinity, and the Trinity is a reality which
lies somewhat beyond the understanding of mortal man.
Time-space creatures must have origins, relativities,
and destinies in order to grasp universe relationships
and to understand the meaning values of divinity.
Therefore does Paradise Deity attenuate and otherwise
qualify the extra-Paradise personalizations of divinity,
thus bringing into existence the Supreme Creators and
their associates, who ever carry the light of life
farther and farther from its Paradise source until it
finds its most distant and beautiful expression in the
earth lives of the bestowal Sons on the evolutionary
worlds.
116:2.4
And this is the origin of God the Sevenfold, whose
successive levels are encountered by mortal man in the
following order:
1. The Creator Sons (and Creative Spirits).
2. The Ancients of Days.
3. The Seven Master Spirits.
4. The Supreme Being.
5. The Conjoint Actor.
6. The Eternal Son.
7. The Universal Father.
116:2.5
The first three levels are the Supreme Creators; the
last three levels are the Paradise Deities. The Supreme
ever intervenes as the experiential spirit
personalization of the Paradise Trinity and as the
experiential focus of the evolutionary almighty power of
the creator children of the Paradise Deities. The
Supreme Being is the maximum revelation of Deity to the
seven superuniverses and for the present universe age.
116:2.6
By the technique of mortal logic it might be inferred
that the experiential reunification of the collective
acts of the first three levels of God the Sevenfold
would equivalate to the level of Paradise Deity, but
such is not the case. Paradise Deity is
existential
Deity. The Supreme Creators, in their divine unity of
power and personality, are constitutive and expressive
of a new power potential of
experiential
Deity. And this power potential of experiential origin
finds inevitable and inescapable union with the
experiential Deity of Trinity origin -- the Supreme
Being.
116:2.7
God the Supreme is not the Paradise Trinity, neither is
he any one or all of those superuniverse Creators whose
functional activities actually synthesize his evolving
almighty power. God the Supreme, while of origin in the
Trinity, becomes manifest to evolutionary creatures as a
personality of power only through the co-ordinated
functions of the first three levels of God the
Sevenfold. The Almighty Supreme is now factualizing in
time and space through the activities of the Supreme
Creator Personalities, even as in eternity the Conjoint
Actor flashed into being by the will of the Universal
Father and the Eternal Son. These beings of the first
three levels of God the Sevenfold are the very nature
and source of the power of the Almighty Supreme;
therefore must they ever accompany and sustain his
administrative acts.
3. THE ALMIGHTY AND PARADISE DEITY
116:3.1
The Paradise Deities not only act directly in their
gravity circuits throughout the grand universe, but they
also function through their various agencies and other
manifestations, such as:
116:3.2
1. The mind
focalizations of the Third Source and Center. The
finite domains of energy and spirit are literally held
together by the mind presences of the Conjoint Actor.
This is true from the Creative Spirit in a local
universe through the Reflective Spirits of a
superuniverse to the Master Spirits in the grand
universe. The mind circuits emanating from these varied
intelligence focuses represent the cosmic arena of
creature choice. Mind is the flexible reality which
creatures and Creators can so readily manipulate; it is
the vital link connecting matter and spirit. The mind
bestowal of the Third Source and Center unifies the
spirit person of God the Supreme with the experiential
power of the evolutionary Almighty.
116:3.3
2. The
personality revelations of the Second Source and Center.
The mind presences of the Conjoint Actor unify the
spirit of divinity with the pattern of energy. The
bestowal incarnations of the Eternal Son and his
Paradise Sons unify, actually fuse, the divine nature of
a Creator with the evolving nature of a creature. The
Supreme is both creature and creator; the possibility of
his being such is revealed in the bestowal actions of
the Eternal Son and his co-ordinate and subordinate
Sons. The bestowal orders of sonship, the Michaels and
the Avonals, actually augment their divine natures with
bona fide creature natures which have become theirs by
the living of the actual creature life on the
evolutionary worlds. When divinity becomes like
humanity, inherent in this relationship is the
possibility that humanity can become divine.
