He who regards

 

He who is brave

 

Energy—Mind and Matter

42:0.1 (467.1)THE foundation of the universe is material in the sense that energy is the basis of all existence, and pure energy is controlled by the Universal Father. Force, energy, is the one thing which stands as an everlasting monument demonstrating and proving the existence and presence of the Universal Absolute. This vast stream of energy proceeding from the Paradise Presences has never lapsed, never failed; there has never been a break in the infinite upholding.

42:0.2 (467.2)The manipulation of universe energy is ever in accordance with the personal will and the all-wise mandates of the Universal Father. This personal control of manifested power and circulating energy is modified by the co-ordinate acts and decisions of the Eternal Son, as well as by the united purposes of the Son and the Father executed by the Conjoint Actor. These divine beings act personally and as individuals; they also function in the persons and powers of an almost unlimited number of subordinates, each variously expressive of the eternal and divine purpose in the universe of universes. But these functional and provisional modifications or transmutations of divine power in no way lessen the truth of the statement that all force-energy is under the ultimate control of a personal God resident at the center of all things.

1. Paradise Forces and Energies

42:1.1 (467.3)The foundation of the universe is material, but the essence of life is spirit. The Father of spirits is also the ancestor of universes; the eternal Father of the Original Son is also the eternity-source of the original pattern, the Isle of Paradise.

42:1.2 (467.4)Matter—energy—for they are but diverse manifestations of the same cosmic reality, as a universe phenomenon is inherent in the Universal Father. “In him all things consist.” Matter may appear to manifest inherent energy and to exhibit self-contained powers, but the lines of gravity involved in the energies concerned in all these physical phenomena are derived from, and are dependent on, Paradise. The ultimaton, the first measurable form of energy, has Paradise as its nucleus.

42:1.3 (467.5)There is innate in matter and present in universal space a form of energy not known on Urantia. When this discovery is finally made, then will physicists feel that they have solved, almost at least, the mystery of matter. And so will they have approached one step nearer the Creator; so will they have mastered one more phase of the divine technique; but in no sense will they have found God, neither will they have established the existence of matter or the operation of natural laws apart from the cosmic technique of Paradise and the motivating purpose of the Universal Father.

42:1.4 (468.1)Subsequent to even still greater progress and further discoveries, after Urantia has advanced immeasurably in comparison with present knowledge, though you should gain control of the energy revolutions of the electrical units of matter to the extent of modifying their physical manifestations—even after all such possible progress, forever will scientists be powerless to create one atom of matter or to originate one flash of energy or ever to add to matter that which we call life.

42:1.5 (468.2)The creation of energy and the bestowal of life are the prerogatives of the Universal Father and his associate Creator personalities. The river of energy and life is a continuous outpouring from the Deities, the universal and united stream of Paradise force going forth to all space. This divine energy pervades all creation. The force organizers initiate those changes and institute those modifications of space-force which eventuate in energy; the power directors transmute energy into matter; thus the material worlds are born. The Life Carriers initiate those processes in dead matter which we call life, material life. The Morontia Power Supervisors likewise perform throughout the transition realms between the material and the spiritual worlds. The higher spirit Creators inaugurate similar processes in divine forms of energy, and there ensue the higher spirit forms of intelligent life.

42:1.6 (468.3)Energy proceeds from Paradise, fashioned after the divine order. Energy—pure energy—partakes of the nature of the divine organization; it is fashioned after the similitude of the three Gods embraced in one, as they function at the headquarters of the universe of universes. And all force is circuited in Paradise, comes from the Paradise Presences and returns thereto, and is in essence a manifestation of the uncaused Cause—the Universal Father; and without the Father would not anything exist that does exist.

42:1.7 (468.4)Force derived from self-existent Deity is in itself ever existent. Force-energy is imperishable, indestructible; these manifestations of the Infinite may be subject to unlimited transmutation, endless transformation, and eternal metamorphosis; but in no sense or degree, not even to the slightest imaginable extent, could they or ever shall they suffer extinction. But energy, though springing from the Infinite, is not infinitely manifest; there are outer limits to the presently conceived master universe.

42:1.8 (468.5)Energy is eternal but not infinite; it ever responds to the all-embracing grasp of Infinity. Forever force and energy go on; having gone out from Paradise, they must return thereto, even if age upon age be required for the completion of the ordained circuit. That which is of Paradise Deity origin can have only a Paradise destination or a Deity destiny.

