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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 56
UNIVERSAL UNITY
56:0.1
GOD is unity. Deity is universally co-ordinated. The
universe of universes is one vast integrated mechanism
which is absolutely controlled by one infinite mind. The
physical, intellectual, and spiritual domains of
universal creation are divinely correlated. The perfect
and imperfect are truly interrelated, and therefore may
the finite evolutionary creature ascend to Paradise in
obedience to the Universal Father's mandate: "Be you
perfect, even as I am perfect."
56:0.2
The diverse levels of creation are all unified in the
plans and administration of the Architects of the Master
Universe. To the circumscribed minds of time-space
mortals the universe may present many problems and
situations which apparently portray disharmony and
indicate absence of effective co-ordination; but those
of us who are able to observe wider stretches of
universal phenomena, and who are more experienced in
this art of detecting the basic unity which underlies
creative diversity and of discovering the divine oneness
which overspreads all this functioning of plurality,
better perceive the divine and single purpose exhibited
in all these manifold manifestations of universal
creative energy.
1. PHYSICAL CO-ORDINATION
56:1.1
The physical or material creation is not infinite, but
it is perfectly co-ordinated. There are force, energy,
and power, but they are all one in origin. The seven
superuniverses are seemingly dual; the central universe,
triune; but Paradise is of single constitution. And
Paradise is the actual source of all material universes
-- past, present, and future. But this cosmic derivation
is an eternity
event; at no time
-- past, present, or future -- does either space or the
material cosmos come forth from the nuclear Isle of
Light. As the cosmic source, Paradise functions prior to
space and before time; hence would its derivations seem
to be orphaned in time and space did they not emerge
through the Unqualified Absolute, their ultimate
repository in space and their revealer and regulator in
time.
56:1.2
The Unqualified Absolute upholds the physical universe,
while the Deity Absolute motivates the exquisite
overcontrol of all material reality; and both Absolutes
are functionally unified by the Universal Absolute. This
cohesive correlation of the material universe is best
understood by all personalities -- material, morontia,
absonite, or spiritual -- by the observation of the
gravity response of all bona fide material reality to
the gravity centering on nether Paradise.
56:1.3
Gravity unification is universal and unvarying;
pure-energy response is likewise universal and
inescapable. Pure energy (primordial force) and pure
spirit are wholly preresponsive to gravity. These primal
forces, inhering in the Absolutes, are personally
controlled by the Universal Father; hence does all
gravity center in the personal presence of the Paradise
Father of pure energy and pure spirit and in his
supermaterial abode.
56:1.4
Pure energy is the ancestor of all relative, nonspirit
functional realities, while pure spirit is the potential
of the divine and directive overcontrol of all basic
energy systems. And these realities, so diverse as
manifested throughout space and as observed in the
motions of time, are both centered in the person of the
Paradise Father. In him they are one -- must be unified
-- because God is one. The Father's personality is
absolutely unified.
56:1.5
In the infinite nature of God the Father there could not
possibly exist duality of reality, such as physical and
spiritual; but the instant we look aside from the
infinite levels and absolute reality of the personal
values of the Paradise Father, we observe the existence
of these two realities and recognize that they are fully
responsive to his personal presence; in him all things
consist.
56:1.6
The moment you depart from the unqualified concept of
the infinite personality of the Paradise Father, you
must postulate MIND as the inevitable technique of
unifying the ever-widening divergence of these dual
universe manifestations of the original monothetic
Creator personality, the First Source and Center -- the
I AM.
2. INTELLECTUAL UNITY
56:2.1
The Thought-Father realizes spirit expression in the
Word-Son and attains reality expansion through Paradise
in the far-flung material universes. The spiritual
expressions of the Eternal Son are correlated with the
material levels of creation by the functions of the
Infinite Spirit, by whose spirit-responsive ministry of
mind, and in whose physical-directive acts of mind, the
spiritual realities of Deity and the material
repercussions of Deity are correlated the one with the
other.
