(54.1) 4:0.1
The Universal Father has an eternal purpose pertaining to the material, intellectual, and spiritual phenomena of the
universe of universes,
which he is executing throughout all time. God created the universes of
his own free and sovereign will, and he created them in accordance with
his all-wise and eternal purpose. It is doubtful whether anyone except
the
Paradise Deities and their highest associates really knows very much about the eternal purpose of God. Even the exalted citizens of
Paradise hold very diverse opinions about the nature of the eternal purpose of the Deities.
(54.2) 4:0.2 It is easy to deduce that the purpose in creating the perfect central universe of Havona
was purely the satisfaction of the divine nature. Havona may serve as
the pattern creation for all other universes and as the finishing school
for the pilgrims of time on their way to Paradise; however, such a
supernal creation must exist primarily for the pleasure and satisfaction
of the perfect and infinite Creators.
(54.3) 4:0.3
The amazing plan for perfecting evolutionary mortals and, after their attainment of Paradise and the Corps of the Finality, providing further training for some undisclosed future work, does seem to be, at present, one of the chief concerns of the
seven superuniverses
and their many subdivisions; but this ascension scheme for
spiritualizing and training the mortals of time and space is by no means
the exclusive occupation of the universe intelligences. There are,
indeed, many other fascinating pursuits which occupy the time and enlist
the energies of the celestial hosts.
(54.4) 4:1.1 For ages the inhabitants of Urantia
have misunderstood the providence of God. There is a providence of
divine outworking on your world, but it is not the childish, arbitrary,
and material ministry many mortals have conceived it to be. The
providence of God consists in the interlocking activities of the
celestial beings and the divine spirits who, in accordance with cosmic
law, unceasingly labor for the honor of God and for the spiritual
advancement of his universe children.
(54.5) 4:1.2
Can you not advance in your concept of
God's dealing with man to that level where you recognize that the
watchword of the universe is progress? Through long ages the human race has struggled to
reach its present position. Throughout all these millenniums Providence
has been working out the plan of progressive
evolution.
The two thoughts are not opposed in practice, only in man's mistaken
concepts. Divine providence is never arrayed in opposition to true human
progress, either temporal or spiritual. Providence is always consistent
with the unchanging and perfect nature of the supreme Lawmaker.
(55.1) 4:1.3 " God is faithful " and " all his
commandments are just. " " His faithfulness is established in the very
skies. " " Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Your
faithfulness is to all generations; you have established the earth and
it abides. " " He is a faithful Creator. "
(55.2) 4:1.4 There is no limitation of the forces
and personalities which the Father may use to uphold his purpose and
sustain his creatures. " The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath
are the everlasting arms. " " He who dwells in the secret place of the
Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty.
" " Behold, he who keeps us shall neither slumber nor sleep. " " We
know that all things work together for good to those who love God, " "
for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open
to their prayers. "
(55.3) 4:1.5
God upholds " all things by the word of
his power. " And when new worlds are born, he " sends forth his Sons
and they are created. " God not only creates, but he " preserves them
all. " God constantly upholds all things material and all beings
spiritual. The universes are eternally stable. There is stability in the
midst of apparent instability. There is an underlying order and
security in the midst of the energy upheavals and the physical
cataclysms of the starry realms.
(55.4) 4:1.6 The Universal Father has not withdrawn from the management of the universes; he is not an inactive
Deity.
If God should retire as the present upholder of all creation, there
would immediately occur a universal collapse. Except for God, there
would be no such thing as
reality. At this very moment, as during the remote ages of the
past and in the eternal future, God continues to uphold. The divine
reach extends around the circle of eternity. The universe is not wound
up like a clock to run just so long and then cease to function; all
things are constantly being renewed. The Father unceasingly pours forth
energy, light, and life. The work of God is literal as well as
spiritual. " He stretches out the north over the empty space and hangs
the earth upon nothing. "
(55.5) 4:1.7
A being of my order is able to discover
ultimate harmony and to detect far-reaching and profound co-ordination
in the routine affairs of universe administration. Much that seems
disjointed and haphazard to the mortal mind
appears orderly and constructive to my understanding. But there is very
much going on in the universes that I do not fully comprehend. I have
long been a student of, and am more or less conversant with, the
recognized forces, energies, minds, morontias, spirits, and
personalities of the
local universes
and the superuniverses. I have a general understanding of how these
agencies and personalities operate, and I am intimately familiar with
the workings of the accredited spirit intelligences of the
grand universe.
