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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 117
GOD THE SUPREME
117:0.1
TO THE extent that we do the will of God in whatever
universe station we may have our existence, in that
measure the almighty potential of the Supreme becomes
one step more actual. The will of God is the purpose of
the First Source and Center as it is potentialized in
the three Absolutes, personalized in the Eternal Son,
conjoined for universe action in the Infinite Spirit,
and eternalized in the everlasting patterns of Paradise.
And God the Supreme is becoming the highest finite
manifestation of the total will of God.
117:0.2
If all grand universers should ever relatively achieve
the full living of the will of God, then would the
time-space creations be settled in light and life, and
then would the Almighty, the deity potential of
Supremacy, become factual in the emergence of the divine
personality of God the Supreme.
117:0.3
When an evolving mind becomes attuned to the circuits of
cosmic mind, when an evolving universe becomes
stabilized after the pattern of the central universe,
when an advancing spirit contacts the united ministry of
the Master Spirits, when an ascending mortal personality
finally attunes to the divine leading of the indwelling
Adjuster, then has the actuality of the Supreme become
real by one more degree in the universes; then has the
divinity of Supremacy advanced one more step toward
cosmic realization.
117:0.4
The parts and individuals of the grand universe evolve
as a reflection of the total evolution of the Supreme,
while in turn the Supreme is the synthetic cumulative
total of all grand universe evolution. From the mortal
viewpoint both are evolutionary and experiential
reciprocals.
1. NATURE OF THE SUPREME BEING
117:1.1
The Supreme is the beauty of physical harmony, the truth
of intellectual meaning, and the goodness of spiritual
value. He is the sweetness of true success and the joy
of everlasting achievement. He is the oversoul of the
grand universe, the consciousness of the finite cosmos,
the completion of finite reality, and the
personification of Creator-creature experience.
Throughout all future eternity God the Supreme will
voice the reality of volitional experience in the
trinity relationships of Deity.
117:1.2
In the persons of the Supreme Creators the Gods have
descended from Paradise to the domains of time and
space, there to create and to evolve creatures with
Paradise-attainment capacity who can ascend thereto in
quest of the Father. This universe procession of
descending God-revealing Creators and ascending
God-seeking creatures is revelatory of the Deity
evolution of the Supreme, in whom both descenders and
ascenders achieve mutuality of understanding, the
discovery of eternal and universal brotherhood. The
Supreme Being thus becomes the finite synthesis of the
experience of the perfect-Creator cause and the
perfecting-creature response.
117:1.3
The grand universe contains the possibility of, and ever
seeks for, complete unification, and this grows out of
the fact that this cosmic existence is a consequence of
the creative acts and the power mandates of the Paradise
Trinity, which is unqualified unity. This very
trinitarian unity is expressed in the finite cosmos in
the Supreme, whose reality becomes increasingly apparent
as the universes attain to the maximum level of Trinity
identification.
117:1.4
The will of the Creator and the will of the creature are
qualitatively different, but they are also
experientially akin, for creature and Creator can
collaborate in the achievement of universe perfection.
Man can work in liaison with God and thereby cocreate an
eternal finaliter. God can work even as humanity in the
incarnations of his Sons, who thereby achieve the
supremacy of creature experience.
117:1.5
In the Supreme Being, Creator and creature are united in
one Deity whose will is expressive of one divine
personality. And this will of the Supreme is something
more than the will of either creature or Creator, even
as the sovereign will of the Master Son of Nebadon is
now something more than a combination of the will of
divinity and humanity. The union of Paradise perfection
and time-space experience yields a new meaning value on
deity levels of reality.
117:1.6
The evolving divine nature of the Supreme is becoming a
faithful portrayal of the matchless experience of all
creatures and of all Creators in the grand universe. In
the Supreme, creatorship and creaturehood are at one;
they are forever united by that experience which was
born of the vicissitudes attendant upon the solution of
the manifold problems which beset all finite creation as
it pursues the eternal path in quest of perfection and
liberation from the fetters of incompleteness.
117:1.7
Truth, beauty, and goodness are correlated in the
ministry of the Spirit, the grandeur of Paradise, the
mercy of the Son, and the experience of the Supreme. God
the Supreme is
truth, beauty, and goodness, for these concepts of
divinity represent finite maximums of ideational
experience. The eternal sources of these triune
qualities of divinity are on superfinite levels, but a
creature could only conceive of such sources as
supertruth, superbeauty, and supergoodness.
117:1.8
Michael, a creator, revealed the divine love of the
Creator Father for his terrestrial children. And having
discovered and received this divine affection, men can
aspire to reveal this love to their brethren in the
flesh. Such creature affection is a true reflection of
the love of the Supreme.
117:1.9
The Supreme is symmetrically inclusive. The First Source
and Center is potential in the three great Absolutes, is
actual in Paradise, in the Son, and in the Spirit; but
the Supreme is both actual and potential, a being of
personal supremacy and of almighty power, responsive
alike to creature effort and Creator purpose;
self-acting upon the universe and self-reactive to the
sum total of the universe; and at one and the same time
the supreme creator and the supreme creature. The Deity
of Supremacy is thus expressive of the sum total of the
entire finite.
2. THE SOURCE OF EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH
117:2.1
The Supreme is God-in-time; his is the secret of
creature growth in time; his also is the conquest of the
incomplete present and the consummation of the
perfecting future. And the final fruits of all finite
growth are: power controlled through mind by spirit by
virtue of the unifying and creative presence of
personality. The culminating consequence of all this
growth is the Supreme Being.
