PAPER 3
- THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
GOD is everywhere
present; the Universal Father rules the circle of
eternity. But he rules in the local universes in the
persons of his Paradise Creator Sons, even as he
bestows life through these Sons. "God has given us
eternal life, and this life is in his Sons." These
Creator Sons of God are the personal expression of
himself in the sectors of time and to the children
of the whirling planets of the evolving universes of
space.
The
highly personalized Sons of God are clearly
discernible by the lower orders of created
intelligences, and so do they compensate for the
invisibility of the infinite and therefore less
discernible Father. The Paradise Creator Sons of the
Universal Father are a revelation of an otherwise
invisible being, invisible because of the
absoluteness and infinity inherent in the circle of
eternity and in the personalities of the Paradise
Deities.
Creatorship is hardly an attribute of God; it is
rather the aggregate of his acting nature. And this
universal function of creatorship is eternally
manifested as it is conditioned and controlled by
all the co-ordinated attributes of the infinite and
divine reality of the First Source and Center. We
sincerely doubt whether any one characteristic of
the divine nature can be regarded as being
antecedent to the others, but if such were the case,
then the creatorship nature of Deity would take
precedence over all other natures, activities, and
attributes. And the creatorship of Deity culminates
in the universal truth of the Fatherhood of God.
1. GOD'S
EVERYWHERENESS
The
ability of the Universal Father to be everywhere
present, and at the same time, constitutes his
omnipresence. God alone can be in two places, in
numberless places, at the same time. God is
simultaneously present "in heaven above and on the
earth beneath"; as the Psalmist exclaimed: "Whither
shall I go from your spirit? or whither shall I flee
from your presence?"
"`I am a
God at hand as well as afar off,' says the Lord. `Do
not I fill heaven and earth?'" The Universal Father
is all the time present in all parts and in all
hearts of his far-flung creation. He is "the
fullness of him who fills all and in all," and "who
works all in all," and further, the concept of his
personality is such that "the heaven (universe) and
heaven of heavens (universe of universes) cannot
contain him." It is literally true that God is all
and in all. But even that is not all of God.
The Infinite can be finally revealed only in
infinity; the cause can never be fully comprehended
by an analysis of effects; the living God is
immeasurably greater than the sum total of creation
that has come into being as a result of the creative
acts of his unfettered free will. God is revealed
throughout
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the cosmos, but
the cosmos can never contain or encompass the
entirety of the infinity of God.
The
Father's presence unceasingly patrols the master
universe. "His going forth is from the end of the
heaven, and his circuit to the ends of it; and there
is nothing hidden from the light thereof."
The
creature not only exists in God, but God also lives
in the creature. "We know we dwell in him because he
lives in us; he has given us his spirit. This gift
from the Paradise Father is man's inseparable
companion." "He is the ever-present and
all-pervading God." "The spirit of the everlasting
Father is concealed in the mind of every mortal
child." "Man goes forth searching for a friend while
that very friend lives within his own heart." "The
true God is not afar off; he is a part of us; his
spirit speaks from within us." "The Father lives in
the child. God is always with us. He is the guiding
spirit of eternal destiny."
Truly of
the human race has it been said, "You are of God"
because "he who dwells in love dwells in God, and
God in him." Even in wrongdoing you torment the
indwelling gift of God, for the Thought Adjuster
must needs go through the consequences of evil
thinking with the human mind of its incarceration.
The
omnipresence of God is in reality a part of his
infinite nature; space constitutes no barrier to
Deity. God is, in perfection and without limitation,
discernibly present only on Paradise and in the
central universe. He is not thus observably present
in the creations encircling Havona, for God has
limited his direct and actual presence in
recognition of the sovereignty and the divine
prerogatives of the co-ordinate creators and rulers
of the universes of time and space. Hence must the
concept of the divine presence allow for a wide
range of both mode and channel of manifestation
embracing the presence circuits of the Eternal Son,
the Infinite Spirit, and the Isle of Paradise. Nor
is it always possible to distinguish between the
presence of the Universal Father and the actions of
his eternal co-ordinates and agencies, so perfectly
do they fulfill all the infinite requirements of his
unchanging purpose. But not so with the personality
circuit and the Adjusters; here God acts uniquely,
directly, and exclusively.