Notwithstanding my knowledge of the phenomena of the universes, I am
constantly confronted with cosmic reactions which I cannot fully fathom.
I am continually encountering apparently fortuitous conspiracies of the
interassociation of forces, energies, intellects, and spirits, which I
cannot satisfactorily explain.
(55.6) 4:1.8 I am entirely competent to trace out
and to analyze the working of all phenomena directly resulting from the
functioning of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the
Infinite Spirit, and, to a large extent, the
Isle of Paradise. My perplexity is occasioned by encountering what appears to be the performance of their mysterious co-ordinates, the three
Absolutes
of potentiality. These Absolutes seem to supersede matter, to transcend
mind, and to supervene spirit. I am constantly confused and often
perplexed by my inability to comprehend these complex transactions which
I attribute to the presences and performances of the
Unqualified Absolute, the
Deity Absolute, and the
Universal Absolute.
(56.1) 4:1.9
These Absolutes must be the not-fully-revealed presences abroad in the universe which, in the phenomena of space potency
and in the function of other superultimates, render it impossible for
physicists, philosophers, or even religionists to predict with certainty
as to just how the primordials of force, concept, or spirit will
respond to demands made in a complex reality situation involving supreme
adjustments and ultimate
values.
(56.2) 4:1.10 There is also an organic unity in the
universes of time and space which seems to underlie the whole fabric of
cosmic events. This living presence of the evolving Supreme Being, this
Immanence of the Projected Incomplete, is inexplicably manifested ever
and anon by what appears to be an amazingly fortuitous co-ordination of
apparently unrelated universe happenings. This must be the function of
Providence—the realm of the Supreme Being and the Conjoint Actor.
(56.3) 4:1.11
I am inclined to believe that it is
this far-flung and generally unrecognizable control of the co-ordination
and interassociation of all phases and forms of universe activity that
causes such a variegated and apparently hopelessly confused medley of
physical, mental, moral, and spiritual phenomena so unerringly to work
out to the glory of God and for the good of men and angels.
(56.4) 4:1.12
But in the larger sense the apparent "
accidents " of the cosmos are undoubtedly a part of the finite drama of
the time-space adventure of the Infinite in his eternal manipulation of
the Absolutes.
Bible References and Comparison
(56.5) 4:2.1
Nature is in a limited sense the
physical habit of God. The conduct, or action, of God is qualified and
provisionally modified by the experimental plans and the evolutionary
patterns of a local universe, a constellation, a system, or a planet.
God acts in accordance with a well-defined, unchanging, immutable law
throughout the wide-spreading master universe;
but he modifies the patterns of his action so as to contribute to the
co-ordinate and balanced conduct of each universe, constellation,
system, planet, and
personality in accordance with the local objects, aims, and plans of the finite projects of evolutionary unfolding.
(56.6) 4:2.2
Therefore, nature, as mortal man understands it, presents the underlying foundation and fundamental background of a changeless Deity
and his immutable laws, modified by, fluctuating because of, and
experiencing upheavals through, the working of the local plans,
purposes, patterns, and conditions which have been inaugurated and are
being carried out by the local universe, constellation, system, and
planetary forces and personalities. For example: As God's laws have been
ordained in
Nebadon,
they are modified by the plans established by the Creator Son and
Creative Spirit of this local universe; and in addition to all this the
operation of these laws has been further influenced by the errors,
defaults, and insurrections of certain beings resident upon your planet
and belonging to your immediate planetary system of
Satania.