42:1.9 (468.6)And all this confirms our belief in a circular, somewhat limited, but orderly and far-flung universe of universes. If this were not true, then evidence of energy depletion at some point would sooner or later appear. All laws, organizations, administration, and the testimony of universe explorers—everything points to the existence of an infinite God but, as yet, a finite universe, a circularity of endless existence, well-nigh limitless but, nevertheless, finite in contrast with infinity.

Physical Aspects of the Local Universe

41:0.1 (455.1)THE characteristic space phenomenon which sets off each local creation from all others is the presence of the Creative Spirit. All Nebadon is certainly pervaded by the space presence of the Divine Minister of Salvington, and such presence just as certainly terminates at the outer borders of our local universe. That which is pervaded by our local universe Mother Spirit is Nebadon; that which extends beyond her space presence is outside Nebadon, being the extra-Nebadon space regions of the superuniverse of Orvonton—other local universes.

41:0.2 (455.2)While the administrative organization of the grand universe discloses a clear-cut division between the governments of the central, super-, and local universes, and while these divisions are astronomically paralleled in the space separation of Havona and the seven superuniverses, no such clear lines of physical demarcation set off the local creations. Even the major and minor sectors of Orvonton are (to us) clearly distinguishable, but it is not so easy to identify the physical boundaries of the local universes. This is because these local creations are administratively organized in accordance with certain creative principles governing the segmentation of the total energy charge of a superuniverse, whereas their physical components, the spheres of space—suns, dark islands, planets, etc.—take origin primarily from nebulae, and these make their astronomical appearance in accordance with certain precreative (transcendental) plans of the Architects of the Master Universe.

41:0.3 (455.3)One or more—even many—such nebulae may be encompassed within the domain of a single local universe even as Nebadon was physically assembled out of the stellar and planetary progeny of Andronover and other nebulae. The spheres of Nebadon are of diverse nebular ancestry, but they all had a certain minimum commonness of space motion which was so adjusted by the intelligent efforts of the power directors as to produce our present aggregation of space bodies, which travel along together as a contiguous unit over the orbits of the superuniverse.

41:0.4 (455.4)Such is the constitution of the local star cloud of Nebadon, which today swings in an increasingly settled orbit about the Sagittarius center of that minor sector of Orvonton to which our local creation belongs.

1. The Nebadon Power Centers

41:1.1 (455.5)The spiral and other nebulae, the mother wheels of the spheres of space, are initiated by Paradise force organizers; and following nebular evolution of gravity response, they are superseded in superuniverse function by the power centers and physical controllers, who thereupon assume full responsibility for directing the physical evolution of the ensuing generations of stellar and planetary offspring. This physical supervision of the Nebadon preuniverse was, upon the arrival of our Creator Son, immediately co-ordinated with his plan for universe organization. Within the domain of this Paradise Son of God, the Supreme Power Centers and the Master Physical Controllers collaborated with the later appearing Morontia Power Supervisors and others to produce that vast complex of communication lines, energy circuits, and power lanes which firmly bind the manifold space bodies of Nebadon into one integrated administrative unit.

41:1.2 (456.1)One hundred Supreme Power Centers of the fourth order are permanently assigned to our local universe. These beings receive the incoming lines of power from the third-order centers of Uversa and relay the down-stepped and modified circuits to the power centers of our constellations and systems. These power centers, in association, function to produce the living system of control and equalization which operates to maintain the balance and distribution of otherwise fluctuating and variable energies. Power centers are not, however, concerned with transient and local energy upheavals, such as sun spots and system electric disturbances; light and electricity are not the basic energies of space; they are secondary and subsidiary manifestations.

41:1.3 (456.2)The one hundred local universe centers are stationed on Salvington, where they function at the exact energy center of that sphere. Architectural spheres, such as Salvington, Edentia, and Jerusem, are lighted, heated, and energized by methods which make them quite independent of the suns of space. These spheres were constructed—made to order—by the power centers and physical controllers and were designed to exert a powerful influence over energy distribution. Basing their activities on such focal points of energy control, the power centers, by their living presences, directionize and channelize the physical energies of space. And these energy circuits are basic to all physical-material and morontia-spiritual phenomena.

41:1.4 (456.3)Ten Supreme Power Centers of the fifth order are assigned to each of Nebadon’s primary subdivisions, the one hundred constellations. In Norlatiadek, your constellation, they are not stationed on the headquarters sphere but are situated at the center of the enormous stellar system which constitutes the physical core of the constellation. On Edentia there are ten associated mechanical controllers and ten frandalanks who are in perfect and constant liaison with the near-by power centers.