56:2.2
Mind is the functional endowment of the Infinite Spirit,
therefore infinite in potential and universal in
bestowal. The primal thought of the Universal Father
eternalizes in dual expression: the Isle of Paradise and
his Deity equal, the spiritual and Eternal Son. Such
duality of eternal reality renders the mind God, the
Infinite Spirit, inevitable. Mind is the indispensable
channel of communication between spiritual and material
realities. The material evolutionary creature can
conceive and comprehend the indwelling spirit only by
the ministry of mind.
56:2.3
This infinite and universal mind is ministered in the
universes of time and space as the cosmic mind; and
though extending from the primitive ministry of the
adjutant spirits up to the magnificent mind of the chief
executive of a universe, even this cosmic mind is
adequately unified in the supervision of the Seven
Master Spirits, who are in turn co-ordinated with the
Supreme Mind of time and space and perfectly correlated
with the all-embracing mind of the Infinite Spirit.
3. SPIRITUAL UNIFICATION
56:3.1
As the universal mind gravity is centered in the
Paradise personal presence of the Infinite Spirit, so
does the universal spirit gravity center in the Paradise
personal presence of the Eternal Son. The Universal
Father is one, but to time-space he is revealed in the
dual phenomena of pure energy and pure spirit.
56:3.2
Paradise spirit realities are likewise one, but in all
time-space situations and relations this single spirit
is revealed in the dual phenomena of the spirit
personalities and emanations of the Eternal Son and the
spirit personalities and influences of the Infinite
Spirit and associated creations; and there is yet a
third -- pure-spirit fragmentations -- the Father's
bestowal of the Thought Adjusters and other spirit
entities which are prepersonal.
56:3.3
No matter on what level of universe activities you may
encounter spiritual phenomena or contact with spirit
beings, you may know that they are all derived from the
God who is spirit by the ministry of the Spirit Son and
the Infinite Mind Spirit. And this far-flung spirit
functions as a phenomenon on the evolutionary worlds of
time as it is directed from the headquarters of the
local universes. From these capitals of the Creator Sons
come the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth, together
with the ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits, to the
lower and evolving levels of material minds.
56:3.4
While mind is more unified on the level of the Master
Spirits in association with the Supreme Being and as the
cosmic mind in subordination to the Absolute Mind, the
spirit ministry to the evolving worlds is more directly
unified in the personalities resident on the
headquarters of the local universes and in the persons
of the presiding Divine Ministers, who are in turn
well-nigh perfectly correlated with the Paradise gravity
circuit of the Eternal Son, wherein occurs final
unification of all time-space spirit manifestations.
56:3.5
Perfected creature existence can be attained, sustained,
and eternalized by the fusion of self-conscious mind
with a fragment of the pre-Trinity spirit endowment of
some one of the persons of the Paradise Trinity. The
mortal mind is the creation of the Sons and Daughters of
the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit and, when fused
with the Thought Adjuster from the Father, partakes of
the threefold spirit endowment of the evolutionary
realms. But these three spirit expressions become
perfectly unified in the finaliters, even as they were
in eternity so unified in the Universal I AM ere he ever
became the Universal Father of the Eternal Son and the
Infinite Spirit.
56:3.6
Spirit must always and ultimately become threefold in
expression and Trinity-unified in final realization.
Spirit originates from one source through a threefold
expression; and in finality it must and does attain its
full realization in that divine unification which is
experienced in finding God -- oneness with divinity --
in eternity, and by means of the ministry of the cosmic
mind of the infinite expression of the eternal word of
the Father's universal thought.
4. PERSONALITY UNIFICATION
56:4.1
The Universal Father is a divinely unified personality;
hence will all his ascendant children who are carried to
Paradise by the rebound momentum of the Thought
Adjusters, who went forth from Paradise to indwell
material mortals in obedience to the Father's mandate,
likewise be fully unified personalities ere they reach
Havona.
56:4.2
Personality inherently reaches out to unify all
constituent realities. The infinite personality of the
First Source and Center, the Universal Father, unifies
all seven constituent Absolutes of Infinity; and the
personality of mortal man, being an exclusive and direct
bestowal of the Universal Father, likewise possesses the
potential of unifying the constituent factors of the
mortal creature. Such unifying creativity of all
creature personality is a birthmark of its high and
exclusive source and is further evidential of its
unbroken contact with this same source through the
personality circuit, by means of which the personality
of the creature maintains direct and sustaining contact
with the Father of all personality on Paradise.