(56.7) 4:2.3 Nature is a time-space resultant of two cosmic factors: first, the immutability, perfection, and rectitude of Paradise
Deity, and second, the experimental plans, executive blunders,
insurrectionary errors, incompleteness of development, and imperfection
of wisdom of the extra-Paradise creatures, from the highest to the
lowest. Nature therefore carries a uniform, unchanging, majestic, and
marvelous thread of perfection from the circle of eternity; but in each
universe, on each planet, and in each individual life, this nature is
modified, qualified, and perchance marred by the acts, the mistakes, and
the disloyalties of the creatures of the evolutionary systems and
universes; and therefore must nature ever be of a changing mood,
whimsical withal, though stable underneath, and varied in accordance
with the operating procedures of a local universe.
(57.1) 4:2.4
Nature is the perfection of Paradise
divided by the incompletion, evil, and sin of the unfinished universes.
This quotient is thus expressive of both the perfect and the partial, of
both the eternal and the temporal. Continuing evolution
modifies nature by augmenting the content of Paradise perfection and by
diminishing the content of the evil, error, and disharmony of relative
reality.
(57.2) 4:2.5
God is not personally present in nature
or in any of the forces of nature, for the phenomenon of nature is the
superimposition of the imperfections of progressive evolution and,
sometimes, the consequences of insurrectionary rebellion, upon the
Paradise foundations of God's universal law. As it appears on such a
world as Urantia, nature can never be the adequate expression, the true
representation, the faithful portrayal, of an all-wise and infinite God.
(57.3) 4:2.6
Nature, on your world, is a
qualification of the laws of perfection by the evolutionary plans of the
local universe. What a travesty to worship nature because it is in a
limited, qualified sense pervaded by God; because it is a phase of the
universal and, therefore, divine power! Nature also is a manifestation
of the unfinished, the incomplete, the imperfect outworkings of the
development, growth, and progress of a universe experiment in cosmic
evolution.
(57.4) 4:2.7
The apparent defects of the natural
world are not indicative of any such corresponding defects in the
character of God. Rather are such observed imperfections merely the
inevitable stop-moments in the exhibition of the ever-moving reel of
infinity picturization. It is these very defect-interruptions of
perfection-continuity which make it possible for the finite mind of
material man to catch a fleeting glimpse of divine reality in time and
space. The material manifestations of divinity
appear defective to the evolutionary mind of man only because mortal
man persists in viewing the phenomena of nature through natural eyes,
human vision unaided by
morontia mota or by revelation, its compensatory substitute on the worlds of time.
(57.5) 4:2.8
And nature is marred, her beautiful
face is scarred, her features are seared, by the rebellion, the
misconduct, the misthinking of the myriads of creatures who are a part
of nature, but who have contributed to her disfigurement in time. No,
nature is not God. Nature is not an object of worship.
(57.6) 4:3.1
All too long has man thought of God as
one like himself. God is not, never was, and never will be jealous of
man or any other being in the universe of universes.
Knowing that the Creator Son intended man to be the masterpiece of the
planetary creation, to be the ruler of all the earth, the sight of his
being dominated by his own baser passions, the spectacle of his bowing
down before idols of wood, stone, gold, and selfish ambition—these
sordid scenes stir God and his Sons to be jealous for man, but never of
him.
(57.7) 4:3.2
The eternal God is incapable of wrath
and anger in the sense of these human emotions and as man understands
such reactions. These sentiments are mean and despicable; they are
hardly worthy of being called human, much less divine; and such
attitudes are utterly foreign to the perfect nature and gracious
character of the Universal Father.
(58.1) 4:3.3 Much, very much, of the difficulty
which Urantia mortals have in understanding God is due to the
far-reaching consequences of the Lucifer rebellion and the
Caligastia
betrayal. On worlds not segregated by sin, the evolutionary races are
able to formulate far better ideas of the Universal Father; they suffer
less from confusion, distortion, and perversion of concept.
(58.2) 4:3.4
God repents of nothing he has ever
done, now does, or ever will do. He is all-wise as well as all-powerful.
Man's wisdom grows out of the trials and errors of human experience;
God's wisdom consists in the unqualified perfection of his infinite
universe insight, and this divine foreknowledge effectively directs the creative free will.