116:3.4
3. The indwelling
presences of the First Source and Center. Mind
unifies spirit causations with energy reactions;
bestowal ministry unifies divinity descensions with
creature ascensions; and the indwelling fragments of the
Universal Father actually unify the evolving creatures
with God on Paradise. There are many such presences of
the Father which indwell numerous orders of
personalities, and in mortal man these divine fragments
of God are the Thought Adjusters. The Mystery Monitors
are to human beings what the Paradise Trinity is to the
Supreme Being. The Adjusters are absolute foundations,
and upon absolute foundations freewill choice can cause
to be evolved the divine reality of an eternaliter
nature, finaliter nature in the case of man, Deity
nature in God the Supreme.
116:3.5
The creature bestowals of the Paradise orders of sonship
enable these divine Sons to enrich their personalities
by the acquisition of the actual nature of universe
creatures, while such bestowals unfailingly reveal to
the creatures themselves the Paradise path of divinity
attainment. The Adjuster bestowals of the Universal
Father enable him to draw the personalities of the
volitional will creatures to himself. And throughout all
these relationships in the finite universes the Conjoint
Actor is the ever-present source of the mind ministry by
virtue of which these activities take place.
116:3.6
In these and many other ways do the Paradise Deities
participate in the evolutions of time as they unfold on
the circling planets of space, and as they culminate in
the emergence of the Supreme personality consequence of
all evolution.
4. THE ALMIGHTY AND THE SUPREME CREATORS
116:4.1
The unity of the Supreme Whole is dependent on the
progressive unification of the finite parts; the
actualization of the Supreme is resultant from, and
productive of, these very unifications of the factors of
supremacy -- the creators, creatures, intelligences, and
energies of the universes.
116:4.2
During those ages in which the sovereignty of Supremacy
is undergoing its time development, the almighty power
of the Supreme is dependent on the divinity acts of God
the Sevenfold, while there seems to be a particularly
close relationship between the Supreme Being and the
Conjoint Actor together with his primary personalities,
the Seven Master Spirits. The Infinite Spirit as the
Conjoint Actor functions in many ways which compensate
the incompletion of evolutionary Deity and sustains very
close relations to the Supreme. This closeness of
relationship is shared in measure by all of the Master
Spirits but especially by Master Spirit Number Seven,
who speaks for the Supreme. This Master Spirit knows --
is in personal contact with -- the Supreme.
116:4.3
Early in the projection of the superuniverse scheme of
creation, the Master Spirits joined with the ancestral
Trinity in the cocreation of the forty-nine Reflective
Spirits, and concomitantly the Supreme Being functioned
creatively as the culminator of the conjoined acts of
the Paradise Trinity and the creative children of
Paradise Deity. Majeston appeared and ever since has
focalized the cosmic presence of the Supreme Mind, while
the Master Spirits continue as source-centers for the
far-flung ministry of the cosmic mind.
116:4.4
But the Master Spirits continue in supervision of the
Reflective Spirits. The Seventh Master Spirit is (in his
overall supervision of Orvonton from the central
universe) in personal contact with (and has overcontrol
of) the seven Reflective Spirits located on Uversa. In
his inter- and intrasuperuniverse controls and
administrations he is in reflective contact with the
Reflective Spirits of his own type located on each
superuniverse capital.
116:4.5
These Master Spirits are not only the supporters and
augmenters of the sovereignty of Supremacy, but they are
in turn affected by the creative purposes of the
Supreme. Ordinarily, the collective creations of the
Master Spirits are of the quasi-material order (power
directors, etc.), while their individual creations are
of the spiritual order (supernaphim, etc.). But when the
Master Spirits
collectively produced the Seven Circuit Spirits in
response to the will and purpose of the Supreme Being,
it is to be noted that the offspring of this creative
act are spiritual, not material or quasi-material.
116:4.6
And as it is with the Master Spirits of the
superuniverses, so is it with the triune rulers of these
supercreations -- the Ancients of Days. These
personifications of Trinity justice-judgment in time and
space are the field fulcrums for the mobilizing almighty
power of the Supreme, serving as the sevenfold focal
points for the evolution of trinitarian sovereignty in
the domains of time and space. From their vantage point
midway between Paradise and the evolving worlds, these
Trinity-origin sovereigns see both ways, know both ways,
and co-ordinate both ways.