56:4.3
Notwithstanding that God is manifest from the domains of
the Sevenfold up through supremacy and ultimacy to God
the Absolute, the personality circuit, centering on
Paradise and in the person of God the Father, provides
for the complete and perfect unification of all these
diverse expressions of divine personality so far as
concerns all creature personalities on all levels of
intelligent existence and in all the realms of the
perfect, perfected, and perfecting universes.
56:4.4
While God is to and in the universes all that we have
portrayed, nevertheless, to you and to all other
God-knowing creatures he is one, your Father and their
Father. To personality God cannot be plural. God is
Father to each of his creatures, and it is literally
impossible for any child to have more than one father.
56:4.5
Philosophically, cosmically, and with reference to
differential levels and locations of manifestation, you
may and perforce must conceive of the functioning of
plural Deities and postulate the existence of plural
Trinities; but in the worshipful experience of the
personal contact of every worshiping personality
throughout the master universe, God is one; and that
unified and personal Deity is our Paradise parent, God
the Father, the bestower, conservator, and Father of all
personalities from mortal man on the inhabited worlds to
the Eternal Son on the central Isle of Light.
5. DEITY UNITY
56:5.1
The oneness, the indivisibility, of Paradise Deity is
existential and absolute. There are three eternal
personalizations of Deity -- the Universal Father, the
Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit -- but in the
Paradise Trinity they are
actually one
Deity, undivided and indivisible.
56:5.2
From the original Paradise-Havona level of existential
reality, two subabsolute levels have differentiated, and
thereon have the Father, Son, and Spirit engaged in the
creation of numerous personal associates and
subordinates. And while it is inappropriate in this
connection to undertake the consideration of absonite
deity unification on transcendental levels of ultimacy,
it is feasible to look at some features of the unifying
function of the various Deity personalizations in whom
divinity is functionally manifest to the diverse sectors
of creation and to the different orders of intelligent
beings.
56:5.3
The present functioning of divinity in the
superuniverses is actively manifest in the operations of
the Supreme Creators -- the local universe Creator Sons
and Spirits, the superuniverse Ancients of Days, and the
Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. These beings
constitute the first three levels of God the Sevenfold
leading inward to the Universal Father, and this entire
domain of God the Sevenfold is co-ordinating on the
first level of experiential deity in the evolving
Supreme Being.
56:5.4
On Paradise and in the central universe, Deity unity is
a fact of existence. Throughout the evolving universes
of time and space, Deity unity is an achievement.
6. UNIFICATION OF EVOLUTIONARY DEITY
56:6.1
When the three eternal persons of Deity function as
undivided Deity in the Paradise Trinity, they achieve
perfect unity; likewise, when they create, either
associatively or severally, their Paradise progeny
exhibit the characteristic unity of divinity. And this
divinity of purpose manifested by the Supreme Creators
and Rulers of the time-space domains eventuates in the
unifying power potential of the sovereignty of
experiential supremacy which, in the presence of the
impersonal energy unity of the universe, constitutes a
reality tension that can be resolved only through
adequate unification with the experiential personality
realities of experiential Deity.
56:6.2
The personality realities of the Supreme Being come
forth from the Paradise Deities and on the pilot world
of the outer Havona circuit unify with the power
prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme coming up from the
Creator divinities of the grand universe. God the
Supreme as a person existed in Havona before the
creation of the seven superuniverses, but he functioned
only on spiritual levels. The evolution of the Almighty
power of Supremacy by diverse divinity synthesis in the
evolving universes eventuated in a new power presence of
Deity which co-ordinated with the spiritual person of
the Supreme in Havona by means of the Supreme Mind,
which concomitantly translated from the potential
resident in the infinite mind of the Infinite Spirit to
the active functional mind of the Supreme Being.