117:2.2
To mortal man, existence is equivalent to growth. And so
indeed it would seem to be, even in the larger universe
sense, for spirit-led existence does seem to result in
experiential growth -- augmentation of status. We have
long held, however, that the present growth which
characterizes creature existence in the present universe
age is a function of the Supreme. We equally hold that
this kind of growth is peculiar to the age of the growth
of the Supreme, and that it will terminate with the
completion of the growth of the Supreme.
117:2.3
Consider the status of the creature-trinitized sons:
They are born and live in the present universe age; they
have personalities, together with mind and spirit
endowments. They have experiences and the memory
thereof, but they do not
grow as do
ascenders. It is our belief and understanding that these
creature-trinitized sons, while they are
in the
present universe age, are really
of the next
universe age -- the age which will follow the completion
of the growth of the Supreme. Hence they are not
in the
Supreme as of his present status of incompleteness and
consequent growth. Thus they are nonparticipating in the
experiential growth of the present universe age, being
held in reserve for the next universe age.
117:2.4
My own order, the Mighty Messengers, being Trinity
embraced, are nonparticipating in the growth of the
present universe age. In a sense we are in status as of
the preceding universe age as in fact are the Stationary
Sons of the Trinity. One thing is certain: Our status is
fixed by the Trinity embrace, and experience no longer
eventuates in growth.
117:2.5
This is not true of the finaliters nor of any other of
the evolutionary and experiential orders which are
participants in the growth process of the Supreme. You
mortals now living on Urantia who may aspire to Paradise
attainment and finaliter status should understand that
such a destiny is only realizable because you are in and
of the Supreme, hence are participants in the cycle of
the growth of the Supreme.
117:2.6
There will come an end sometime to the growth of the
Supreme; his status will achieve completion (in the
energy-spirit sense). This termination of the evolution
of the Supreme will also witness the ending of creature
evolution as a part of Supremacy. What kind of growth
may characterize the universes of outer space, we do not
know. But we are very sure that it will be something
very different from anything that has been seen in the
present age of the evolution of the seven
superuniverses. It will undoubtedly be the function of
the evolutionary citizens of the grand universe to
compensate the outer-spacers for this deprivation of the
growth of Supremacy.
117:2.7
As existent upon the consummation of the present
universe age, the Supreme Being will function as an
experiential sovereign in the grand universe.
Outer-spacers -- citizens of the next universe age --
will have a postsuperuniverse growth potential, a
capacity for evolutionary attainment presupposing the
sovereignty of the Almighty Supreme, hence excluding
creature participation in the power-personality
synthesis of the present universe age.
117:2.8
Thus may the incompleteness of the Supreme be regarded
as a virtue since it makes possible the evolutionary
growth of the creature-creation of the present
universes. Emptiness does have its virtue, for it may
become experientially filled.
117:2.9
One of the most intriguing questions in finite
philosophy is this: Does the Supreme Being actualize in
response to the evolution of the grand universe, or does
this finite cosmos progressively evolve in response to
the gradual actualization of the Supreme? Or is it
possible that they are mutually interdependent for their
development? that they are evolutionary reciprocals,
each initiating the growth of the other? Of this we are
certain: Creatures and universes, high and low, are
evolving within the Supreme, and as they evolve, there
is appearing the unified summation of the entire finite
activity of this universe age. And this is the
appearance of the Supreme Being, to all personalities
the evolution of the almighty power of God the Supreme.
3. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUPREME TO UNIVERSE CREATURES
117:3.1
The cosmic reality variously designated as the Supreme
Being, God the Supreme, and the Almighty Supreme, is the
complex and universal synthesis of the emerging phases
of all finite realities. The far-flung diversification
of eternal energy, divine spirit, and universal mind
attains finite culmination in the evolution of the
Supreme, who is the sum total of all finite growth,
self-realized on deity levels of finite maximum
completion.
117:3.2
The Supreme is the divine channel through which flows
the creative infinity of the triodities that
crystallizes into the galactic panorama of space,
against which takes place the magnificent personality
drama of time: the spirit conquest of energy-matter
through the mediation of mind.
117:3.3
Said Jesus: "I am the living way," and so he is the
living way from the material level of self-consciousness
to the spiritual level of God-consciousness. And even as
he is this living way of ascension from the self to God,
so is the Supreme the living way from finite
consciousness to transcendence of consciousness, even to
the insight of absonity.
117:3.4
Your Creator Son can actually be such a living channel
from humanity to divinity since he has personally
experienced the fullness of the traversal of this
universe path of progression, from the true humanity of
Joshua ben Joseph, the Son of Man, to the Paradise
divinity of Michael of Nebadon, the Son of the infinite
God. Similarly can the Supreme Being function as the
universe approach to the transcendence of finite
limitations, for he is the actual embodiment and
personal epitome of all creature evolution, progression,
and spiritualization. Even the grand universe
experiences of the descending personalities from
Paradise are that part of his experience which is
complemental to his summation of the ascending
experiences of the pilgrims of time.
117:3.5
Mortal man is more than figuratively made in the image
of God. From a physical standpoint this statement is
hardly true, but with reference to certain universe
potentialities it is an actual fact. In the human race,
something of the same drama of evolutionary attainment
is being unfolded as takes place, on a vastly larger
scale, in the universe of universes. Man, a volitional
personality, becomes creative in liaison with an
Adjuster, an impersonal entity, in the presence of the
finite potentialities of the Supreme, and the result is
the flowering of an immortal soul. In the universes the
Creator personalities of time and space function in
liaison with the impersonal spirit of the Paradise
Trinity and become thereby creative of a new power
potential of Deity reality.