116:4.7
But the local universes are the real laboratories in
which are worked out the mind experiments, galactic
adventures, divinity unfoldings, and personality
progressions which, when cosmically totaled, constitute
the actual foundation upon which the Supreme is
achieving deity evolution in and by experience.
116:4.8
In the local universes even the Creators evolve: The
presence of the Conjoint Actor evolves from a living
power focus to the status of the divine personality of a
Universe Mother Spirit; the Creator Son evolves from the
nature of existential Paradise divinity to the
experiential nature of supreme sovereignty. The local
universes are the starting points of true evolution, the
spawning grounds of bona fide imperfect personalities
endowed with the freewill choice of becoming cocreators
of themselves as they are to be.
116:4.9
The Magisterial Sons in their bestowals upon the
evolutionary worlds eventually acquire natures
expressive of Paradise divinity in experiential
unification with the highest spiritual values of
material human nature. And through these and other
bestowals the Michael Creators likewise acquire the
natures and cosmic viewpoints of their actual local
universe children. Such Master Creator Sons approximate
the completion of subsupreme experience; and when their
local universe sovereignty is enlarged to embrace the
associated Creative Spirits, it may be said to
approximate the limits of supremacy within the present
potentials of the evolutionary grand universe.
116:4.10
When the bestowal Sons reveal new ways for man to find
God, they are not creating these paths of divinity
attainment; rather are they illuminating the everlasting
highways of progression which lead through the presence
of the Supreme to the person of the Paradise Father.
116:4.11
The local universe is the starting place for those
personalities who are farthest from God, and who can
therefore experience the greatest degree of spiritual
ascent in the universe, can achieve the maximum of
experiential participation in the cocreation of
themselves. These same local universes likewise provide
the greatest possible depth of experience for the
descending personalities, who thereby achieve something
which is to them just as meaningful as the Paradise
ascent is to an evolving creature.
116:4.12
Mortal man appears to be necessary to the full function
of God the Sevenfold as this divinity grouping
culminates in the actualizing Supreme. There are many
other orders of universe personalities who are equally
necessary to the evolution of the almighty power of the
Supreme, but this portrayal is presented for the
edification of human beings, hence is largely limited to
those factors operating in the evolution of God the
Sevenfold which are related to mortal man.
5. THE ALMIGHTY AND THE SEVENFOLD CONTROLLERS
116:5.1
You have been instructed in the relationship of God the
Sevenfold to the Supreme Being, and you should now
recognize that the Sevenfold encompasses the controllers
as well as the creators of the grand universe. These
sevenfold controllers of the grand universe embrace the
following:
1. The Master Physical Controllers.
2. The Supreme Power Centers.
3. The Supreme Power Directors.
4. The Almighty Supreme.
5. The God of Action -- the Infinite Spirit.
6. The Isle of Paradise.
7. The Source of Paradise -- the Universal Father.
116:5.2
These seven groups are functionally inseparable from God
the Sevenfold and constitute the physical-control level
of this Deity association.
116:5.3
The bifurcation of energy and spirit (stemming from the
conjoint presence of the Eternal Son and the Paradise
Isle) was symbolized in the superuniverse sense when the
Seven Master Spirits unitedly engaged in their first act
of collective creation. This episode witnessed the
appearance of the Seven Supreme Power Directors.
Concomitant therewith the spiritual circuits of the
Master Spirits contrastively differentiated from the
physical activities of power director supervision, and
immediately did the cosmic mind appear as a new factor
co-ordinating matter and spirit.
116:5.4
The Almighty Supreme is evolving as the overcontroller
of the physical power of the grand universe. In the
present universe age this potential of physical power
appears to be centered in the Seven Supreme Power
Directors, who operate through the fixed locations of
the power centers and through the mobile presences of
the physical controllers.