56:6.3
The material-minded creatures of the evolutionary worlds
of the seven superuniverses can comprehend Deity unity
only as it is evolving in this power-personality
synthesis of the Supreme Being. On any level of
existence God cannot exceed the conceptual capacity of
the beings who live on such a level. Mortal man must,
through the recognition of truth, the appreciation of
beauty, and the worship of goodness, evolve the
recognition of a God of love and then progress through
ascending deity levels to the comprehension of the
Supreme. Deity, having been thus grasped as unified in
power, can then be personalized in spirit to creature
understanding and attainment.
56:6.4
While ascending mortals achieve power comprehension of
the Almighty on the capitals of the superuniverses and
personality comprehension of the Supreme on the outer
circuits of Havona, they do not actually find the
Supreme Being as they are destined to find the Paradise
Deities. Even the finaliters, sixth-stage spirits, have
not found the Supreme Being, nor are they likely to
until they have achieved seventh-stage-spirit status,
and until the Supreme has become actually functional in
the activities of the future outer universes.
56:6.5
But when ascenders find the Universal Father as the
seventh level of God the Sevenfold, they have attained
the personality of the First Person of
all deity
levels of personal relationships with universe
creatures.
7. UNIVERSAL EVOLUTIONARY REPERCUSSIONS
56:7.1
The steady progress of evolution in the time-space
universes is accompanied by ever-enlarging revelations
of Deity to all intelligent creatures. The attainment of
the height of evolutionary progress on a world, in a
system, constellation, universe, superuniverse, or in
the grand universe signalizes corresponding enlargements
of deity function to and in these progressive units of
creation. And every such local enhancement of divinity
realization is accompanied by certain well-defined
repercussions of enlarged deity manifestation to all
other sectors of creation. Extending outward from
Paradise, each new domain of realized and attained
evolution constitutes a new and enlarged revelation of
experiential Deity to the universe of universes.
56:7.2
As the components of a local universe are progressively
settled in light and life, God the Sevenfold is
increasingly made manifest. Time-space evolution begins
on a planet with the first expression of God the
Sevenfold -- the Creator Son-Creative Spirit association
-- in control. With the settling of a system in light,
this Son-Spirit liaison attains the fullness of
function; and when an entire constellation is thus
settled, the second phase of God the Sevenfold becomes
more active throughout such a realm. The completed
administrative evolution of a local universe is attended
by new and more direct ministrations of the
superuniverse Master Spirits; and at this point there
also begins that ever-expanding revelation and
realization of God the Supreme which culminates in the
ascender's comprehension of the Supreme Being while
passing through the worlds of the sixth Havona circuit.
56:7.3
The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite
Spirit are existential deity manifestations to
intelligent creatures and are not, therefore, similarly
expanded in personality relations with the mind and
spirit creatures of all creation.
56:7.4
It should be noted that ascending mortals may experience
the impersonal presence of successive levels of Deity
long before they become sufficiently spiritual and
adequately educated to attain experiential personal
recognition of, and contact with, these Deities as
personal beings.
56:7.5
Each new evolutionary attainment within a sector of
creation, as well as every new invasion of space by
divinity manifestations, is attended by simultaneous
expansions of Deity functional-revelation within the
then existing and previously organized units of all
creation. This new invasion of the administrative work
of the universes and their component units may not
always appear to be executed exactly in accordance with
the technique herewith outlined because it is the
practice to send forth advance groups of administrators
to prepare the way for the subsequent and successive
eras of new administrative overcontrol. Even God the
Ultimate foreshadows his transcendental overcontrol of
the universes during the later stages of a local
universe settled in light and life.
56:7.6
It is a fact that, as the creations of time and space
are progressively settled in evolutionary status, there
is observed a new and fuller functioning of God the
Supreme concomitant with a corresponding withdrawing of
the first three manifestations of God the Sevenfold. If
and when the grand universe becomes settled in light and
life, what then will be the future function of the
Creator-Creative manifestations of God the Sevenfold if
God the Supreme assumes direct control of these
creations of time and space? Are these organizers and
pioneers of the time-space universes to be liberated for
similar activities in outer space? We do not know, but
we speculate much concerning these and related matters.