117:3.6
Mortal man, being a creature, is not exactly like the
Supreme Being, who is deity, but man's evolution does in
some ways resemble the growth of the Supreme. Man
consciously grows from the material toward the spiritual
by the strength, power, and persistency of his own
decisions; he also grows as his Thought Adjuster
develops new techniques for reaching down from the
spiritual to the morontial soul levels; and once the
soul comes into being, it begins to grow in and of
itself.
117:3.7
This is somewhat like the way in which the Supreme Being
expands. His sovereignty grows in and out of the acts
and achievements of the Supreme Creator Personalities;
that is the evolution of the majesty of his power as the
ruler of the grand universe. His deity nature is
likewise dependent on the pre-existent unity of the
Paradise Trinity. But there is still another aspect to
the evolution of God the Supreme: He is not only
Creator-evolved and Trinity-derived; he is also
self-evolved and self-derived. God the Supreme is
himself a volitional, creative participant in his own
deity actualization. The human morontial soul is
likewise a volitional, cocreative partner in its own
immortalization.
117:3.8
The Father collaborates with the Conjoint Actor in
manipulating the energies of Paradise and in rendering
these responsive to the Supreme. The Father collaborates
with the Eternal Son in the production of Creator
personalities whose acts will sometime culminate in the
sovereignty of the Supreme. The Father collaborates with
both Son and Spirit in the creation of Trinity
personalities to function as rulers of the grand
universe until such time as the completed evolution of
the Supreme qualifies him to assume that sovereignty.
The Father co-operates with his Deity and non-Deity
co-ordinates in these and many other ways in the
furtherance of the evolution of Supremacy, but he also
functions alone in these matters. And his solitary
function is probably best revealed in the ministry of
the Thought Adjusters and their associated entities.
117:3.9
Deity is unity, existential in the Trinity, experiential
in the Supreme, and, in mortals, creature-realized in
Adjuster fusion. The presence of the Thought Adjusters
in mortal man reveals the essential unity of the
universe, for man, the lowest possible type of universe
personality, contains within himself an actual fragment
of the highest and eternal reality, even the original
Father of all personalities.
117:3.10
The Supreme Being evolves by virtue of his liaison with
the Paradise Trinity and in consequence of the divinity
successes of the creator and administrator children of
that Trinity. Man's immortal soul evolves its own
eternal destiny by association with the divine presence
of the Paradise Father and in accordance with the
personality decisions of the human mind. What the
Trinity is to God the Supreme, the Adjuster is to
evolving man.
117:3.11
During the present universe age the Supreme Being is
apparently unable to function directly as a creator
except in those instances where the finite possibilities
of action have been exhausted by the creative agencies
of time and space. Thus far in universe history this has
transpired but once; when the possibilities of finite
action in the matter of universe reflectivity had been
exhausted, then did the Supreme function as the creative
culminator of all antecedent creator actions. And we
believe he will again function as a culminator in future
ages whenever antecedent creatorship has completed an
appropriate cycle of creative activity.
117:3.12
The Supreme Being did not create man, but man was
literally created out of, his very life was derived
from, the potentiality of the Supreme. Nor does he
evolve man; yet is the Supreme himself the very essence
of evolution. From the finite standpoint, we actually
live, move, and have our being within the immanence of
the Supreme.
117:3.13
The Supreme apparently cannot initiate original
causation but appears to be the catalyzer of all
universe growth and is seemingly destined to provide
totality culmination as regards the destiny of all
experiential-evolutionary beings. The Father originates
the concept of a finite cosmos; the Creator Sons
factualize this idea in time and space with the consent
and co-operation of the Creative Spirits; the Supreme
culminates the total finite and establishes its
relationship with the destiny of the absonite.
4. THE FINITE GOD
117:4.1
As we view the ceaseless struggles of the creature
creation for perfection of status and divinity of being,
we cannot but believe that these unending efforts
bespeak the unceasing struggle of the Supreme for divine
self-realization. God the Supreme is the finite Deity,
and he must cope with the problems of the finite in the
total sense of that word. Our struggles with the
vicissitudes of time in the evolutions of space are
reflections of his efforts to achieve reality of self
and completion of sovereignty within the sphere of
action which his evolving nature is expanding to the
outermost limits of possibility.
117:4.2
Throughout the grand universe the Supreme struggles for
expression. His divine evolution is in measure
predicated on the wisdom-action of every personality in
existence. When a human being chooses eternal survival,
he is cocreating destiny; and in the life of this
ascending mortal the finite God finds an increased
measure of personality self-realization and an
enlargement of experiential sovereignty. But if a
creature rejects the eternal career, that part of the
Supreme which was dependent on this creature's choice
experiences inescapable delay, a deprivation which must
be compensated by substitutional or collateral
experience; as for the personality of the nonsurvivor,
it is absorbed into the oversoul of creation, becoming a
part of the Deity of the Supreme.
117:4.3
God is so trusting, so loving, that he gives a portion
of his divine nature into the hands of even human beings
for safekeeping and self-realization. The Father nature,
the Adjuster presence, is indestructible regardless of
the choice of the mortal being. The child of the
Supreme, the evolving self, can be destroyed
notwithstanding that the potentially unifying
personality of such a misguided self will persist as a
factor of the Deity of Supremacy.