The
Universal Controller is potentially present in the
gravity circuits of the Isle of Paradise in all
parts of the universe at all times and in the same
degree, in accordance with the mass, in response to
the physical demands for this presence, and because
of the inherent nature of all creation which causes
all things to adhere and consist in him. Likewise is
the First Source and Center potentially present in
the Unqualified Absolute, the repository of the
uncreated universes of the eternal future. God thus
potentially pervades the physical universes of the
past, present, and future. He is the primordial
foundation of the coherence of the so-called
material creation. This nonspiritual Deity potential
becomes actual here and there throughout the level
of physical existences by the inexplicable intrusion
of some one of his exclusive agencies upon the stage
of universe action.
The mind
presence of God is correlated with the absolute mind
of the Conjoint Actor, the Infinite Spirit, but in
the finite creations it is better discerned in the
everywhere functioning of the cosmic mind of the
Paradise Master Spirits. Just as the First Source
and Center is potentially present in the mind
circuits of the Conjoint Actor, so is he potentially
present in the tensions of the Universal Absolute.
But mind of the human order is a bestowal of the
Daughters of the Conjoint Actor, the Divine
Ministers of the evolving universes.
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The
everywhere-present spirit of the Universal Father is
co-ordinated with the function of the universal
spirit presence of the Eternal Son and the
everlasting divine potential of the Deity Absolute.
But neither the spiritual activity of the Eternal
Son and his Paradise Sons nor the mind bestowals of
the Infinite Spirit seem to exclude the direct
action of the Thought Adjusters, the indwelling
fragments of God, in the hearts of his creature
children.
Concerning God's presence in a planet, system,
constellation, or a universe, the degree of such
presence in any creational unit is a measure of the
degree of the evolving presence of the Supreme
Being: It is determined by the en masse recognition
of God and loyalty to him on the part of the vast
universe organization, running down to the systems
and planets themselves. Therefore it is sometimes
with the hope of conserving and safeguarding these
phases of God's precious presence that, when some
planets (or even systems) have plunged far into
spiritual darkness, they are in a certain sense
quarantined, or partially isolated from intercourse
with the larger units of creation. And all this, as
it operates on Urantia, is a spiritually defensive
reaction of the majority of the worlds to save
themselves, as far as possible, from suffering the
isolating consequences of the alienating acts of a
headstrong, wicked, and rebellious minority.
While
the Father parentally encircuits all his sons--all
personalities--his influence in them is limited by
the remoteness of their origin from the Second and
the Third Persons of Deity and augmented as their
destiny attainment nears such levels. The fact
of God's presence in creature minds is determined by
whether or not they are indwelt by Father fragments,
such as the Mystery Monitors, but his effective
presence is determined by the degree of co-operation
accorded these indwelling Adjusters by the minds of
their sojourn.
The
fluctuations of the Father's presence are not due to
the changeableness of God. The Father does not
retire in seclusion because he has been slighted;
his affections are not alienated because of the
creature's wrongdoing. Rather, having been endowed
with the power of choice (concerning himself), his
children, in the exercise of that choice, directly
determine the degree and limitations of the Father's
divine influence in their own hearts and souls. The
Father has freely bestowed himself upon us without
limit and without favor. He is no respecter of
persons, planets, systems, or universes. In the
sectors of time he confers differential honor only
on the Paradise personalities of God the Sevenfold,
the co-ordinate creators of the finite universes.
2. GOD'S
INFINITE POWER
All the
universes know that "the Lord God omnipotent
reigns." The affairs of this world and other worlds
are divinely supervised. "He does according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth." It is eternally true, "there is no
power but of God."