41:1.5 (456.4)One Supreme Power Center of the sixth order is stationed at the exact gravity focus of each local system. In the system of Satania the assigned power center occupies a dark island of space located at the astronomic center of the system. Many of these dark islands are vast dynamos which mobilize and directionize certain space-energies, and these natural circumstances are effectively utilized by the Satania Power Center, whose living mass functions as a liaison with the higher centers, directing the streams of more materialized power to the Master Physical Controllers on the evolutionary planets of space.

The Ascending Sons of God 1

The Ascending Sons of God

40:0.1 (443.1)AS IN many of the major groups of universe beings, seven general classes of the Ascending Sons of God have been revealed:

40:0.2 (443.2)1. Father-fused Mortals.

40:0.3 (443.3)2. Son-fused Mortals.

40:0.4 (443.4)3. Spirit-fused Mortals.

40:0.5 (443.5)4. Evolutionary Seraphim.

40:0.6 (443.6)5. Ascending Material Sons.

40:0.7 (443.7)6. Translated Midwayers.

40:0.8 (443.8)7. Personalized Adjusters.

40:0.9 (443.9)The story of these beings, from the lowly animal-origin mortals of the evolutionary worlds to the Personalized Adjusters of the Universal Father, presents a glorious recital of the unstinted bestowal of divine love and gracious condescension throughout all time and in all universes of the far-flung creation of the Paradise Deities.

40:0.10 (443.10)These presentations began with a description of the Deities, and group by group, the narrative has descended the universal scale of living beings until it has reached the lowest order of life endowed with the potential of immortality; and now am I dispatched from Salvington—onetime a mortal of origin on an evolutionary world of space—to elaborate and continue the recital of the eternal purpose of the Gods respecting the ascending orders of sonship, more particularly with regard to the mortal creatures of time and space.

40:0.11 (443.11)Since the greater part of this narrative will be devoted to a discussion of the three basic orders of ascending mortals, consideration will first be given to the nonmortal ascending orders of sonship—seraphic, Adamic, midwayer, and Adjuster.

1. Evolutionary Seraphim

40:1.1 (443.12)Mortal creatures of animal origin are not the only beings privileged to enjoy sonship; the angelic hosts also share the supernal opportunity to attain Paradise. Guardian seraphim, through experience and service with the ascending mortals of time, also achieve the status of ascendant sonship. Such angels attain Paradise through Seraphington, and many are even mustered into the Corps of Mortal Finality.

40:1.2 (443.13)To climb to the supernal heights of finaliter sonship with God is a masterly achievement for an angel, an accomplishment far transcending your attainment of eternal survival through the plan of the Eternal Son and the ever-present help of the indwelling Adjuster; but the guardian seraphim, and occasionally others, do actually effect such ascensions.

2. Ascending Material Sons

40:2.1 (444.1)The Material Sons of God are created in the local universe along with the Melchizedeks and their associates, who are all classified as descending Sons. And indeed, the Planetary Adams—the Material Sons and Daughters of the evolutionary worlds—are descending Sons, coming down to the inhabited worlds from their spheres of origin, the capitals of the local systems.

40:2.2 (444.2)When such an Adam and Eve are wholly successful in their joint planetary mission as biologic uplifters, they share the destiny of the inhabitants of their world. When such a world is settled in the advanced stages of light and life, this faithful Material Son and Daughter are permitted to resign all planetary administrative duties, and after being thus liberated from the descending adventure, they are permitted to register themselves as perfected Material Sons on the records of the local universe. Likewise, when planetary assignment is long delayed, may the Material Sons of stationary status—the citizens of the local systems—withdraw from the activities of their status spheres and similarly register as perfected Material Sons. After these formalities such liberated Adams and Eves are accredited as ascending Sons of God and may immediately begin the long journey to Havona and Paradise, starting at the exact point of their then present status and spiritual attainment. And they make this journey in company with the mortal and other ascending Sons, continuing until they have found God and have achieved the Corps of Mortal Finality in the eternal service of the Paradise Deities.

The Ministering Spirits of The Local Universe

Ministering Spirits of the Local Universe

38:0.1 (418.1)THERE are three distinct orders of the personalities of the Infinite Spirit. The impetuous apostle understood this when he wrote respecting Jesus, “who has gone to heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.” Angels are the ministering spirits of time; authorities, the messenger hosts of space; powers, the higher personalities of the Infinite Spirit.

38:0.2 (418.2)As the supernaphim in the central universe and the seconaphim in a superuniverse, so the seraphim, with the associated cherubim and sanobim, constitute the angelic corps of a local universe.