117:4.4
The human personality can truly destroy individuality of
creaturehood, and though all that was worth while in the
life of such a cosmic suicide will persist,
these qualities
will not persist as an individual creature. The
Supreme will again find expression in the creatures of
the universes but never again as that particular person;
the unique personality of a nonascender returns to the
Supreme as a drop of water returns to the sea.
117:4.5
Any isolated action of the personal parts of the finite
is comparatively irrelevant to the eventual appearance
of the Supreme Whole, but the whole is nonetheless
dependent on the total acts of the manifold parts. The
personality of the individual mortal is insignificant in
the face of the total of Supremacy, but the personality
of each human being represents an irreplaceable
meaning-value in the finite; personality, having once
been expressed, never again finds identical expression
except in the continuing existence of that living
personality.
117:4.6
And so, as we strive for self-expression, the Supreme is
striving in us, and with us, for deity expression. As we
find the Father, so has the Supreme again found the
Paradise Creator of all things. As we master the
problems of self-realization, so is the God of
experience achieving almighty supremacy in the universes
of time and space.
117:4.7
Mankind does not ascend effortlessly in the universe,
neither does the Supreme evolve without purposeful and
intelligent action. Creatures do not attain perfection
by mere passivity, nor can the spirit of Supremacy
factualize the power of the Almighty without unceasing
service ministry to the finite creation.
117:4.8
The temporal relation of man to the Supreme is the
foundation for cosmic morality, the universal
sensitivity to, and acceptance of,
duty. This is
a morality which transcends the temporal sense of
relative right and wrong; it is a morality directly
predicated on the self-conscious creature's appreciation
of experiential obligation to experiential Deity. Mortal
man and all other finite creatures are created out of
the living potential of energy, mind, and spirit
existent in the Supreme. It is upon the Supreme that the
Adjuster-mortal ascender draws for the creation of the
immortal and divine character of a finaliter. It is out
of the very reality of the Supreme that the Adjuster,
with the consent of the human will, weaves the patterns
of the eternal nature of an ascending son of God.
117:4.9
The evolution of Adjuster progress in the spiritualizing
and eternalizing of a human personality is directly
productive of an enlargement of the sovereignty of the
Supreme. Such achievements in human evolution are at the
same time achievements in the evolutionary actualization
of the Supreme. While it is true that creatures could
not evolve without the Supreme, it is probably also true
that the evolution of the Supreme can never be fully
attained independent of the completed evolution of all
creatures. Herein lies the great cosmic responsibility
of self-conscious personalities: That Supreme Deity is
in a certain sense dependent on the choosing of the
mortal will. And the mutual progression of creature
evolution and of Supreme evolution is faithfully and
fully indicated to the Ancients of Days over the
inscrutable mechanisms of universe reflectivity.
117:4.10
The great challenge that has been given to mortal man is
this: Will you decide to personalize the experiencible
value meanings of the cosmos into your own evolving
selfhood? or by rejecting survival, will you allow these
secrets of Supremacy to lie dormant, awaiting the action
of another creature at some other time who will in
his way
attempt a creature contribution to the evolution of the
finite God? But that will be his contribution to the
Supreme, not yours.
117:4.11
The great struggle of this universe age is between the
potential and the actual -- the seeking for
actualization by all that is as yet unexpressed. If
mortal man proceeds upon the Paradise adventure, he is
following the motions of time, which flow as currents
within the stream of eternity; if mortal man rejects the
eternal career, he is moving counter to the stream of
events in the finite universes. The mechanical creation
moves on inexorably in accordance with the unfolding
purpose of the Paradise Father , but the volitional
creation has the choice of accepting or of rejecting the
role of personality participation in the adventure of
eternity. Mortal man cannot destroy the supreme values
of human existence, but he can very definitely prevent
the evolution of these values in his own personal
experience. To the extent that the human self thus
refuses to take part in the Paradise ascent, to just
that extent is the Supreme delayed in achieving divinity
expression in the grand universe.
117:4.12
Into the keeping of mortal man has been given not only
the Adjuster presence of the Paradise Father but also
control over the destiny of an infinitesimal fraction of
the future of the Supreme. For as man attains human
destiny, so does the Supreme achieve destiny on deity
levels.
117:4.13
And so the decision awaits each of you as it once
awaited each of us: Will you fail the God of time, who
is so dependent upon the decisions of the finite mind?
will you fail the Supreme personality of the universes
by the slothfulness of animalistic retrogression? will
you fail the great brother of all creatures, who is so
dependent on each creature? can you allow yourself to
pass into the realm of the unrealized when before you
lies the enchanting vista of the universe career -- the
divine discovery of the Paradise Father and the divine
participation in the search for, and the evolution of,
the God of Supremacy?
117:4.14
God's gifts -- his bestowal of reality -- are not
divorcements from himself; he does not alienate creation
from himself, but he has set up tensions in the
creations circling Paradise. God first loves man and
confers upon him the potential of immortality -- eternal
reality. And as man loves God, so does man become
eternal in actuality. And here is mystery: The more
closely man approaches God through love, the greater the
reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more man
withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches
nonreality -- cessation of existence. When man
consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will,
when man gives God all that he has, then does God make
that man more than he is.
5. THE OVERSOUL OF CREATION
117:5.1
The great Supreme is the cosmic oversoul of the grand
universe. In him the qualities and quantities of the
cosmos do find their deity reflection; his deity nature
is the mosaic composite of the total vastness of all
creature-Creator nature throughout the evolving
universes. And the Supreme is also an actualizing Deity
embodying a creative will which embraces an evolving
universe purpose.