Within
the bounds of that which is consistent with the
divine nature, it is literally true that "with God
all things are possible." The long-drawn-out
evolutionary processes of peoples, planets, and
universes are under the perfect control of the
universe creators and administrators and unfold in
accordance with the eternal purpose of the Universal
Father, proceeding in harmony and order and in
keeping with the all-wise plan of God. There is only
one lawgiver. He upholds the worlds in space and
swings the universes around the endless circle of
the eternal circuit.
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Of all
the divine attributes, his omnipotence, especially
as it prevails in the material universe, is the best
understood. Viewed as an unspiritual phenomenon, God
is energy. This declaration of physical fact is
predicated on the incomprehensible truth that the
First Source and Center is the primal cause of the
universal physical phenomena of all space. From this
divine activity all physical energy and other
material manifestations are derived. Light, that is,
light without heat, is another of the nonspiritual
manifestations of the Deities. And there is still
another form of nonspiritual energy which is
virtually unknown on Urantia; it is as yet
unrecognized.
God
controls all power; he has made "a way for the
lightning"; he has ordained the circuits of all
energy. He has decreed the time and manner of the
manifestation of all forms of energy-matter. And all
these things are held forever in his everlasting
grasp--in the gravitational control centering on
nether Paradise. The light and energy of the eternal
God thus swing on forever around his majestic
circuit, the endless but orderly procession of the
starry hosts composing the universe of universes.
All creation circles eternally around the
Paradise-Personality center of all things and
beings.
The
omnipotence of the Father pertains to the everywhere
dominance of the absolute level, whereon the three
energies, material, mindal, and spiritual, are
indistinguishable in close proximity to him--the
Source of all things. Creature mind, being neither
Paradise monota nor Paradise spirit, is not directly
responsive to the Universal Father. God adjusts
with the mind of imperfection--with Urantia mortals
through the Thought Adjusters.
The
Universal Father is not a transient force, a
shifting power, or a fluctuating energy. The power
and wisdom of the Father are wholly adequate to cope
with any and all universe exigencies. As the
emergencies of human experience arise, he has
foreseen them all, and therefore he does not react
to the affairs of the universe in a detached way but
rather in accordance with the dictates of eternal
wisdom and in consonance with the mandates of
infinite judgment. Regardless of appearances, the
power of God is not functioning in the universe as a
blind force.
Situations do arise in which it appears that
emergency rulings have been made, that natural laws
have been suspended, that misadaptations have been
recognized, and that an effort is being made to
rectify the situation; but such is not the case.
Such concepts of God have their origin in the
limited range of your viewpoint, in the finiteness
of your comprehension, and in the circumscribed
scope of your survey; such misunderstanding of God
is due to the profound ignorance you enjoy regarding
the existence of the higher laws of the realm, the
magnitude of the Father's character, the infinity of
his attributes, and the fact of his free-willness.
The
planetary creatures of God's spirit indwelling,
scattered hither and yon throughout the universes of
space, are so nearly infinite in number and order,
their intellects are so diverse, their minds are so
limited and sometimes so gross, their vision is so
curtailed and localized, that it is almost
impossible to formulate generalizations of law
adequately expressive of the Father's infinite
attributes and at the same time to any degree
comprehensible to these created intelligences.
Therefore, to you the creature, many of the acts of
the all-powerful Creator seem to be arbitrary,
detached, and not infrequently heartless and cruel.
But again I assure you that this is not true. God's
doings are all purposeful, intelligent, wise, kind,
and eternally considerate of the best good, not
always of an individual
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being, an
individual race, an individual planet, or even an
individual universe; but they are for the welfare
and best good of all concerned, from the lowest to
the highest. In the epochs of time the welfare of
the part may sometimes appear to differ from the
welfare of the whole; in the circle of eternity such
apparent differences are nonexistent.
We are
all a part of the family of God, and we must
therefore sometimes share in the family discipline.