38:0.3 (418.3)The seraphim are all fairly uniform in design. From universe to universe, throughout all seven of the superuniverses, they show a minimum of variation; they are the most nearly standard of all spirit types of personal beings. Their various orders constitute the corps of the skilled and common ministers of the local creations.

1. Origin of Seraphim

38:1.1 (418.4)Seraphim are created by the Universe Mother Spirit and have been projected in unit formation—41,472 at a time—ever since the creation of the “pattern angels” and certain angelic archetypes in the early times of Nebadon. The Creator Son and the universe representation of the Infinite Spirit collaborate in the creation of a large number of Sons and other universe personalities. Following the completion of this united effort, the Son engages in the creation of the Material Sons, the first of the sex creatures, while the Universe Mother Spirit concurrently engages in her initial solitary effort at spirit reproduction. Thus begins the creation of the seraphic hosts of a local universe.

38:1.2 (418.5)These angelic orders are projected at the time of planning for the evolution of mortal will creatures. The creation of seraphim dates from the attainment of relative personality by the Universe Mother Spirit, not as the later co-ordinate of the Master Son, but as the early creative helper of the Creator Son. Previous to this event the seraphim on duty in Nebadon were temporarily loaned by a neighboring universe.

38:1.3 (418.6)Seraphim are still being periodically created; the universe of Nebadon is still in the making. The Universe Mother Spirit never ceases creative activity in a growing and perfecting universe.

2. Angelic Natures

38:2.1 (419.1)Angels do not have material bodies, but they are definite and discrete beings; they are of spirit nature and origin. Though invisible to mortals, they perceive you as you are in the flesh without the aid of transformers or translators; they intellectually understand the mode of mortal life, and they share all of man’s nonsensuous emotions and sentiments. They appreciate and greatly enjoy your efforts in music, art, and real humor. They are fully cognizant of your moral struggles and spiritual difficulties. They love human beings, and only good can result from your efforts to understand and love them.

38:2.2 (419.2)Though seraphim are very affectionate and sympathetic beings, they are not sex-emotion creatures. They are much as you will be on the mansion worlds, where you will “neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be as the angels of heaven.” For all who “shall be accounted worthy to attain the mansion worlds neither marry nor are given in marriage; neither do they die any more, for they are equal to the angels.” Nevertheless, in dealing with sex creatures it is our custom to speak of those beings of more direct descent from the Father and the Son as the sons of God, while referring to the children of the Spirit as the daughters of God. Angels are, therefore, commonly designated by feminine pronouns on the sex planets.

38:2.3 (419.3)The seraphim are so created as to function on both spiritual and literal levels. There are few phases of morontia or spirit activity which are not open to their ministrations. While in personal status angels are not so far removed from human beings, in certain functional performances seraphim far transcend them. They possess many powers far beyond human comprehension. For example: You have been told that the “very hairs of your head are numbered,” and it is true they are, but a seraphim does not spend her time counting them and keeping the number corrected up to date. Angels possess inherent and automatic (that is, automatic as far as you could perceive) powers of knowing such things; you would truly regard a seraphim as a mathematical prodigy. Therefore, numerous duties which would be tremendous tasks for mortals are performed with exceeding ease by seraphim.

38:2.4 (419.4)Angels are superior to you in spiritual status, but they are not your judges or accusers. No matter what your faults, “the angels, although greater in power and might, bring no accusation against you.” Angels do not sit in judgment on mankind, neither should individual mortals prejudge their fellow creatures.

The Seraphic Hosts

39:0.1 (426.1)AS FAR as we are cognizant, the Infinite Spirit, as personalized on the local universe headquarters, intends to produce uniformly perfect seraphim, but for some unknown reason these seraphic offspring are very diverse. This diversity may be a result of the unknown interposition of evolving experiential Deity; if so, we cannot prove it. But we do observe that, when seraphim have been subjected to educational tests and training discipline, they unfailingly and distinctly classify into the following seven groups:

39:0.2 (426.2)1. Supreme Seraphim.

39:0.3 (426.3)2. Superior Seraphim.

39:0.4 (426.4)3. Supervisor Seraphim.

39:0.5 (426.5)4. Administrator Seraphim.

39:0.6 (426.6)5. Planetary Helpers.

39:0.7 (426.7)6. Transition Ministers.

39:0.8 (426.8)7. Seraphim of the Future.

