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The Nature of God
Concepts such as the changelessness of God, his perfection, righteousness, justice, mercy, love and forgiveness have always ended in confusion when finite mortal beings attempt to tie them down to meaningful definitions. Theologians, in particular, have made the primal mistake of believing in their own ability to precisely state what God is or is not, or what God can or cannot do.
Is it reasonable to expect that a created being can define its creator? How could such a being possibly know what limitations its creator had imposed upon it? How can the finite comprehend the infinite? Or the lower comprehend the higher?
The revelators of the Urantia Papers make no such mistake. They freely admit their limitations and are not afraid to state that they do not know or do not understand. Not only do they admit their own inadequacies, they also inform us about the real lowliness of our own intelligence and understanding.
Of all intelligent creatures actually possessing the innate, God-gifted ability to achieve God-consciousness, we Urantians are as low as it gets. So let's cast aside the arrogance of others and approach what may be knowable about our Creator in reverence and humility, recognizing that in doing so we can only know what is revealed from on high.
"The nature of God can best be understood by the revelation of the Father which Michael of Nebadon unfolded in his manifold teachings and in his superb mortal life in the flesh."
"Notwithstanding the infinity of the stupendous manifestations of the Father's eternal and universal personality, he is unqualifiedly self-conscious of both his infinity and eternity; likewise he knows fully his perfection and power. He is the only being in the universe, aside from his divine co-ordinates, who experiences a perfect, proper, and complete appraisal of himself."
"The Universal Father sees the end from the beginning, and his divine plan and eternal purpose actually embrace and comprehend all the experiments and all the adventures of all his subordinates in every world, system, and constellation in every universe of his vast domains."
"No thing is new to God, and no cosmic event ever comes as a surprise; he inhabits the circle of eternity. He is without beginning or end of days. To God there is no past, present, or future; all time is present at any given moment. He is the great and only I AM.
'"The Universal Father is absolutely and without qualification infinite in all his attributes; and this fact, in and of itself, automatically shuts him off from all direct personal communication with finite material beings and other lowly created intelligences."
Communication of the Universal Father and his finite mortal creatures is, of necessity, through his associates.
First and foremost this comes through the paradise Sons of God.
Secondly it derives from the associates of the Infinite Spirit--the Universe Mother Spirit, Adjutant Mind Spirits, Seraphim, etc.
Thirdly through the impersonal Mystery Monitors, Thought Adjusters, the actual gift of the great God himself, sent to indwell the minds of his mortal children.
By these and other ways beyond our comprehension, "the Paradise Father lovingly and willingly downsteps and otherwise modifies, dilutes, and attenuates his infinity in order that he may be able to draw nearer the finite minds of his creature children."
But there are difficulties:
Because the First Father is infinite in his plans and eternal in his purposes, it is inherently impossible for any finite being ever to grasp or comprehend these divine plans and purposes in their fullness.
Mortal man can glimpse the Father's purposes only now and then, here and there, as they are revealed in relation to the outworking of the plan of creature ascension on its successive levels of universe progression.
Though man cannot encompass the significance of infinity, the infinite Father does most certainly fully comprehend and lovingly embrace all the finity of all his children in all universes.
Perhaps the greatest source of confusion about the nature of God has come from attempts to utilize Aristotelian-type logic in order to rationalize the perfect righteousness of God with his perfect love and mercy.
For many, many thousands of years human society has functioned on the basis of offenders being rewarded for their good works but punished for their offences against society.
The Jewish religion, in which Christianity has its roots, was strong on the concept of an
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