Many of the acts of God which so disturb and confuse
us are the result of the decisions and final rulings
of all-wisdom, empowering the Conjoint Actor to
execute the choosing of the infallible will of the
infinite mind, to enforce the decisions of the
personality of perfection, whose survey, vision, and
solicitude embrace the highest and eternal welfare
of all his vast and far-flung creation.
Thus it
is that your detached, sectional, finite, gross, and
highly materialistic viewpoint and the limitations
inherent in the nature of your being constitute such
a handicap that you are unable to see, comprehend,
or know the wisdom and kindness of many of the
divine acts which to you seem fraught with such
crushing cruelty, and which seem to be characterized
by such utter indifference to the comfort and
welfare, to the planetary happiness and personal
prosperity, of your fellow creatures. It is because
of the limits of human vision, it is because of your
circumscribed understanding and finite
comprehension, that you misunderstand the motives,
and pervert the purposes, of God. But many things
occur on the evolutionary worlds which are not the
personal doings of the Universal Father.
The
divine omnipotence is perfectly co-ordinated with
the other attributes of the personality of God. The
power of God is, ordinarily, only limited in its
universe spiritual manifestation by three conditions
or situations:
1. By
the nature of God, especially by his infinite love,
by truth, beauty, and goodness.
2. By
the will of God, by his mercy ministry and fatherly
relationship with the personalities of the universe.
3. By
the law of God, by the righteousness and justice of
the eternal Paradise Trinity.
God is
unlimited in power, divine in nature, final in will,
infinite in attributes, eternal in wisdom, and
absolute in reality. But all these characteristics
of the Universal Father are unified in Deity and
universally expressed in the Paradise Trinity and in
the divine Sons of the Trinity. Otherwise, outside
of Paradise and the central universe of Havona,
everything pertaining to God is limited by the
evolutionary presence of the Supreme, conditioned by
the eventuating presence of the Ultimate, and
co-ordinated by the three existential
Absolutes--Deity, Universal, and Unqualified. And
God's presence is thus limited because such is the
will of God.
3. GOD'S
UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE
"God
knows all things." The divine mind is conscious of,
and conversant with, the thought of all creation.
His knowledge of events is universal and perfect.
The divine entities going out from him are a part of
him; he who "balances the clouds" is also "perfect
in knowledge." "The eyes of the Lord are in every
place." Said your great teacher of the insignificant
sparrow, "One of them shall not fall
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to the ground
without my Father's knowledge," and also, "The very
hairs of your head are numbered." "He tells the
number of the stars; he calls them all by their
names."
The
Universal Father is the only personality in all the
universe who does actually know the number of the
stars and planets of space. All the worlds of every
universe are constantly within the consciousness of
God. He also says: "I have surely seen the
affliction of my people, I have heard their cry, and
I know their sorrows." For "the Lord looks from
heaven; he beholds all the sons of men; from the
place of his habitation he looks upon all the
inhabitants of the earth." Every creature child may
truly say: "He knows the way I take, and when he has
tried me, I shall come forth as gold." "God knows
our downsittings and our uprisings; he understands
our thoughts afar off and is acquainted with all our
ways." "All things are naked and open to the eyes of
him with whom we have to do." And it should be a
real comfort to every human being to understand that
"he knows your frame; he remembers that you are
dust." Jesus, speaking of the living God, said,
"Your Father knows what you have need of even before
you ask him."
God is
possessed of unlimited power to know all things; his
consciousness is universal. His personal circuit
encompasses all personalities, and his knowledge of
even the lowly creatures is supplemented indirectly
through the descending series of divine Sons and
directly through the indwelling Thought Adjusters.
And furthermore, the Infinite Spirit is all the time
everywhere present.
We are
not wholly certain as to whether or not God chooses
to foreknow events of sin. But even if God should
foreknow the freewill acts of his children, such
foreknowledge does not in the least abrogate their
freedom. One thing is certain: God is never
subjected to surprise.
Omnipotence does not imply the power to do the
nondoable, the ungodlike act. Neither does
omniscience imply the knowing of the unknowable. But
such statements can hardly be made comprehensible to
the finite mind. The creature can hardly understand
the range and limitations of the will of the
Creator.