116:5.5
The time universes are not perfect; that is their
destiny. The struggle for perfection pertains not only
to the intellectual and the spiritual levels but also to
the physical level of energy and mass. The settlement of
the seven superuniverses in light and life presupposes
their attainment of physical stability. And it is
conjectured that the final attainment of material
equilibrium will signify the completed evolution of the
physical control of the Almighty.
116:5.6
In the early days of universe building even the Paradise
Creators are primarily concerned with material
equilibrium. The pattern of a local universe takes shape
not only as a result of the activities of the power
centers but also because of the space presence of the
Creative Spirit. And throughout these early epochs of
local universe building the Creator Son exhibits a
little-understood attribute of material control, and he
does not leave his capital planet until the gross
equilibrium of the local universe has been established.
116:5.7
In the final analysis, all energy responds to mind, and
the physical controllers are the children of the mind
God, who is the activator of Paradise pattern. The
intelligence of the power directors is unremittingly
devoted to the task of bringing about material control.
Their struggle for physical dominance over the
relationships of energy and the motions of mass never
ceases until they achieve finite victory over the
energies and masses which constitute their perpetual
domains of activity.
116:5.8
The spirit struggles of time and space have to do with
the evolution of spirit dominance over matter by the
mediation of (personal) mind; the physical (nonpersonal)
evolution of the universes has to do with bringing
cosmic energy into harmony with the equilibrium concepts
of mind subject to the overcontrol of spirit. The total
evolution of the entire grand universe is a matter of
the personality unification of the energy-controlling
mind with the spirit-co-ordinated intellect and will be
revealed in the full appearance of the almighty power of
the Supreme.
116:5.9
The difficulty in arriving at a state of dynamic
equilibrium is inherent in the fact of the growing
cosmos. The established circuits of physical creation
are being continually jeopardized by the appearance of
new energy and new mass. A growing universe is an
unsettled universe; hence no part of the cosmic whole
can find real stability until the fullness of time
witnesses the material completion of the seven
superuniverses.
116:5.10
In the settled universes of light and life there are no
unexpected physical events of major importance.
Relatively complete control over the material creation
has been achieved; still the problems of the
relationship of the settled universes to the evolving
universes continue to challenge the skill of the
Universe Power Directors. But these problems will
gradually vanish with the diminution of new creative
activity as the grand universe approaches culmination of
evolutionary expression.
6. SPIRIT DOMINANCE
116:6.1
In the evolutionary superuniverses energy-matter is
dominant except in personality, where spirit through the
mediation of mind is struggling for the mastery. The
goal of the evolutionary universes is the subjugation of
energy-matter by mind, the co-ordination of mind with
spirit, and all of this by virtue of the creative and
unifying presence of personality. Thus, in relation to
personality, do physical systems become subordinate;
mind systems, co-ordinate; and spirit systems,
directive.
116:6.2
This union of power and personality is expressive on
deity levels in and as the Supreme. But the actual
evolution of spirit dominance is a growth which is
predicated on the freewill acts of the Creators and
creatures of the grand universe.
116:6.3
On absolute levels, energy and spirit are one. But the
moment departure is made from such absolute levels,
difference appears, and as energy and spirit move
spaceward from Paradise, the gulf between them widens
until in the local universes they have become quite
divergent. They are no longer identical, neither are
they alike, and mind must intervene to interrelate them.
116:6.4
That energy can be directionized by the action of
controller personalities discloses the responsiveness of
energy to mind action. That mass can be stabilized
through the action of these same controlling entities
indicates the responsiveness of mass to the
order-producing presence of mind. And that spirit itself
in volitional personality can strive through mind for
the mastery of energy-matter discloses the potential
unity of all finite creation.
116:6.5
There is an interdependence of all forces and
personalities throughout the universe of universes.
Creator Sons and Creative Spirits depend on the
co-operative function of the power centers and physical
controllers in the organization of universes; the
Supreme Power Directors are incomplete without the
overcontrol of the Master Spirits. In a human being the
mechanism of physical life is responsive, in part, to
the dictates of (personal) mind. This very mind may, in
turn, become dominated by the leadings of purposive
spirit, and the result of such evolutionary development
is the production of a new child of the Supreme, a new
personal unification of the several kinds of cosmic
reality.