117:5.2
The intellectual, potentially personal selves of the
finite emerge from the Third Source and Center and
achieve finite time-space Deity synthesis in the
Supreme. When the creature submits to the will of the
Creator, he does not submerge or surrender his
personality; the individual personality participants in
the actualization of the finite God do not lose their
volitional selfhood by so functioning. Rather are such
personalities progressively augmented by participation
in this great Deity adventure; by such union with
divinity man exalts, enriches, spiritualizes, and
unifies his evolving self to the very threshold of
supremacy.
117:5.3
The evolving immortal soul of man, the joint creation of
the material mind and the Adjuster, ascends as such to
Paradise and subsequently, when mustered into the Corps
of the Finality, becomes allied in some new way with the
spirit-gravity circuit of the Eternal Son by a technique
of experience known as
finaliter
transcendation. Such finaliters thus become
acceptable candidates for experiential recognition as
personalities of God the Supreme. And when these mortal
intellects in the unrevealed future assignments of the
Corps of the Finality attain the seventh stage of spirit
existence, such dual minds will become triune. These two
attuned minds, the human and the divine, will become
glorified in union with the experiential mind of the
then actualized Supreme Being.
117:5.4
In the eternal future, God the Supreme will be
actualized -- creatively expressed and spiritually
portrayed -- in the spiritualized mind, the immortal
soul, of ascendant man, even as the Universal Father was
so revealed in the earth life of Jesus.
117:5.5
Man does not unite with the Supreme and submerge his
personal identity, but the universe repercussions of the
experience of all men do thus form a part of the divine
experiencing of the Supreme. "The act is ours, the
consequences God's."
117:5.6
The progressing personality leaves a trail of actualized
reality as it passes through the ascending levels of the
universes. Be they mind, spirit, or energy, the growing
creations of time and space are modified by the
progression of personality through their domains. When
man acts, the Supreme reacts, and this transaction
constitutes the fact of progression.
117:5.7
The great circuits of energy, mind, and spirit are never
the permanent possessions of ascending personality;
these ministries remain forever a part of Supremacy. In
the mortal experience the human intellect resides in the
rhythmic pulsations of the adjutant mind-spirits and
effects its decisions within the arena produced by
encircuitment within this ministry. Upon mortal death
the human self is everlastingly divorced from the
adjutant circuit. While these adjutants never seem to
transmit experience from one personality to another,
they can and do transmit the impersonal repercussions of
decision-action through God the Sevenfold to God the
Supreme. (At least this is true of the adjutants of
worship and wisdom.)
117:5.8
And so it is with the spiritual circuits: Man utilizes
these in his ascent through the universes, but he never
possesses them as a part of his eternal personality. But
these circuits of spiritual ministry, whether Spirit of
Truth, Holy Spirit, or superuniverse spirit presences,
are receptive and reactive to the emerging values in
ascending personality, and these values are faithfully
transmitted through the Sevenfold to the Supreme.
117:5.9
While such spiritual influences as the Holy Spirit and
the Spirit of Truth are local universe ministrations,
their guidance is not wholly confined to the geographic
limitations of a given local creation. As the ascending
mortal passes beyond the boundaries of his local
universe of origin, he is not entirely deprived of the
ministry of the Spirit of Truth which has so constantly
taught and guided him through the philosophic mazes of
the material and morontial worlds, in every crisis of
ascension unfailingly directing the Paradise pilgrim,
ever saying: "This is the way." When you leave the
domains of the local universe, through the ministry of
the spirit of the emerging Supreme Being and through the
provisions of superuniverse reflectivity, you will still
be guided in your Paradise ascent by the comforting
directive spirit of the Paradise bestowal Sons of God.
117:5.10
How do these manifold circuits of cosmic ministry
register the meanings, values, and facts of evolutionary
experience in the Supreme? We are not exactly certain,
but we believe that this registry takes place through
the persons of the Supreme Creators of Paradise origin
who are the immediate bestowers of these circuits of
time and space. The mind-experience accumulations of the
seven adjutant mind-spirits, in their ministry to the
physical level of intellect, are a part of the local
universe experience of the Divine Minister, and through
this Creative Spirit they probably find registry in the
mind of Supremacy. Likewise are mortal experiences with
the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit probably
registered by similar techniques in the person of
Supremacy.
117:5.11
Even the experience of man and Adjuster must find echo
in the divinity of God the Supreme, for, as the
Adjusters experience, they are like the Supreme, and the
evolving soul of mortal man is created out of the
pre-existent possibility for such experience within the
Supreme.
117:5.12
In this manner do the manifold experiences of all
creation become a part of the evolution of Supremacy.
Creatures merely utilize the qualities and quantities of
the finite as they ascend to the Father; the impersonal
consequences of such utilization remain forever a part
of the living cosmos, the Supreme person.
117:5.13
What man himself takes with him as a personality
possession are the character consequences of the
experience of having used the mind and spirit circuits
of the grand universe in his Paradise ascent. When man
decides, and when he consummates this decision in
action, man experiences, and the meanings and the values
of this experience are forever a part of his eternal
character on all levels, from the finite to the final.
Cosmically moral and divinely spiritual character
represents the creature's capital accumulation of
personal decisions which have been illuminated by
sincere worship, glorified by intelligent love, and
consummated in brotherly service.