4. GOD'S
LIMITLESSNESS
The
successive bestowal of himself upon the universes as
they are brought into being in no wise lessens the
potential of power or the store of wisdom as they
continue to reside and repose in the central
personality of Deity. In potential of force, wisdom,
and love, the Father has never lessened aught of his
possession nor become divested of any attribute of
his glorious personality as the result of the
unstinted bestowal of himself upon the Paradise
Sons, upon his subordinate creations, and upon the
manifold creatures thereof.
The
creation of every new universe calls for a new
adjustment of gravity; but even if creation should
continue indefinitely, eternally, even to infinity,
so that eventually the material creation would exist
without limitations, still the power of control and
co-ordination reposing in the Isle of Paradise would
be found equal to, and adequate for, the mastery,
control, and co-ordination of such an infinite
universe. And subsequent to this bestowal of
limitless force and power upon a boundless universe,
the Infinite would still be surcharged with the same
degree of force and energy; the Unqualified Absolute
would still be undiminished; God would still possess
the same infinite potential, just as if force,
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energy, and power
had never been poured forth for the endowment of
universe upon universe.
And so
with wisdom: The fact that mind is so freely
distributed to the thinking of the realms in no wise
impoverishes the central source of divine wisdom. As
the universes multiply, and beings of the realms
increase in number to the limits of comprehension,
if mind continues without end to be bestowed upon
these beings of high and low estate, still will
God's central personality continue to embrace the
same eternal, infinite, and all-wise mind.
The fact
that he sends forth spirit messengers from himself
to indwell the men and women of your world and other
worlds in no wise lessens his ability to function as
a divine and all-powerful spirit personality; and
there is absolutely no limit to the extent or number
of such spirit Monitors which he can and may send
out. This giving of himself to his creatures creates
a boundless, almost inconceivable future possibility
of progressive and successive existences for these
divinely endowed mortals. And this prodigal
distribution of himself as these ministering spirit
entities in no manner diminishes the wisdom and
perfection of truth and knowledge which repose in
the person of the all-wise, all-knowing, and
all-powerful Father.
To the
mortals of time there is a future, but God inhabits
eternity. Even though I hail from near the very
abiding place of Deity, I cannot presume to speak
with perfection of understanding concerning the
infinity of many of the divine attributes. Infinity
of mind alone can fully comprehend infinity of
existence and eternity of action.
Mortal
man cannot possibly know the infinitude of the
heavenly Father. Finite mind cannot think through
such an absolute truth or fact. But this same finite
human being can actually feel--literally
experience--the full and undiminished impact of such
an infinite Father's LOVE. Such a love can be truly
experienced, albeit while quality of experience is
unlimited, quantity of such an experience is
strictly limited by the human capacity for spiritual
receptivity and by the associated capacity to love
the Father in return.
Finite
appreciation of infinite qualities far transcends
the logically limited capacities of the creature
because of the fact that mortal man is made in the
image of God--there lives within him a fragment of
infinity. Therefore man's nearest and dearest
approach to God is by and through love, for God is
love. And all of such a unique relationship is an
actual experience in cosmic sociology, the
Creator-creature relationship--the Father-child
affection.
5. THE
FATHER'S SUPREME RULE
In his
contact with the post-Havona creations, the
Universal Father does not exercise his infinite
power and final authority by direct transmittal but
rather through his Sons and their subordinate
personalities. And God does all this of his own free
will. Any and all powers delegated, if occasion
should arise, if it should become the choice of the
divine mind, could be exercised direct; but, as a
rule, such action only takes place as a result of
the failure of the delegated personality to fulfill
the divine trust. At such times and in the face of
such default and within the limits of the
reservation of divine power and potential, the
Father does act independently and in accordance with
the mandates of his own choice; and that choice is
always one of unfailing perfection and infinite
wisdom.