39:0.9 (426.9)To say that any one seraphim is inferior to an angel of any other group would hardly be true. Nevertheless every angel is at first service-limited to the group of original and inherent classification. My seraphic associate in the preparation of this statement, Manotia, is a supreme seraphim and onetime functioned only as a supreme seraphim. By application and devoted service she has, one by one, achieved all seven of the seraphic services, having functioned in well-nigh every avenue of activity open to a seraphim, and now holds the commission of associate chief of seraphim on Urantia.

39:0.10 (426.10)Human beings sometimes find it hard to understand that a created capacity for higher-level ministry does not necessarily imply ability to function on relatively lower service levels. Man begins life as a helpless infant; hence every mortal attainment must embrace all experiential prerequisites; seraphim have no such preadult life—no childhood. They are, however, experiential creatures, and by experience and through additional education they can augment their divine and inherent endowment of ability by the experiential acquirement of functional skill in one or more of the seraphic services.

39:0.11 (426.11)After being commissioned, seraphim are assigned to the reserves of their inherent group. Those of planetary and administrator status often serve for long periods as originally classified, but the higher the inherent function level, the more persistently do the angelic ministers seek assignment to the lower orders of universe service. Especially do they desire assignment to the reserves of the planetary helpers, and if successful they enroll in the celestial schools attached to the headquarters of the Planetary Prince of some evolutionary world. Here they begin the study of the languages, history, and local habits of the races of mankind. Seraphim must acquire knowledge and gain experience much as do human beings. They are not far removed from you in certain personality attributes. And they all crave to start at the bottom, on the lowest possible level of ministry; thus may they hope to achieve the highest possible level of experiential destiny.

The Life Carriers

36:0.1 (396.1)LIFE does not originate spontaneously. Life is constructed according to plans formulated by the (unrevealed) Architects of Being and appears on the inhabited planets either by direct importation or as a result of the operations of the Life Carriers of the local universes. These carriers of life are among the most interesting and versatile of the diverse family of universe Sons. They are intrusted with designing and carrying creature life to the planetary spheres. And after planting this life on such new worlds, they remain there for long periods to foster its development.

1. Origin and Nature of Life Carriers

36:1.1 (396.2)Though the Life Carriers belong to the family of divine sonship, they are a peculiar and distinct type of universe Sons, being the only group of intelligent life in a local universe in whose creation the rulers of a superuniverse participate. The Life Carriers are the offspring of three pre-existent personalities: the Creator Son, the Universe Mother Spirit, and, by designation, one of the three Ancients of Days presiding over the destinies of the superuniverse concerned. These Ancients of Days, who alone can decree the extinction of intelligent life, participate in the creation of the Life Carriers, who are intrusted with establishing physical life on the evolving worlds.

36:1.2 (396.3)In the universe of Nebadon we have on record the creation of one hundred million Life Carriers. This efficient corps of life disseminators is not a truly self-governing group. They are directed by the life-determining trio, consisting of Gabriel, the Father Melchizedek, and Nambia, the original and first-born Life Carrier of Nebadon. But in all phases of their divisional administration they are self-governing.

36:1.3 (396.4)Life Carriers are graded into three grand divisions: The first division is the senior Life Carriers, the second, assistants, and the third, custodians. The primary division is subdivided into twelve groups of specialists in the various forms of life manifestation. The segregation of these three divisions was effected by the Melchizedeks, who conducted tests for such purposes on the Life Carriers’ headquarters sphere. The Melchizedeks have ever since been closely associated with the Life Carriers and always accompany them when they go forth to establish life on a new planet.

36:1.4 (396.5)When an evolutionary planet is finally settled in light and life, the Life Carriers are organized into the higher deliberative bodies of advisory capacity to assist in the further administration and development of the world and its glorified beings. In the later and settled ages of an evolving universe these Life Carriers are intrusted with many new duties.

Personalities of the Local Universe

37:0.1 (406.1)AT THE head of all personality in Nebadon stands the Creator and Master Son, Michael, the universe father and sovereign. Co-ordinate in divinity and complemental in creative attributes is the local universe Mother Spirit, the Divine Minister of Salvington. And these creators are in a very literal sense the Father-Son and the Spirit-Mother of all the native creatures of Nebadon.

37:0.2 (406.2)Preceding papers have dealt with the created orders of sonship; succeeding narratives will portray the ministering spirits and the ascending orders of sonship. This paper is chiefly concerned with an intervening group, the Universe Aids, but it will also give brief consideration to certain of the higher spirits stationed in Nebadon and to certain of the orders of permanent citizenship in the local universe.