(58.3) 4:3.5
The Universal Father never does
anything that causes subsequent sorrow or regret, but the will creatures
of the planning and making of his Creator personalities in the outlying
universes, by their unfortunate choosing, sometimes occasion emotions
of divine sorrow in the personalities of their Creator parents. But
though the Father neither makes mistakes, harbors regrets, nor
experiences sorrows, he is a being with a father's affection, and his
heart is undoubtedly grieved when his children fail to attain the
spiritual levels they are capable of reaching with the assistance which
has been so freely provided by the spiritual-attainment plans and the
mortal-ascension policies of the universes.
(58.4) 4:3.6
The infinite goodness of the Father is
beyond the comprehension of the finite mind of time; hence must there
always be afforded a contrast with comparative evil (not sin) for the
effective exhibition of all phases of relative goodness. Perfection of
divine goodness can be discerned by mortal imperfection of insight only
because it stands in contrastive association with relative imperfection
in the relationships of time and matter in the motions of space.
(58.5) 4:3.7
The character of God is infinitely superhuman; therefore must such a nature of divinity be personalized, as in the divine Sons, before it can even be faith-grasped by the finite mind of man.
Bible References and Comparison
(58.6) 4:4.1
God is the only stationary, self-contained, and changeless being in the whole universe of universes,
having no outside, no beyond, no past, and no future. God is purposive
energy (creative spirit) and absolute will, and these are self-existent
and universal.
(58.7) 4:4.2
Since God is self-existent, he is
absolutely independent. The very identity of God is inimical to change. "
I, the Lord, change not. " God is immutable; but not until you achieve
Paradise
status can you even begin to understand how God can pass from
simplicity to complexity, from identity to variation, from quiescence to
motion, from infinity to finitude, from the divine to the human, and
from unity to duality and triunity. And God can thus modify the
manifestations of his absoluteness because divine immutability does not
imply immobility; God has will—he
is will.
(58.8) 4:4.3 God is the being of absolute
self-determination; there are no limits to his universe reactions save
those which are self-imposed, and his freewill acts are conditioned only
by those divine qualities and perfect attributes which inherently
characterize his eternal nature. Therefore is God related to the
universe as the being of final goodness plus a free will of creative
infinity.
(58.9) 4:4.4
The Father-Absolute is the creator of
the central and perfect universe and the Father of all other Creators.
Personality, goodness, and numerous other characteristics, God shares
with man and other beings, but infinity of will is his alone. God is
limited in his creative acts only by the sentiments of his eternal
nature and by the dictates of his infinite wisdom. God personally
chooses only that which is infinitely perfect, hence the supernal
perfection of the central universe; and while the Creator Sons fully share his
divinity,
even phases of his absoluteness, they are not altogether limited by
that finality of wisdom which directs the Father's infinity of will.
Hence, in the Michael order of sonship, creative free will becomes even
more active, wholly divine and well-nigh ultimate, if not absolute. The
Father is infinite and eternal, but to deny the possibility of his
volitional self-limitation amounts to a denial of this very concept of
his volitional absoluteness.
(59.1) 4:4.5
God's absoluteness pervades all seven
levels of universe reality. And the whole of this absolute nature is
subject to the relationship of the Creator to his universe creature
family. Precision may characterize trinitarian justice in the universe
of universes, but in all his vast family relationship with the creatures
of time the God of universes is governed by divine sentiment. First and last—eternally—the infinite God is a
Father. Of all the possible titles by which he might
appropriately be known, I have been instructed to portray the God of all
creation as the
Universal Father.
(59.2) 4:4.6 In God the Father freewill performances are not ruled by power, nor are they guided by intellect alone; the divine
personality
is defined as consisting in spirit and manifesting himself to the
universes as love. Therefore, in all his personal relations with the
creature personalities of the universes, the
First Source and Center
is always and consistently a loving Father. God is a Father in the
highest sense of the term. He is eternally motivated by the perfect
idealism of divine love, and that tender nature finds its strongest
expression and greatest satisfaction in loving and being loved.
(59.3) 4:4.7
In science, God is the First Cause; in religion, the universal and loving Father; in
philosophy,
the one being who exists by himself, not dependent on any other being
for existence but beneficently conferring reality of existence on all
things and upon all other beings. But it requires revelation to show
that the First Cause of science and the self-existent Unity of
philosophy are the God of religion, full of mercy and goodness and
pledged to effect the eternal survival of his children on earth.