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The
Father rules through his Sons; on down through the
universe organization there is an unbroken chain of
rulers ending with the Planetary Princes, who direct
the destinies of the evolutionary spheres of the
Father's vast domains. It is no mere poetic
expression that exclaims: "The earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof." "He removes kings and
sets up kings." "The Most Highs rule in the kingdoms
of men."
In the
affairs of men's hearts the Universal Father may not
always have his way; but in the conduct and destiny
of a planet the divine plan prevails; the eternal
purpose of wisdom and love triumphs.
Said
Jesus: "My Father, who gave them to me, is greater
than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my
Father's hand." As you glimpse the manifold workings
and view the staggering immensity of God's well-nigh
limitless creation, you may falter in your concept
of his primacy, but you should not fail to accept
him as securely and everlastingly enthroned at the
Paradise center of all things and as the beneficent
Father of all intelligent beings. There is but "one
God and Father of all, who is above all and in all,"
"and he is before all things, and in him all things
consist."
The
uncertainties of life and the vicissitudes of
existence do not in any manner contradict the
concept of the universal sovereignty of God. All
evolutionary creature life is beset by certain
inevitabilities. Consider the following:
1. Is
courage--strength of character--desirable? Then
must man be reared in an environment which
necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting
to disappointments.
2. Is
altruism--service of one's fellows--desirable?
Then must life experience provide for encountering
situations of social inequality.
3. Is
hope--the grandeur of trust--desirable? Then
human existence must constantly be confronted with
insecurities and recurrent uncertainties.
4. Is
faith--the supreme assertion of human
thought--desirable? Then must the mind of man find
itself in that troublesome predicament where it ever
knows less than it can believe.
5. Is
the love of truth and the willingness to go
wherever it leads, desirable? Then must man grow up
in a world where error is present and falsehood
always possible.
6. Is
idealism--the approaching concept of the
divine--desirable? Then must man struggle in an
environment of relative goodness and beauty,
surroundings stimulative of the irrepressible reach
for better things.
7. Is
loyalty--devotion to highest duty--desirable?
Then must man carry on amid the possibilities of
betrayal and desertion. The valor of devotion to
duty consists in the implied danger of default.
8. Is
unselfishness--the spirit of
self-forgetfulness--desirable? Then must mortal man
live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an
inescapable self for recognition and honor. Man
could not dynamically choose the divine life if
there were no self-life to forsake. Man could never
lay saving hold on righteousness if there were no
potential evil to exalt and differentiate the good
by contrast.
9. Is
pleasure--the satisfaction of
happiness--desirable? Then must man live in a world
where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of
suffering are ever-present experiential
possibilities.
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Throughout the universe, every unit is regarded as a
part of the whole. Survival of the part is dependent
on co-operation with the plan and purpose of the
whole, the wholehearted desire and perfect
willingness to do the Father's divine will. The only
evolutionary world without error (the possibility of
unwise judgment) would be a world without free
intelligence. In the Havona universe there are a
billion perfect worlds with their perfect
inhabitants, but evolving man must be fallible if he
is to be free. Free and inexperienced intelligence
cannot possibly at first be uniformly wise. The
possibility of mistaken judgment (evil) becomes sin
only when the human will consciously endorses and
knowingly embraces a deliberate immoral judgment.
The full
appreciation of truth, beauty, and goodness is
inherent in the perfection of the divine universe.
The inhabitants of the Havona worlds do not require
the potential of relative value levels as a choice
stimulus; such perfect beings are able to identify
and choose the good in the absence of all
contrastive and thought-compelling moral situations.
But all such perfect beings are, in moral nature and
spiritual status, what they are by virtue of the
fact of existence. They have experientially earned
advancement only within their inherent status.
Mortal man earns even his status as an ascension
candidate by his own faith and hope. Everything
divine which the human mind grasps and the human
soul acquires is an experiential attainment; it is a
reality of personal experience and is
therefore a unique possession in contrast to the
inherent goodness and righteousness of the inerrant
personalities of Havona.