56:7.7
As the frontiers of experiential Deity are extended out
into the domains of the Unqualified Absolute, we
envision the activity of God the Sevenfold during the
earlier evolutionary epochs of these creations of the
future. We are not all in agreement respecting the
future status of the Ancients of Days and the
superuniverse Master Spirits. Neither do we know whether
or not the Supreme Being will therein function as in the
seven superuniverses. But we all conjecture that the
Michaels, the Creator Sons, are destined to function in
these outer universes. Some hold that the future ages
will witness some closer form of union between the
associated Creator Sons and Divine Ministers; it is even
possible that such a creator union might eventuate in
some new expression of associate-creator identity of an
ultimate nature. But we really know nothing about these
possibilities of the unrevealed future.
56:7.8
We do know, however, that in the universes of time and
space, God the Sevenfold provides a progressive approach
to the Universal Father, and that this evolutionary
approach is experientially unified in God the Supreme.
We might conjecture that such a plan must prevail in the
outer universes; on the other hand the new orders of
beings that may sometime inhabit these universes may be
able to approach Deity on ultimate levels and by
absonite techniques. In short, we have not the slightest
concept of what technique of deity approach may become
operative in the future universes of outer space.
56:7.9
Nevertheless, we deem that the perfected superuniverses
will in some way become a part of the Paradise-ascension
careers of those beings who may inhabit these outer
creations. It is quite possible that in that future age
we may witness outer-spacers approaching Havona through
the seven superuniverses, administered by God the
Supreme with or without the collaboration of the Seven
Master Spirits.
8. THE SUPREME UNIFIER
56:8.1
The Supreme Being has a threefold function in the
experience of mortal man: First, he is the unifier of
time-space divinity, God the Sevenfold; second, he is
the maximum of Deity which finite creatures can actually
comprehend; third, he is mortal man's only avenue of
approach to the transcendental experience of consorting
with absonite mind, eternal spirit, and Paradise
personality.
56:8.2
Ascendant finaliters, having been born in the local
universes, nurtured in the superuniverses, and trained
in the central universe, embrace in their personal
experiences the full potential of the comprehension of
the time-space divinity of God the Sevenfold unifying in
the Supreme. Finaliters serve successively in
superuniverses other than those of nativity, thereby
superimposing experience upon experience until the
fullness of the sevenfold diversity of possible creature
experience has been encompassed. Through the ministry of
the indwelling Adjusters the finaliters are enabled to
find the
Universal Father, but it is by these techniques of
experience that such finaliters come really to
know the
Supreme Being, and they are destined to the service and
the revelation
of this Supreme Deity in and to the future universes of
outer space.
56:8.3
Bear in mind, all that God the Father and his Paradise
Sons do for us, we in turn and in spirit have the
opportunity to do for and in the emerging Supreme Being.
The experience of love, joy, and service in the universe
is mutual. God the Father does not need that his sons
should return to him all that he bestows upon them, but
they do (or may) in turn bestow all of this upon their
fellows and upon the evolving Supreme Being.
56:8.4
All creational phenomena are reflective of antecedent
creator-spirit activities. Said Jesus, and it is
literally true, "The Son does only those things which he
sees the Father do." In time you mortals may begin the
revelation of the Supreme to your fellows, and
increasingly may you augment this revelation as you
ascend Paradiseward. In eternity you may be permitted to
make increasing revelations of this God of evolutionary
creatures on supreme levels -- even ultimate -- as
seventh-stage finaliters.
9. UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE UNITY
56:9.1
The Unqualified Absolute and the Deity Absolute are
unified in the Universal Absolute. The Absolutes are
co-ordinated in the Ultimate, conditioned in the
Supreme, and time-space modified in God the Sevenfold.
On subinfinite levels there are
three
Absolutes, but in infinity they appear to be
one. On
Paradise there are three personalizations of Deity, but
in the Trinity they
are one.
56:9.2
The major philosophic proposition of the master universe
is this: Did the Absolute (the three Absolutes as one in
infinity) exist before the Trinity? and is the Absolute
ancestral to the Trinity? or is the Trinity antecedent
to the Absolute?