117:5.14
The evolving Supreme will eventually compensate finite
creatures for their inability ever to achieve more than
limited experience contact with the universe of
universes. Creatures can attain the Paradise Father, but
their evolutionary minds, being finite, are incapable of
really understanding the infinite and absolute Father.
But since all creature experiencing registers in, and is
a part of, the Supreme, when all creatures attain the
final level of finite existence, and after total
universe development makes possible their attainment of
God the Supreme as an actual divinity presence, then,
inherent in the fact of such contact, is contact with
total experience. The finite of time contains within
itself the seeds of eternity; and we are taught that,
when the fullness of evolution witnesses the exhaustion
of the capacity for cosmic growth, the total finite will
embark upon the absonite phases of the eternal career in
quest of the Father as Ultimate.
6. THE QUEST FOR THE SUPREME
117:6.1
We seek the Supreme in the universes, but we find him
not. "He is the within and the without of all things and
beings, moving and quiescent. Unrecognizable in his
mystery, though distant, yet is he near." The Almighty
Supreme is "the form of the yet unformed, the pattern of
the yet uncreated." The Supreme is your universe home,
and when you find him, it will be like returning home.
He is your experiential parent, and even as in the
experience of human beings, so has he grown in the
experience of divine parenthood. He knows you because he
is creaturelike as well as creatorlike.
117:6.2
If you truly desire to find God, you cannot help having
born in your minds the consciousness of the Supreme. As
God is your divine Father, so is the Supreme your divine
Mother, in whom you are nurtured throughout your lives
as universe creatures. "How universal is the Supreme --
he is on all sides! The limitless things of creation
depend on his presence for life, and none are refused."
117:6.3
What Michael is to Nebadon, the Supreme is to the finite
cosmos; his Deity is the great avenue through which the
love of the Father flows outward to all creation, and he
is the great avenue through which finite creatures pass
inward in their quest of the Father, who is love. Even
Thought Adjusters are related to him; in original nature
and divinity they are like the Father, but when they
experience the transactions of time in the universes of
space, they become like the Supreme.
117:6.4
The act of the creature's choosing to do the will of the
Creator is a cosmic value and has a universe meaning
which is immediately reacted to by some unrevealed but
ubiquitous force of co-ordination, probably the
functioning of the ever-enlarging action of the Supreme
Being.
117:6.5
The morontia soul of an evolving mortal is really the
son of the Adjuster action of the Universal Father and
the child of the cosmic reaction of the Supreme Being,
the Universal Mother. The mother influence dominates the
human personality throughout the local universe
childhood of the growing soul. The influence of the
Deity parents becomes more equal after the Adjuster
fusion and during the superuniverse career, but when the
creatures of time begin the traversal of the central
universe of eternity, the Father nature becomes
increasingly manifest, attaining its height of finite
manifestation upon the recognition of the Universal
Father and the admission into the Corps of the Finality.
117:6.6
In and through the experience of finaliter attainment
the experiential mother qualities of the ascending self
become tremendously affected by contact and infusion
with the spirit presence of the Eternal Son and the mind
presence of the Infinite Spirit. Then, throughout the
realms of finaliter activity in the grand universe,
there appears a new awakening of the latent mother
potential of the Supreme, a new realization of
experiential meanings, and a new synthesis of
experiential values of the entire ascension career. It
appears that this realization of self will continue in
the universe careers of the sixth-stage finaliters until
the mother inheritance of the Supreme attains to finite
synchrony with the Adjuster inheritance of the Father.
This intriguing period of grand universe function
represents the continuing adult career of the ascendant
and perfected mortal.
117:6.7
Upon the completion of the sixth stage of existence and
the entrance upon the seventh and final stage of spirit
status, there will probably ensue the advancing ages of
enriching experience, ripening wisdom, and divinity
realization. In the nature of the finaliter this will
probably equal the completed attainment of the mind
struggle for spirit self-realization, the completion of
the co-ordination of the ascendant man-nature with the
divine Adjuster-nature within the limits of finite
possibilities. Such a magnificent universe self thus
becomes the eternal finaliter son of the Paradise Father
as well as the eternal universe child of the Mother
Supreme, a universe self qualified to represent both the
Father and Mother of universes and personalities in any
activity or undertaking pertaining to the finite
administration of created, creating, or evolving things
and beings.
117:6.8
All soul-evolving humans are literally the evolutionary
sons of God the Father and God the Mother, the Supreme
Being. But until such time as mortal man becomes
soul-conscious of his divine heritage, this assurance of
Deity kinship must be faith realized. Human life
experience is the cosmic cocoon in which the universe
endowments of the Supreme Being and the universe
presence of the Universal Father (none of which are
personalities) are evolving the morontia soul of time
and the human-divine finaliter character of universe
destiny and eternal service.
117:6.9
Men all too often forget that God is the greatest
experience in human existence. Other experiences are
limited in their nature and content, but the experience
of God has no limits save those of the creature's
comprehension capacity, and this very experience is in
itself capacity enlarging. When men search for God, they
are searching for everything. When they find God, they
have found everything. The search for God is the
unstinted bestowal of love attended by amazing
discoveries of new and greater love to be bestowed.
117:6.10
All true love is from God, and man receives the divine
affection as he himself bestows this love upon his
fellows. Love is dynamic. It can never be captured; it
is alive, free, thrilling, and always moving. Man can
never take the love of the Father and imprison it within
his heart. The Father's love can become real to mortal
man only by passing through that man's personality as he
in turn bestows this love upon his fellows. The great
circuit of love is from the Father, through sons to
brothers, and hence to the Supreme. The love of the
Father appears in the mortal personality by the ministry
of the indwelling Adjuster. Such a God-knowing son
reveals this love to his universe brethren, and this
fraternal affection is the essence of the love of the
Supreme.