116:6.6
And as it is with the parts, so it is with the whole;
the spirit person of Supremacy requires the evolutionary
power of the Almighty to achieve completion of Deity and
to attain destiny of Trinity association. The effort is
made by the personalities of time and space, but the
culmination and consummation of this effort is the act
of the Almighty Supreme. And while the growth of the
whole is thus a totalizing of the collective growth of
the parts, it equally follows that the evolution of the
parts is a segmented reflection of the purposive growth
of the whole.
116:6.7
On Paradise, monota and spirit are as one --
indistinguishable except by name. In Havona, matter and
spirit, while distinguishably different, are at the same
time innately harmonious. In the seven superuniverses,
however, there is great divergence; there is a wide gulf
between cosmic energy and divine spirit; therefore is
there a greater experiential potential for mind action
in harmonizing and eventually unifying physical pattern
with spiritual purposes. In the time-evolving universes
of space there is greater divinity attenuation, more
difficult problems to be solved, and larger opportunity
to acquire experience in their solution. And this entire
superuniverse situation brings into being a larger arena
of evolutionary existence in which the possibility of
cosmic experience is made available alike to creature
and Creator -- even to Supreme Deity.
116:6.8
The dominance of spirit, which is existential on
absolute levels, becomes an evolutionary experience on
finite levels and in the seven superuniverses. And this
experience is shared alike by all, from mortal man to
the Supreme Being. All strive, personally strive, in the
achievement; all participate, personally participate, in
the destiny.
7. THE LIVING ORGANISM OF THE GRAND UNIVERSE
116:7.1
The grand universe is not only a material creation of
physical grandeur, spirit sublimity, and intellectual
magnitude, it is also a magnificent and responsive
living organism. There is actual life pulsating
throughout the mechanism of the vast creation of the
vibrant cosmos. The physical reality of the universes is
symbolic of the perceivable reality of the Almighty
Supreme; and this material and living organism is
penetrated by intelligence circuits, even as the human
body is traversed by a network of neural sensation
paths. This physical universe is permeated by energy
lanes which effectively activate material creation, even
as the human body is nourished and energized by the
circulatory distribution of the assimilable energy
products of nourishment. The vast universe is not
without those co-ordinating centers of magnificent
overcontrol which might be compared to the delicate
chemical-control system of the human mechanism. But if
you only knew something about the physique of a power
center, we could, by analogy, tell you so much more
about the physical universe.
116:7.2
Much as mortals look to solar energy for life
maintenance, so does the grand universe depend upon the
unfailing energies emanating from nether Paradise to
sustain the material activities and cosmic motions of
space.
116:7.3
Mind has been given to mortals wherewith they may become
self-conscious of identity and personality; and mind --
even a Supreme Mind -- has been bestowed upon the
totality of the finite whereby the spirit of this
emerging personality of the cosmos ever strives for the
mastery of energy-matter.
116:7.4
Mortal man is responsive to spirit guidance, even as the
grand universe responds to the far-flung spirit-gravity
grasp of the Eternal Son, the universal supermaterial
cohesion of the eternal spiritual values of all the
creations of the finite cosmos of time and space.
116:7.5
Human beings are capable of making an everlasting
self-identification with total and indestructible
universe reality -- fusion with the indwelling Thought
Adjuster. Likewise does the Supreme everlastingly depend
on the absolute stability of Original Deity, the
Paradise Trinity.
116:7.6
Man's urge for Paradise perfection, his striving for
God-attainment, creates a genuine divinity tension in
the living cosmos which can only be resolved by the
evolution of an immortal soul; this is what happens in
the experience of a single mortal creature. But when all
creatures and all Creators in the grand universe
likewise strive for God-attainment and divine
perfection, there is built up a profound cosmic tension
which can only find resolution in the sublime synthesis
of almighty power with the spirit person of the evolving
God of all creatures, the Supreme Being.
116:7.7
Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning
on Urantia.
*
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