56:9.3
Is the Unqualified Absolute a force presence independent
of the Trinity? Does the presence of the Deity Absolute
connote the unlimited function of the Trinity? and is
the Universal Absolute the final function of the
Trinity, even a Trinity of Trinities?
56:9.4
On first thought, a concept of the Absolute as ancestor
to all things -- even the Trinity -- seems to afford
transitory satisfaction of consistency gratification and
philosophic unification, but any such conclusion is
invalidated by the actuality of the eternity of the
Paradise Trinity. We are taught, and we believe, that
the Universal Father and his Trinity associates are
eternal in nature and existence. There is, then, but one
consistent philosophic conclusion, and that is: The
Absolute is, to all universe intelligences, the
impersonal and co-ordinate reaction of the Trinity (of
Trinities) to all basic and primary space situations,
intrauniversal and extrauniversal. To all personality
intelligences of the grand universe the Paradise Trinity
forever stands in finality, eternity, supremacy, and
ultimacy and, for all practical purposes of personal
comprehension and creature realization, as absolute.
56:9.5
As creature minds may view this problem, they are led to
the final postulate of the Universal I AM as the primal
cause and the unqualified source of both the Trinity and
the Absolute. When, therefore, we crave to entertain a
personal concept of the Absolute, we revert to our ideas
and ideals of the Paradise Father. When we desire to
facilitate comprehension or to augment consciousness of
this otherwise impersonal Absolute, we revert to the
fact that the Universal Father is the existential Father
of absolute personality; the Eternal Son is the Absolute
Person, though not, in the experiential sense, the
personalization of the Absolute. And then we go on to
envisage the experiential Trinities as culminating in
the experiential personalization of the Deity Absolute,
while conceiving the Universal Absolute as constituting
the universe and the extrauniverse phenomena of the
manifest presence of the impersonal activities of the
unified and co-ordinated Deity associations of
supremacy, ultimacy, and infinity -- the Trinity of
Trinities.
56:9.6
God the Father is discernible on all levels from the
finite to the infinite, and though his creatures from
Paradise to the evolutionary worlds have variously
perceived him, only the Eternal Son and the Infinite
Spirit know him as an infinity.
56:9.7
Spiritual personality is absolute only on Paradise, and
the concept of the Absolute is unqualified only in
infinity. Deity presence is absolute only on Paradise,
and the revelation of God must always be partial,
relative, and progressive until his power becomes
experientially infinite in the space potency of the
Unqualified Absolute, while his personality
manifestation becomes experientially infinite in the
manifest presence of the Deity Absolute, and while these
two potentials of infinity become reality-unified in the
Universal Absolute.
56:9.8
But beyond subinfinite levels the three Absolutes are
one, and thereby is infinity Deity-realized regardless
of whether any other order of existence ever
self-realizes consciousness of infinity.
56:9.9
Existential status in eternity implies existential
self-consciousness of infinity, even though another
eternity may be required to experience self-realization
of the experiential potentialities inherent in an
infinity eternity -- an eternal infinity.
56:9.10
And God the Father is the personal source of all
manifestations of Deity and reality to all intelligent
creatures and spirit beings throughout all the universe
of universes. As personalities, now or in the successive
universe experiences of the eternal future, no matter if
you achieve the attainment of God the Sevenfold,
comprehend God the Supreme, find God the Ultimate, or
attempt to grasp the concept of God the Absolute, you
will discover to your eternal satisfaction that in the
consummation of each adventure you have, on new
experiential levels, rediscovered the eternal God -- the
Paradise Father of all universe personalities.
56:9.11
The Universal Father is the explanation of universal
unity as it must be supremely, even ultimately, realized
in the postultimate unity of absolute values and
meanings -- unqualified Reality.
56:9.12
The Master Force Organizers go out into space and
mobilize its energies to become gravity responsive to
the Paradise pull of the Universal Father; and
subsequently there come the Creator Sons, who organize
these gravity-responding forces into inhabited universes
and therein evolve intelligent creatures who receive
unto themselves the spirit of the Paradise Father and
subsequently ascend to the Father to become like him in
all possible divinity attributes.