117:6.11
There is no approach to the Supreme except through
experience, and in the current epochs of creation there
are only three avenues of creature approach to
Supremacy:
117:6.12
1. The Paradise Citizens descend from the eternal Isle
through Havona, where they acquire capacity for
Supremacy comprehension through observation of the
Paradise-Havona reality differential and by exploratory
discovery of the manifold activities of the Supreme
Creator Personalities, ranging from the Master Spirits
to the Creator Sons.
117:6.13
2. The time-space ascenders coming up from the
evolutionary universes of the Supreme Creators make
close approach to the Supreme in the traversal of Havona
as a preliminary to the augmenting appreciation of the
unity of the Paradise Trinity.
117:6.14
3. The Havona natives acquire a comprehension of the
Supreme through contacts with descending pilgrims from
Paradise and ascending pilgrims from the seven
superuniverses. Havona natives are inherently in
position to harmonize the essentially different
viewpoints of the citizens of the eternal Isle and the
citizens of the evolutionary universes.
117:6.15
To evolutionary creatures there are seven great
approaches to the Universal Father, and each of these
Paradise ascensions passes through the divinity of one
of the Seven Master Spirits; and each such approach is
made possible by an enlargement of experience
receptivity consequent upon the creature's having served
in the superuniverse reflective of the nature of that
Master Spirit. The sum total of these seven experiences
constitutes the present-known limits of a creature's
consciousness of the reality and actuality of God the
Supreme.
117:6.16
It is not only man's own limitations which prevent him
from finding the finite God; it is also the incompletion
of the universe; even the incompletion of all creatures
-- past, present, and future -- makes the Supreme
inaccessible. God the Father can be found by any
individual who has attained the divine level of
Godlikeness, but God the Supreme will never be
personally discovered by any
one creature
until that far-distant time when, through the universal
attainment of perfection,
all creatures
will simultaneously find him.
117:6.17
Despite the fact that you cannot, in this universe age,
personally find him as you can and will find the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit, nevertheless, the Paradise
ascent and subsequent universe career will gradually
create in your consciousness the recognition of the
universe presence and the cosmic action of the God of
all experience. The fruits of the spirit are the
substance of the Supreme as he is realizable in human
experience.
117:6.18
Man's sometime attainment of the Supreme is consequent
upon his fusion with the spirit of Paradise Deity. With
Urantians this spirit is the Adjuster presence of the
Universal Father; and though the Mystery Monitor is from
the Father and like the Father, we doubt that even such
a divine gift can achieve the impossible task of
revealing the nature of the infinite God to a finite
creature. We suspect that what the Adjusters will reveal
to future seventh-stage finaliters will be the divinity
and nature of God the Supreme. And this revelation will
be to a finite creature what the revelation of the
Infinite would be to an absolute being.
117:6.19
The Supreme is not infinite, but he probably embraces
all of infinity that a finite creature can ever really
comprehend. To understand more than the Supreme is to be
more than finite!
117:6.20
All experiential creations are interdependent in their
realization of destiny. Only existential reality is
self-contained and self-existent. Havona and the seven
superuniverses require each other to achieve the maximum
of finite attainment; likewise will they be sometime
dependent on the future universes of outer space for
finite transcendence.
117:6.21
A human ascender can find the Father; God is existential
and therefore real, irrespective of the status of
experience in the total universe. But no single ascender
will ever find the Supreme until all ascenders have
reached that maximum universe maturity which qualifies
them simultaneously to participate in this discovery.
117:6.22
The Father is no respecter of persons; he treats each of
his ascending sons as cosmic individuals. The Supreme
likewise is no respecter of persons; he treats his
experiential children as a single cosmic total.
117:6.23
Man can discover the Father in his heart, but he will
have to search for the Supreme in the hearts of all
other men; and when all creatures perfectly reveal the
love of the Supreme, then will he become a universe
actuality to all creatures. And that is just another way
of saying that the universes will be settled in light
and life.
117:6.24
The attainment of perfected self-realization by all
personalities plus the attainment of perfected
equilibrium throughout the universes equals the
attainment of the Supreme and witnesses the liberation
of all finite reality from the limitations of incomplete
existence. Such an exhaustion of all finite potentials
yields the completed attainment of the Supreme and may
be otherwise defined as the completed evolutionary
actualization of the Supreme Being himself.
117:6.25
Men do not find the Supreme suddenly and spectacularly
as an earthquake tears chasms into the rocks, but they
find him slowly and patiently as a river quietly wears
away the soil beneath.
117:6.26
When you find the Father, you will find the great cause
of your spiritual ascent in the universes; when you find
the Supreme, you will discover the great result of your
career of Paradise progression.
117:6.27
But no God-knowing mortal can ever be lonely in his
journey through the cosmos, for he knows that the Father
walks beside him each step of the way, while the very
way that he is traversing is the presence of the
Supreme.
7. THE FUTURE OF THE SUPREME
117:7.1
The completed realization of all finite potentials
equals the completion of the realization of all
evolutionary experience. This suggests the final
emergence of the Supreme as an almighty Deity presence
in the universes. We believe that the Supreme, in this
stage of development, will be as discretely personalized
as is the Eternal Son, as concretely powerized as is the
Isle of Paradise, as completely unified as is the
Conjoint Actor, and all of this within the limitations
of the finite possibilities of Supremacy at the
culmination of the present universe age.