(59.4) 4:4.8
We crave the concept of the Infinite,
but we worship the experience-idea of God, our anywhere and any-time
capacity to grasp the personality and divinity factors of our highest
concept of Deity.
(59.5) 4:4.9
The consciousness of a victorious human life on earth is born of that creature faith
which dares to challenge each recurring episode of existence when
confronted with the awful spectacle of human limitations, by the
unfailing declaration: Even if I cannot do this, there lives in me one
who can and will do it, a part of the Father-Absolute of the universe of
universes. And that is " the victory which overcomes the world, even
your faith. "
Bible References and Comparison
(59.6) 4:5.1 Religious tradition is the imperfectly
preserved record of the experiences of the God-knowing men of past ages,
but such records are untrustworthy as guides for religious living or as
the source of true information about the Universal Father. Such ancient beliefs have been invariably altered by the fact that primitive man was a mythmaker.
(60.1) 4:5.2 One of the greatest sources of
confusion on Urantia concerning the nature of God grows out of the
failure of your sacred books clearly to distinguish between the
personalities of the Paradise Trinity and between
Paradise Deity and the local universe creators and administrators. During the past
dispensations of partial understanding, your priests and prophets failed clearly to differentiate between
Planetary Princes,
System Sovereigns,
Constellation Fathers,
Creator Sons, Superuniverse Rulers, the Supreme Being, and the Universal Father. Many of the messages of subordinate personalities, such as
Life Carriers and various orders of
angels,
have been, in your records, presented as coming from God himself.
Urantian religious thought still confuses the associate personalities of
Deity with the Universal Father himself, so that all are included under one appellation.
(60.2) 4:5.3 The people of Urantia continue to
suffer from the influence of primitive concepts of God. The gods who go
on a rampage in the storm; who shake the earth in their wrath and strike
down men in their anger; who inflict their judgments of displeasure in
times of famine and flood—these are the gods of primitive religion; they
are not the Gods who live and rule the universes. Such concepts are a
relic of the times when men supposed that the universe was under the
guidance and domination of the whims of such imaginary gods. But mortal
man is beginning to realize that he lives in a realm of comparative law
and order as far as concerns the administrative policies and conduct of
the Supreme Creators and the Supreme Controllers.
(60.3) 4:5.4
The barbarous idea of appeasing an
angry God, of propitiating an offended Lord, of winning the favor of
Deity through sacrifices and penance and even by the shedding of blood,
represents a religion wholly puerile and primitive, a philosophy
unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth. Such beliefs are
utterly repulsive to the celestial beings and the divine rulers who
serve and reign in the universes. It is an affront to God to believe,
hold, or teach that innocent blood must be shed in order to win his
favor or to divert the fictitious divine wrath.
(60.4) 4:5.5
The Hebrews believed that " without the
shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin. " They had not
found deliverance from the old and pagan idea that the Gods could not be
appeased except by the sight of blood, though Moses did make a distinct
advance when he forbade human sacrifices and substituted therefor, in
the primitive minds of his childlike Bedouin followers, the ceremonial
sacrifice of animals.
(60.5) 4:5.6
The bestowal of a Paradise Son on your
world was inherent in the situation of closing a planetary age; it was
inescapable, and it was not made necessary for the purpose of winning
the favor of God. This bestowal also happened to be the final personal
act of a Creator Son in the long adventure of earning the experiential sovereignty
of his universe. What a travesty upon the infinite character of God!
this teaching that his fatherly heart in all its austere coldness and
hardness was so untouched by the misfortunes and sorrows of his
creatures that his tender mercies were not forthcoming until he saw his
blameless Son bleeding and dying upon the cross of Calvary!
(60.6) 4:5.7
But the inhabitants of Urantia are to
find deliverance from these ancient errors and pagan superstitions
respecting the nature of the Universal Father. The revelation of the
truth about God is appearing, and the human race is destined to know the
Universal Father in all that beauty of character and loveliness of
attributes so magnificently portrayed by the Creator Son who sojourned
on Urantia as the Son of Man and the Son of God.
(61.1) 4:5.8 [Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa. ]
Bible References and Comparison
Paper 5. God's Relation to the Individual