56:9.13
The ceaseless and expanding march of the Paradise
creative forces through space seems to presage the
ever-extending domain of the gravity grasp of the
Universal Father and the never-ending multiplication of
varied types of intelligent creatures who are able to
love God and be loved by him, and who, by thus becoming
God-knowing, may choose to be like him, may elect to
attain Paradise and find God.
56:9.14
The universe of universes is altogether unified. God is
one in power and personality. There is co-ordination of
all levels of energy and all phases of personality.
Philosophically and experientially, in concept and in
reality, all things and beings center in the Paradise
Father. God is all and in all, and no things or beings
exist without him.
10. TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS
56:10.1
As the worlds settled in life and light progress from
the initial stage to the seventh epoch, they
successively grasp for the realization of the reality of
God the Sevenfold, ranging from the adoration of the
Creator Son to the worship of his Paradise Father.
Throughout the continuing seventh stage of such a
world's history the ever-progressing mortals grow in the
knowledge of God the Supreme, while they vaguely discern
the reality of the overshadowing ministry of God the
Ultimate.
56:10.2
Throughout this glorious age the chief pursuit of the
ever-advancing mortals is the quest for a better
understanding and a fuller realization of the
comprehensible elements of Deity -- truth, beauty, and
goodness. This represents man's effort to discern God in
mind, matter, and spirit. And as the mortal pursues this
quest, he finds himself increasingly absorbed in the
experiential study of philosophy, cosmology, and
divinity.
56:10.3
Philosophy you somewhat grasp, and divinity you
comprehend in worship, social service, and personal
spiritual experience, but the pursuit of beauty --
cosmology -- you all too often limit to the study of
man's crude artistic endeavors. Beauty, art, is largely
a matter of the unification of contrasts. Variety is
essential to the concept of beauty. The supreme beauty,
the height of finite art, is the drama of the
unification of the vastness of the cosmic extremes of
Creator and creature. Man finding God and God finding
man -- the creature becoming perfect as is the Creator
-- that is the supernal achievement of the supremely
beautiful, the attainment of the apex of cosmic art.
56:10.4
Hence materialism, atheism, is the maximation of
ugliness, the climax of the finite antithesis of the
beautiful. Highest beauty consists in the panorama of
the unification of the variations which have been born
of pre-existent harmonious reality.
56:10.5
The attainment of cosmologic levels of thought includes:
56:10.6
1. Curiosity.
Hunger for harmony and thirst for beauty. Persistent
attempts to discover new levels of harmonious cosmic
relationships.
56:10.7
2. Aesthetic
appreciation. Love of the beautiful and
ever-advancing appreciation of the artistic touch of all
creative manifestations on all levels of reality.
56:10.8
3. Ethic
sensitivity. Through the realization of truth the
appreciation of beauty leads to the sense of the eternal
fitness of those things which impinge upon the
recognition of divine goodness in Deity relations with
all beings; and thus even cosmology leads to the pursuit
of divine reality values -- to God-consciousness.
56:10.9
The worlds settled in light and life are so fully
concerned with the comprehension of truth, beauty, and
goodness because these quality values embrace the
revelation of Deity to the realms of time and space. The
meanings of eternal truth make a combined appeal to the
intellectual and spiritual natures of mortal man.
Universal beauty embraces the harmonious relations and
rhythms of the cosmic creation; this is more distinctly
the intellectual appeal and leads towards unified and
synchronous comprehension of the material universe.
Divine goodness represents the revelation of infinite
values to the finite mind, therein to be perceived and
elevated to the very threshold of the spiritual level of
human comprehension.
56:10.10
Truth is the basis of science and philosophy, presenting
the intellectual foundation of religion. Beauty sponsors
art, music, and the meaningful rhythms of all human
experience. Goodness embraces the sense of ethics,
morality, and religion -- experiential
perfection-hunger.
56:10.11
The existence of beauty implies the presence of
appreciative creature mind just as certainly as the fact
of progressive evolution indicates the dominance of the
Supreme Mind. Beauty is the intellectual recognition of
the harmonious time-space synthesis of the far-flung
diversification of phenomenal reality, all of which
stems from pre-existent and eternal oneness.