The
creatures of Havona are naturally brave, but they
are not courageous in the human sense. They are
innately kind and considerate, but hardly altruistic
in the human way. They are expectant of a pleasant
future, but not hopeful in the exquisite manner of
the trusting mortal of the uncertain evolutionary
spheres. They have faith in the stability of the
universe, but they are utter strangers to that
saving faith whereby mortal man climbs from the
status of an animal up to the portals of Paradise.
They love the truth, but they know nothing of its
soul-saving qualities. They are idealists, but they
were born that way; they are wholly ignorant of the
ecstasy of becoming such by exhilarating choice.
They are loyal, but they have never experienced the
thrill of wholehearted and intelligent devotion to
duty in the face of temptation to default. They are
unselfish, but they never gained such levels of
experience by the magnificent conquest of a
belligerent self. They enjoy pleasure, but they do
not comprehend the sweetness of the pleasure escape
from the pain potential.
6. THE
FATHER'S PRIMACY
With
divine selflessness, consummate generosity, the
Universal Father relinquishes authority and
delegates power, but he is still primal; his hand is
on the mighty lever of the circumstances of the
universal realms; he has reserved all final
decisions and unerringly wields the all-powerful
veto scepter of his eternal purpose with
unchallengeable authority over the welfare and
destiny of the outstretched, whirling, and
ever-circling creation.
The
sovereignty of God is unlimited; it is the
fundamental fact of all creation. The universe was
not inevitable. The universe is not an accident,
neither is it self-existent. The universe is a work
of creation and is therefore wholly subject to the
will of the Creator. The will of God is divine
truth, living love; therefore
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are the
perfecting creations of the evolutionary universes
characterized by goodness--nearness to divinity; by
potential evil--remoteness from divinity.
All
religious philosophy, sooner or later, arrives at
the concept of unified universe rule, of one God.
Universe causes cannot be lower than universe
effects. The source of the streams of universe life
and of the cosmic mind must be above the levels of
their manifestation. The human mind cannot be
consistently explained in terms of the lower orders
of existence. Man's mind can be truly comprehended
only by recognizing the reality of higher orders of
thought and purposive will. Man as a moral being is
inexplicable unless the reality of the Universal
Father is acknowledged.
The
mechanistic philosopher professes to reject the idea
of a universal and sovereign will, the very
sovereign will whose activity in the elaboration of
universe laws he so deeply reverences. What
unintended homage the mechanist pays the law-Creator
when he conceives such laws to be self-acting and
self-explanatory!
It is a
great blunder to humanize God, except in the concept
of the indwelling Thought Adjuster, but even that is
not so stupid as completely to mechanize the
idea of the First Great Source and Center.
Does the
Paradise Father suffer? I do not know. The Creator
Sons most certainly can and sometimes do, even as do
mortals. The Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit
suffer in a modified sense. I think the Universal
Father does, but I cannot understand how;
perhaps through the personality circuit or through
the individuality of the Thought Adjusters and other
bestowals of his eternal nature. He has said of the
mortal races, "In all your afflictions I am
afflicted." He unquestionably experiences a fatherly
and sympathetic understanding; he may truly suffer,
but I do not comprehend the nature thereof.
The
infinite and eternal Ruler of the universe of
universes is power, form, energy, process, pattern,
principle, presence, and idealized reality. But he
is more; he is personal; he exercises a sovereign
will, experiences self-consciousness of divinity,
executes the mandates of a creative mind, pursues
the satisfaction of the realization of an eternal
purpose, and manifests a Father's love and affection
for his universe children. And all these more
personal traits of the Father can be better
understood by observing them as they were revealed
in the bestowal life of Michael, your Creator Son,
while he was incarnated on Urantia.
God the
Father loves men; God the Son serves men; God the
Spirit inspires the children of the universe to the
ever-ascending adventure of finding God the Father
by the ways ordained by God the Sons through the
ministry of the grace of God the Spirit.
[Being the
Divine Counselor assigned to the presentation of the
revelation of the Universal Father, I have continued
with this statement of the attributes of Deity.]
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