117:7.2
While this is an entirely proper concept of the future
of the Supreme, we would call attention to certain
problems inherent in this concept:
117:7.3
1. The Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme could
hardly be deitized at any stage prior to his completed
evolution, and yet these same supervisors even now
qualifiedly exercise the sovereignty of supremacy
concerning the universes settled in light and life.
117:7.4
2. The Supreme could hardly function in the Trinity
Ultimate until he had attained complete actuality of
universe status, and yet the Trinity Ultimate is even
now a qualified reality, and you have been informed of
the existence of the Qualified Vicegerents of the
Ultimate
117:7.5
3. The Supreme is not completely real to universe
creatures, but there are many reasons for deducing that
he is quite real to the Sevenfold Deity, extending from
the Universal Father on Paradise to the Creator Sons and
the Creative Spirits of the local universes.
117:7.6
It may be that on the upper limits of the finite, where
time conjoins transcended time, there is some sort of
blurring and blending of sequence. It may be that the
Supreme is able to forecast his universe presence onto
these supertime levels and then to a limited degree
anticipate future evolution by reflecting this future
forecast back to the created levels as the Immanence of
the Projected Incomplete. Such phenomena may be observed
wherever finite makes contact with superfinite, as in
the experiences of human beings who are indwelt by
Thought Adjusters that are veritable predictions of
man's future universe attainments throughout all
eternity.
117:7.7
When mortal ascenders are admitted to the finaliter
corps of Paradise, they take an oath to the Paradise
Trinity, and in taking this oath of allegiance, they are
thereby pledging eternal fidelity to God the Supreme,
who is the Trinity as comprehended by all finite
creature personalities. Subsequently, as the finaliter
companies function throughout the evolving universes,
they are solely amenable to the mandates of Paradise
origin until the eventful times of the settling of local
universes in light and life. As the new governmental
organizations of these perfected creations begin to be
reflective of the emerging sovereignty of the Supreme,
we observe that the outlying finaliter companies then
acknowledge the jurisdictional authority of such new
governments. It appears that God the Supreme is evolving
as the unifier of the evolutionary Corps of the
Finality, but it is highly probable that the eternal
destiny of these seven corps will be directed by the
Supreme as a member of the Ultimate Trinity.
117:7.8
The Supreme Being contains three superfinite
possibilities for universe manifestation:
1. Absonite collaboration in the first experiential
Trinity.
2. Coabsolute relationship in the second experiential
Trinity.
3. Coinfinite participation in the Trinity of Trinities,
but we have no satisfactory concept as to what this
really means.
117:7.9
This is one of the generally accepted hypotheses of the
future of the Supreme, but there are also many
speculations concerning his relations to the present
grand universe subsequent to its attainment of the
status of light and life.
117:7.10
The present goal of the superuniverses is to become, as
they are and within their potentials, perfect, even as
is Havona. This perfection pertains to physical and
spiritual attainment, even to administrative,
governmental, and fraternal development. It is believed
that, in the ages to come, the possibilities for
disharmony, maladjustment, and misadaptation will be
eventually exhausted in the superuniverses. The energy
circuits will be in perfect balance and in complete
subjugation to mind, while spirit, in the presence of
personality, will have achieved the dominance of mind.
117:7.11
It is conjectured that at this far-distant time the
spirit person of the Supreme and attained power of the
Almighty will have achieved co-ordinate development, and
that both, as unified in and by the Supreme Mind, will
factualize as the Supreme Being, a completed actuality
in the universes -- an actuality which will be
observable by all creature intelligences, reacted to by
all created energies, co-ordinated in all spiritual
entities, and experienced by all universe personalities.
117:7.12
This concept implies the actual sovereignty of the
Supreme in the grand universe. It is altogether likely
that the present Trinity administrators will continue as
his vicegerents, but we believe that the present
demarcations between the seven superuniverses will
gradually disappear, and that the entire grand universe
will function as a perfected whole.
117:7.13
It is possible that the Supreme may then be personally
resident on Uversa, the headquarters of Orvonton, from
which he will direct the administration of the time
creations, but this is really only a conjecture.
Certainly, though, the personality of the Supreme Being
will be definitely contactable at some specific
locality, although the ubiquity of his Deity presence
will probably continue to permeate the universe of
universes. What the relation of the superuniverse
citizens of that age will be to the Supreme we do not
know, but it may be something like the present
relationship between the Havona natives and the Paradise
Trinity.
117:7.14
The perfected grand universe of those future days will
be vastly different from what it is at present. Gone
will be the thrilling adventures of the organization of
the galaxies of space, the planting of life on the
uncertain worlds of time, and the evolving of harmony
out of chaos, beauty out of potentials, truth out of
meanings, and goodness out of values. The time universes
will have achieved the fulfillment of finite destiny!
And perhaps for a space there will be rest, relaxation
from the agelong struggle for evolutionary perfection.
But not for long! Certainly, surely, and inexorably the
enigma of the emerging Deity of God the Ultimate will
challenge these perfected citizens of the settled
universes just as their struggling evolutionary
forebears were once challenged by the quest for God the
Supreme. The curtain of cosmic destiny will draw back to
reveal the transcendent grandeur of the alluring
absonite quest for the attainment of the Universal
Father on those new and higher levels revealed in the
ultimate of creature experience.
117:7.15
Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning
on Urantia.
*
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