56:10.12
Goodness is the mental recognition of the relative
values of the diverse levels of divine perfection. The
recognition of goodness implies a mind of moral status,
a personal mind with ability to discriminate between
good and evil. But the possession of goodness,
greatness, is the measure of real divinity attainment.
56:10.13
The recognition of
true relations
implies a mind competent to discriminate between truth
and error. The bestowal Spirit of Truth which invests
the human minds of Urantia is unerringly responsive to
truth -- the living spirit relationship of all things
and all beings as they are co-ordinated in the eternal
ascent Godward.
56:10.14
Every impulse of every electron, thought, or spirit is
an acting unit in the whole universe. Only sin is
isolated and evil gravity resisting on the mental and
spiritual levels. The universe is a whole; no thing or
being exists or lives in isolation. Self-realization is
potentially evil if it is antisocial. It is literally
true: "No man lives by himself." Cosmic socialization
constitutes the highest form of personality unification.
Said Jesus: "He who would be greatest among you, let him
become server of all."
56:10.15
Even truth, beauty, and goodness -- man's intellectual
approach to the universe of mind, matter, and spirit --
must be combined into one unified concept of a divine
and supreme ideal.
As mortal personality unifies the human experience with
matter, mind, and spirit, so does this divine and
supreme ideal become power-unified in Supremacy and then
personalized as a God of fatherly love.
56:10.16
All insight into the relations of the parts to any given
whole requires an understanding grasp of the relation of
all parts to that whole; and in the universe this means
the relation of created parts to the Creative Whole.
Deity thus becomes the transcendental, even the
infinite, goal of universal and eternal attainment.
56:10.17
Universal beauty is the recognition of the reflection of
the Isle of Paradise in the material creation, while
eternal truth is the special ministry of the Paradise
Sons who not only bestow themselves upon the mortal
races but even pour out their Spirit of Truth upon all
peoples. Divine goodness is more fully shown forth in
the loving ministry of the manifold personalities of the
Infinite Spirit. But love, the sum total of these three
qualities, is man's perception of God as his spirit
Father.
56:10.18
Physical matter is the time-space shadow of the Paradise
energy-shining of the absolute Deities. Truth meanings
are the mortal-intellect repercussions of the eternal
word of Deity -- the time-space comprehension of supreme
concepts. The goodness values of divinity are the
merciful ministries of the spirit personalities of the
Universal, the Eternal, and the Infinite to the
time-space finite creatures of the evolutionary spheres.
56:10.19
These meaningful reality values of divinity are blended
in the Father's relation with each personal creature as
divine love. They are co-ordinated in the Son and his
Sons as divine mercy. They manifest their qualities
through the Spirit and his spirit children as divine
ministry, the portrayal of loving mercy to the children
of time. These three divinities are primarily manifested
by the Supreme Being as power-personality synthesis.
They are variously shown forth by God the Sevenfold in
seven differing associations of divine meanings and
values on seven ascending levels.
56:10.20
To finite man truth, beauty, and goodness embrace the
full revelation of divinity reality. As this
love-comprehension of Deity finds spiritual expression
in the lives of God-knowing mortals, there are yielded
the fruits of divinity: intellectual peace, social
progress, moral satisfaction, spiritual joy, and cosmic
wisdom. The advanced mortals on a world in the seventh
stage of light and life have learned that love is the
greatest thing in the universe -- and they know that God
is love.
56:10.21
Love is the desire to do good to others.
56:10.22
Presented by a Mighty Messenger visiting on Urantia, by
request of the Nebadon Revelatory Corps and in
collaboration with a certain Melchizedek, the vicegerent
Planetary Prince of Urantia.
* * * * *
56:10.23
This paper on Universal Unity is the twenty-fifth of a
series of presentations by various authors, having been
sponsored as a group by a commission of Nebadon
personalities numbering twelve and acting under the
direction of Mantutia Melchizedek. We indited these
narratives and put them in the English language, by a
technique authorized by our superiors, in the year 1934
of Urantia time.
*
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